From: steve@fawlty.towers.oz.au (Steve Blanche)
Subject: Re: CB radio options
Reply-To: steve@fawlty.towers.oz.au (Steve Blanche)
Organization: Tower Technology, Sydney
Distribution: aus
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 22:42:23 GMT

In article <1992Dec15.000430.4124@cerberus.bhpese.oz.au> Sm@cerberus.bhpese.oz.au (Scott Merrilees) writes:
>I'm considering purchasing a CB radio, mainly for road intelligence.
>
>I am wondering about such things as:
>
>* 27MHz AM vs 27MHz AM/SB vs UHF
>
Mobile use, if you do alot of country driving, including the coastral
strip and central western NSW, I could recommend UHF CB, as there are
heaps of CB repeaters covering alot of NSW, I cant comment on interstate,
repeaters are handy if you have some trouble on a country road, plus heaps of
farms usually use UHF CB, so in the event of an accident, you will have a
good chance of finding someone.
UHF is FM, so its less susceptible to noise, incl engine ignition noise.
As for 27Mhz, AM is poor, very little coverage.
CB in general, very poor, especially in cities, as there are heaps of
ratbags both on 27Mhz and UHF CB, although, I am told that UHF CB in
Newcastle is reasonably less affected by ratbags, because the legimate
UHF CB users like to track the ratbags down and linch them.

>* antenna, I'm considering a mag mount on the roof thru my sunroof
   Not recommended if using 27Mhz, a quarter wave helical whip are usually a
metre or more long and tend to fall over at speed,   as for UHF CB,
you could get away with using a mag mount, since the 1/4 wave whip
would only be about 16cm, you would be better to use something with
more gain. Dick Smith's have 5 different whips, offering different
performance and range in price from $8 to $50, as can be expected
the more performance youn want, the more you pay ! The 6dB Colinear
whip if $50 and is 1.2m long for UHF CB, so it would wise to use
a fixed mounting base.
>
>* which channels are useful
  mmmm.... thats a tough question,
27Mhz - none, all channels seemed to be crowded with Taiwanese fishing boats,
UHF CB - channel 40 is used by truckies, useful for road reports
       channels 1 to 8 are the repeater channels and their respective split
is channels 31 to 38, the rest are simplex channels.
>
>* jargon
just speak plain english, dont worry about all that 10 4 crap that they
sprout in those american movies.
>
>* I've heard rumors that certain engine management computers are
>  susceptable to RFI
I have a magna, I dont suffer any problems due to RF, of course, I only
run amateur VHF & UHF equipment, although, I have heard of several
people who do have problems, mainly with their turn indicators, flashing
faster when they transmit, I have only heard of one car that suffered
engine misbehaviour from RF transmissions, sorry I cant remember what
type of car it was!

>
>I'm not really interested in Amatuer Radio as an alternative, because
>it will take too long to become licenced.
	Thats sad to hear, maybe you will change your views on this, when
the new regulations are released next year, although CB is a starting
point.

>
>Thanks, Sm
 no problems ! ask again

steve



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