Cb/uhf Radios - Great For Cruises

[Phatboy]

Hey guys, just wanted to start a thread to find out some more info on these things - excuse the noobness.

Did a search and only turned up a few 5-7 year old threads and a couple of interstate ones. All the group buys have long finished. People were talking about 40ch radios back then. Now it's 38ch? Did 2 channels get locked in the intervening time or something?

- I've never used one of these things. Does everyone just tune into one channel and within a certain radius eg., 5 km everyone can talk to each other by just pushing to talk? I'm assuming it works very well for cruises?

- Most people would have the cheaper handheld ones right? Can you just leave it on your dashboard and listen to the conversations?

- When you want to talk isn't it a pain to drive a manual as well as hold a handset? Do people use headsets?

- I read in the old threads the debate about how much power you need eg., 0.5 vs 1 vs 5W etc, ostensibly the higher the wattage the larger the radius and/or the clearer the transmission. Do people put the CB/UHF radio antenna on their Skylines? Are these the ones? http://www.jaycar.com.au/productResults.asp?FORM=CAT

Where/how do they mount it? Haven't actually seen a skyline with a CB aerial, and didn't want to start drilling holes in my car.

- Most importantly... is anyone thinking of a group buy? In the old threads Jaycar seemed popular due to the approx 20% discount you get with bulk (10+) purchases.

Thanks very much. I am keen to get one of these, but wanted to find out how many people actually use them (obviously it would be a waste of money for me if no-one else used them on cruises).

[(OO)SKYLINE(OO)]

I haven't but they have been mention'd when going on cruises, especially in a big group.

Or we all just exchange phone numbers.

Take a GPS and make sure everyone knows where we are going.

[Phatboy]

Lol... ringing/texting everyone must be a pain. It's kind of confusing when some people decide to leave the cruise, and then others just follow them accidentally lol.

That's why I guess you need to know where you're going, as you said.

On another note, I just found out that it is still 40ch, but "Please note CH 22 & 23 are used for telemetry and telecommand applications, voice communications are not permitted on these channels and transmission is inhibited."

Also do people use the flexible wire interior glass mounted antenna?

[Basti]

they come in handy when cruising for sure. i drive auto so i dont have your problems lol. i might be in for a gb. i wanna get a couple more

[Phatboy]

they come in handy when cruising for sure. i drive auto so i dont have your problems lol. i might be in for a gb. i wanna get a couple more

Lol guess my next car needs to have paddle shifts... R35 FTW!

Out of curiosity - why do people need more than 1? Not for cruising, surely?

[arep3]

small hand held 5km radius radios work good. thats all ive ever seen on cruises. Being the communications officer at my local SES unit i can tell you thats all you'll need. no need for a mounted hard wired radio or an antenna fixed/mounted anywhere on your car.

[R31Nismoid]

i should do another GB - where is Shan when you need him, he gets good rates

We nearly had one last time... i kinda forgot

[Sandeep]

I bought a pair of hand held cb radio's recently. they still have 40 channels that you can listen to, but you can't talk on 2 of the channels as they are for emergency services I think.

I got a pair of Uniden 1Watt radios for just over $100 from dicksmith, came with a charging station and rechargable battery packs, came as a bundle pack. they have roughly 4km range (line of sight) and we used them on the drive to/from DECA and they're pretty good to have for long cruises. They also have CTSS/DCS which are like sub channels to the main 40 channels that you can get your group to tune into.

I only used it on the highway but I'd imagine it would be hard to hold it and talk while driving in traffic. Some of them also have a microphone/headphone port that you can use so that you don't have to hold the radio.

[bluejeans]

id like one - would come in very handy on cruises even just driving around and not having to use my phone lol

possibly work out a channel which sau can use?

[funkymonkey]

I can still get em... might be different price tho, will update you shortly.

[Phatboy]

small hand held 5km radius radios work good. thats all ive ever seen on cruises. Being the communications officer at my local SES unit i can tell you thats all you'll need. no need for a mounted hard wired radio or an antenna fixed/mounted anywhere on your car.

