Is anyone else thinking about going back to old school tactics of the ham radio. With the build up of fediverse, Meta, flock, Alphabet and now LG tv’s now spying on us in our own homes, getting a ham license and building one of these from scratch would not only gain some different kind of knowledge, but maybe if internet/cellular networks were to fail or get “taken over” there would be a backup system of communication. The old string and can trick only works with your neighbors. I know there is some serious ramifications if you don’t get licensed and tap into ham radio frequencies, and it doesn’t take much to get one… I don’t know if ‘tuning that dial” is dying out. But we may need to. Maybe it’s a dooms-day prepper kinda thing for me to say, and I don’t consider myself one at all since I only have 3 rolls of toilet paper in my house albeit I am a Costco member. I’m just curious if anyone else that is pulling away from the fediverse is also thinking about learning the Ham radio Trade also?
Same frequencies, but we have another set of channels at 476-477Edit: Actually, seems we don’t use 27MHz, its all in the 476 to 477MHz range.Edit2: primarily we use 476-477, but we do have the 27 frequencies, just less commonly used
I also have a quansheng, dunno how well it would cope on ham bands (and obviously I don’t want to try).
The problem with “legit” CB radios, is that they are around 2-3x more expensive than baofengs and quanshengs. So its cheaper to get a more “capable” radio, and programming them to limit it to pure CB takes effort that many users won’t do.
The other issue with CB is that many people aren’t using them legally. Commercial use shouldn’t happen on CB channels, but often does (although the ACMA does enforce that occasionally).
The trucker CB channel is also a complete shit-show of racism and general abuse.
Huh, interesting. We in central Europe have 27 for classic CB, and then the newer freenet / PMR at 146 and 446. So both higher bands are basically right next to the ham bands, and many ham devices work on freenet. Freenet is also legally useable for business, many small events for example just use the license free walkie talkies.
Trucker CB is pretty dead here, it’s mostly enthusiasts and a few old fashioned Eastern European truckers now. Is it still actively used in Australia?
I think those chinese handhelds are locked to safe-ish frequencies out of the box, I installed custom firmware on mine so it would technically do all. But at that point, onecannot really claim accident any more…
Trucker CB is dying, but still gets some chatter. My radios were unprogrammed, and did have some firmware limits, but not enough to be legal.