I found this on another forum and think it answers quite a few question.
Don't let these guys mess with ya. They just see an chance to mess with a CB'er but they forget that a lot of us started on CB. I also am a truck driver and I understand the questions that you are asking. Instead of welcoming you to such a great hobby, they would rather hastle. Thats sad.
But here is the skinny of it. Most people in general do not understand ham radio and its difference from CB. Because of this, companies use it to there advantage to sell illigially modified CBs under that ham radio banner. These you can find all over truck stops and cb shops labeled 10 Meter radios, but they are not ham radios. 10 Meters is very close to CB in frequency, so they open them up and sell them as "10 meter" radios. No ham would ever use one of these radios on 10 meters for many reasons. They do not have the sensitive recievers or filters needed for our use being the largest. Not only that, but for the same price, we can get a radio that not only does 10M, but also 12M, 15M, 17M, 20M, 30M, 40M, 60M, 75M, 80M, and 160M. Its no contest between the quaility. That being said, those radios do what they were made to do excellent (even if it pisses some of the guys off here, its the truth) and thats being good CBs. They were never intended to be Ham Radios.
Getting that out of the way, will help me get to your questions better. As for power out when it comes to reception.... It has no bearing at all. Power only assists you on transmit. Most HF radios come standard at 100 watts. Now, the fella's told you all about how that galaxy is illigael power. Anything over 4 watts is.(Ham Radio operators can use up to 1500watts on most bands) But you know this, so lets just use it as an example. Your normal condition contacts go from maybe 3 miles up to 10-12 miles with all that power right? With less then half that power on an HF rig, you can talk the world with ease. THATS the DIFF! Hands down, HF radio is a whole new animal then CB.
Now for what you can hear. Let me break it down for you.
10M is long haul world wide daytime communications. You will here signals from Europe and Africa during the day, and Australia and Japan in the evenings (Saying I am in Michigan). Unfortunately it is effected by the solar cycle a great deal and it is dead as a doornob right now. Good news is we are on the way up again in a few months. Closes up at night and open in day.
12M Much like 10M
15M A bit more reliable for sustained worldwide communications and not effected as much as 10 and 12, but still pretty bad low cycle. Closes up at night and open in day.
17M Great Nationwide to worldwide coverage. Great mobile band. Nice place to talk and talk and talk from coast to coast. Closes up at night and open in day.
20M One of the most popular bands in ham radio. Much more reliable for sustained coast to coast communications. Worldwide communications even in the low cycle. Many directed nets (controlled frequencies) dedicated to everything from clubs and subjects to mobile service nets. A lot of truckers hang out on 14.300 which is dedicated to ships at sea, but also road travelers nationwide. Another is 14.336 which is county hunters. Truckers are loved here as they give out counties to people that collect contacts like baseball cards. Pretty much closes up at night and open in the day.
40M has two skins. In the day its a regional (cluster of states) chit chat band that has its own mobile service frequencies and at night opens up to the nation and then the world. It opes so much at night, that becouse we have different privlidges then the rest of the world, you will here broadcast on this band from around the world. It can be really noisy and harsh on the ears in the mobile I think, but a lot of fun.
75/80M is also regional during the day and opens up at night. But think of it to much more extremes both ways. In the day, you can talk closer in, and at night, you can work even further. I think its much more pleasent to listen to in the truck with LOADS of chit chat groups and directed nets. THIS is were you want to be at night in the truck. Find a good group and make yourself at home.
This does not even include talking about VHF/UHF with its FM (not to mention GPS Data location APRS or satellites) local freq's.
This is a very broad representation, but you get the point I hope. One thing to consider, the lower the band (higher the freq) the smaller the antenna. SOOOO..... Day bands are easier to go mobile with and the night bands are a bit harder to do it right. Biggest thing to remember is GROUND GROUND GROUND and dont forget that at 80M, you are compromising what should be 200ft of antenna into a 4-6 foot package.
I dont know what I would do out here without ham radio. I urge you to ignore these fellas that get carried a way online. It is not what you will encounter on the radios. It is really sad sometimes how the community looks via just QRZ. If you do get your license, you will understand there posts of sarcasm and poking much better later.
But first step is first, you have some studying to do. The good thing is it does not cost anything to get licensed other then a paperwork fee persay which is under 20 bucks I think at most places. You pay it when you take an exam. There are three classes of license.
The first is Technician. This is basic rules and regs along with some really easy theory. Its very easy to attain. Get a book from a store you can order from like borders called "Ham Radio License Manual". Get the latest edition you can find. I think its still the first. It use to be called something else, so its still 1st edition. It is a real easy read. After you get this license out of the way, you can enjoy all the local VHF and UHF stuff. You can use repeaters that make your truck put out a base station signal, sometimes over 100s of miles. Oh, and say good bye to the noise of AM CB. These radios use FM just like you hear on a police scanner. There is so much more you can do, but thats what most people start with.
After that, you will want to get started studying for the General license as you get to know the hobby via the Tech and its VHF/UHF abilities. Once you get your General (which is more rules and regs and deeper into theory) you will then gain the majority of HF Privlidges. Thats were you want to be.
After that comes Extra. Much more technical of an exam. You can concentrate on that well after you get addicted.
I hope this helps. Email me anytime at
wc5b@yahoo.com , If you do, I will give ya a number to call if you have any other questions. Welcome to the hobby. By the way... There is NOTHING AGAINST THE LAW about having an HF radio and just listening to it. Nothing wrong with this at all. I would recommend it to see how we tic. Just DONT transmit. You may not think so, but it is easy to spot and easy to track, and unlike CB, Ham radio is enforced. Fines up to 10,000. Its not an uppty up thing, its a pride thing. Not only that, but we can lose these rights and privileges if abused.
(As for an 857, Its very small and I would not suggest you run it in a truck. Menu system is very complicated to keep it small which is distracting, and its hard to see. I would suggest looking at radios like the Alinco DX-70 or Kenwood Ts-480, but a lot of guys run Icom 706s and 7000's which are great mobile HF rigs but still suffer from menu difficulties. Another thing, these radios dont ship opened for CB and I would not advise doing it. Most of these modifications when done, effect the receivers. Not only that, but believe me, you wont be worried about CB once you do the other bands. Nobody believes me, but it happens every time. Trust me. Just have a basic CB in addition. They do the job better anyways, its what they were made to do. I run my HF rig, my VHF/UHF rig, and still have plenty of space for my CB cobra 29)
Is this accurate info?
Linear Mode