OK that's good to hear. Any suggestions on brands? Main two from brick-and-mortar stores seem to be Dick Smith's Uniden (which is used quite widely) and Jaycar's Digitech (which I have never heard of, but slightly cheaper I think). Had a look on eBay too, wasn't much cheaper, but found this motorola pair for a cheap price.

http://www.batteryshack.com.au/product_inf...products_id=287

Anyone had any experience with these? Motorola's a decent company one would assume, and the price is around 70% cheaper than the Uniden/Digitech ones. Couldn't find one review on the net though.

i should do another GB - where is Shan when you need him, he gets good rates

We nearly had one last time... i kinda forgot

That would be good. I would definitely be in if it's a decent group discount deal.

[Phatboy]

I got a pair of Uniden 1Watt radios for just over $100 from dicksmith, came with a charging station and rechargable battery packs, came as a bundle pack. they have roughly 4km range (line of sight) and we used them on the drive to/from DECA and they're pretty good to have for long cruises. They also have CTSS/DCS

Whoa you serious? I checked the Dick Smith website and what you're talking about is $199.

http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.storefro...duct/View/D1962

Did you get it on special or something? Which DS did you go to? Because just over $100/pair of 1W with CTSS/DCS is an awesome bargain!

id like one - would come in very handy on cruises even just driving around and not having to use my phone lol

possibly work out a channel which sau can use?

I thought SAU Vic used ch40 in the past according to the old threads. But I thought that was a repeater channel?

I can still get em... might be different price tho, will update you shortly.

Cool thanks.

[funkymonkey]

The 3W jiggers are $110.50 plus shipping if you buy 5 or more (can have them delivered to one address, and you guys can pick em up from there to make it cheaper).

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=DC1060

They're as strong as a handheld CB is gonna get, and comes with the most features. Also includes a rechargeable battery and mains charger. You can buy VOX mic's, helmet mics and car chargers as well at an added cost, let me know if you want any.

[Phatboy]

I was doing some light reading on the net, and trying to find which features to look out for.

Please correct me if I'm wrong:

- At least 1W power

- CTCSS: Essentially sets up a private sub-channel by sending a sub-audible tone from the transmitter/encoder that is only able to be received/decoded by the receiver if it is using the same CTCSS code.

- Duplex: to extend the range of the signal via repeater stations

- Auto squelch: to suppress white noise from weak signals

I am guessing CTCSS is the most important feature for us especially when cruising in populated places. We don't want to hear random conversations every 5 mins when we pass into other people's radio zones on the same channel. Pity the ones with this technology are more expensive.

The next thing is I am guessing at least 1W power is important for us and 0.5W is inadequate as sometimes rocks and things block the line of sight transmission?? ie., GOR cruise.

The handhelds with these two features (naturally they have the more commonplace duplex and auto squelch functions as well) are priced from around $70-80 each in DS/Jaycar and online just over $100 for the pair of aforementioned Motorola ones.

Does that sound about right?

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

just give me the details for a gb and i'm 100%

[Phatboy]

The 3W jiggers are $110.50 plus shipping if you buy 5 or more (can have them delivered to one address, and you guys can pick em up from there to make it cheaper).

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=DC1060

They're as strong as a handheld CB is gonna get, and comes with the most features. Also includes a rechargeable battery and mains charger. You can buy VOX mic's, helmet mics and car chargers as well at an added cost, let me know if you want any.

Fantastic. On the link the price for 5+ is $151.95 ea. You must have pretty awesome contacts to get them for $110.59 ea for 5+.

From your experience, do you really need a 3W/12km handheld or can you get away with a 1-1.5W one? Has anyone had probs with poor signal strength/dropout on cruises with these? I am only going to use it for cruises. Any chance you could get the cheaper 1.5W for cheaper than RRP?

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?I...mp;SUBCATID=760

BTW, what is the difference between digital code squelch, CTCSS and scramble?

Thanks.

[R31Nismoid]

1W are shithouse... you need at least 1.5-2W CB's othewise soon as you get into the twisties they just suck the wang

Shan does the price change for larger amounts?

Ill setup a GB if you can let me know

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

GB GB GB

[_Ryan_]

package in car chargers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

could come in handy, i would be interested depending on cash at the time of the GB

[funkymonkey]

$110 is the cheapest it gets even with any more purchases... I suppose the only way to save any more is to ship it all to the same addy and then pick it up... good excuse for a cruise anyways.

The 1.5W jigga is $63ish if you get 5 or more.

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=DC1045

Car chargers are $10 if we get 5 or more. If we get 10 you save a few more cents.