I talk around the world with my radio everyday

[TheCBDoctor]

My radio can talk around the world everyday of the year with one half of a watt..........It's called a cell phone..

[dasquishman]

Lol yeah making this post on my android phone. But still nothing like a dx contact.

[yamaha]

It's no dx its cheating like the ham boys. What happens when the cell tower or repeater dies?

[TheCBDoctor]

Lol yeah making this post on my android phone. But still nothing like a dx contact.

When the system crashes, and it will someday, The CB radio will be the only way to keep in touch with the rest of the world. If you have a CB for any reason it should be for the event of an emergency. The regulators and the government will not have any control over communications. The Out-Law band will keep us free............

It doesn't hurt to have food storage, guns and ammo either. Don't forget a power back-up.

Respectfully,

[hilltop 439]

It's no dx its cheating like the ham boys. What happens when the cell tower or repeater dies?

Repeaters are not the only thing that makes Ham radio comunications possible . Propagation mainly as with CB radio you need good radiowave propagation.
I can talk around the world on the CB band sometimes but i can talk around the world on the Ham bands all the time.

[443 Arizona]

OH SURE, ANYBODY CAN DO IT THE EASY WAY

[721HACKSAW]

Will you be talking to anyone that actually knows anything more than you do? LOL Here in the Derby City the locals are a real laugh, a lot of great guys but not the most reliable bunch! A shortwave radio would give you much more range and possibly more access to emergency info.

[EricJK]

I can talk around the world on the CB band sometimes but i can talk around the world on the Ham bands all the time.

Im a ham and Im trying to get my cb going. I proudly will have 3 methods of communication up and running in a SHTF situation.

There have been times though ...and I do get the weather texts from the local news channel) where I have wanted to find out some immediate information about the weather because the texts went out at the wrong time and noone was on the repeater. It is one of the reasons why I installed a CB in the car....If I can't get anyone on that...Im screwed.


I got interested in Ham radio after hurricane Katrina. In Arkansas, we got a lot of evacuees from LA and I saw some stations set up. I saw one of those insane looking expensive HF radios and thought "Thats one heck of a tuner". It was a passing interest.

What did it for me was Jan 1st, 2010 when everyone in the Central Time Zone and their grandma was trying to send a text message to everyone on their cell phone list (myself included lol) but nothing was able to go out. It was like 45 minutes to an hour before text messages would go out. This led me to believe that in an emergency, my refurb blackberry would make a great paperweight if something like another 9/11 went down.


I have the guns/ammo covered though. heh. I'll be fine when I get my SWR down to managable levels.

Eric

[EricJK]

And cell phones are probably the most expensive and least reliable radios on the planet......especially after they went digital.


Now Satellite Phones....theres a DIY for ya.

[Radar-DLDN]

Cell phones are great. I can call my family no matter where I am or they are. I can text my wife while she is at work so she can read and answer when she has time, small things I would never call her out of work for but can get a quick answer. I have mobile internet and google maps, very helpful!

BUT...

The system is very fragile. In an large scale emergency you will not be able to get calls out. Some texts will get out (they piggyback on the "i'm here" signal from the phone to the tower and vice versa) but if there are towers overloaded they will back up. We are talking about computers here, enough said! Talking about weather texts, my in-laws were over a few weeks ago when some strong storms rolled through. My weather radio was going off every few minutes, and we knew the moment there was a tornado warning. Her text alerts came in 2 minutes later. If there really were a tornado that would be a valuable 2 minutes. Radio puts you in the front of the line for information.

CB and ham will be the only significant 2-way comms if it does HTF. My phone will become nothing but a power hungry calculator.