Looking at 2 way radios with my neighbors

[dodge man]

I have used hand held radios for years when I worked as a land surveyor. Ruffdog posted a link to a set similar to what we used. For good range you are talking probably $200 to $300 a radio. We tried a set of the cheap radios, less than $100 a pair, because the boss insisted we try them. Terrible, they seem like they should work but the sound quality just wasn’t there. Ours were either UHF or VHF, I can’t remember which but we had a license for them that covered the entire company. I know most people don’t mess with the license though.

CB radios are also the second best option in my opinion. I can’t see a large group of people all wanting to go the ham radio route.

 

[B7510HSD]

My experience (and I had a basic ham licence at one time) is that if you cannot see the other person you cannot depend on communication with a civilian hand-held.
And I noticed that alot of people experienced mic-fright when CB was popular.
Congrats on thinking about the welfare of your family AND your neighbors but I'm betting you just need to recruit a few key families and establish a "telephone tree" to monitor as much of your locale as you can find willing partners. And be prepared for push-back from some that may value privacy more.

Problem is if something happens the Phone Tree will be useless! IMO

 

[tibadoe]

Is that the limit on the hand held?
Mobile (vehicle) is what 40?
Man I forgot my CB CDL trucking days. Everything is phones, phones, phones now

No. Handheld range is a little greater. If you don't have lots of obstructions in the way. But you will have to be outside unless really close.

 

[tibadoe]

I appreciate the advice everyone.

I will mention this on our Facebook group (while we are all still there lol). I知 sure some will think it is over reacting but the time to prepare is before the need. If we wait until a problem is here, it is likely too late.

You are not over reacting. Now is the time to prepare. As they say, better to be prepared and not need it - than to need it and not have it.

 

[Jstpssng]

Is that the limit on the hand held?
Mobile (vehicle) is what 40?
Man I forgot my CB CDL trucking days. Everything is phones, phones, phones now

40 is the number of channels. CBs aren't supposed to reach out that far but some reach out farther than they should because the user has added an illegal booster. It's a real PITA to be watching the news on television and have some trucker go past, blasting his BS across the television set.

Many truckers on the roads I work on were installing marine band radios in their trucks. The Coast Guard really frowns on that so they went to MURS. IMHO that's still too much; the main purpose for two ways is to keep track of where the loaded trucks are, for safety reasons. That's how I know about MURS, and believe that it would suit the OP's purpose well and relatively inexpensively.

 

[Diggin It]

While many of the posts are technical and fine, the OP's intent clearly implies 'political'.

 

[Jstpssng]

While many of the posts are technical and fine, the OP's intent clearly implies 'political'.

Don''t read it then.

 

[DaveinValdez]

My experience is with Marine Band radios. Up on the Bering Coast of Alaska everyone uses marine band. The Eskimos can communicate with the seal and whale hunters, fishermen and even the hunters carry them. Almost every house has one and it is the primary communications tool in the community. They advertise basketball games, cookie sales and even communicate within other villages within range. If a community is too far, they call the closest one and the message gets relayed to the village they want to talk to. Pretty neat way of communicating.

Even where I am now (Valdez), I am 15 miles from the Coast Guard station and can pick up the weather and marine broadcasts with my hand held. When we are out in the boats bear or deer hunting we carry a handheld for the hunters on shore. Channel 9 is for ship to shore so we use that channel.

 

[k0ua]

40 is the number of channels. CBs aren't supposed to reach out that far but some reach out farther than they should because the user has added an illegal booster. It's a real PITA to be watching the news on television and have some trucker go past, blasting his BS across the television set.

Many truckers on the roads I work on were installing marine band radios in their trucks. The Coast Guard really frowns on that so they went to MURS. IMHO that's still too much; the main purpose for two ways is to keep track of where the loaded trucks are, for safety reasons. That's how I know about MURS, and believe that it would suit the OP's purpose well and relatively inexpensively.

it is not JUST the addition of illegal amplifiers that make 27 Mhz CB radios "reach out further" it is the choice of the frequency of 27 Mhz that is subject to the fact that during sunspot maxima this band supports F2 Layer ionospheric propagation that makes them "reach out". Sure adding more power helps conquer distances somewhat, BUT it is NOT the deciding factor. The is why during sunspot minima it does not mater if you do have a 10,000 watt amplifier, you are still going to be working more or less line of sight. Without enhanced ionospheric propagation from some mechanism you are still basically stuck in your own backyard. Yes it is more complicated than I have outlined, there is also the annual E layer cycles as well as the 11 year sunspot cycle, and a phenomenon known as TEP (Trans Equatorial Propagation) and even other scattering modes.

BUT the BIG point I am trying to make with all of this technical blather is this: The CB band you have TODAY is NOT the CB band you will have TOMMOROW. Investing in 27 Mhz equipment, while cheap and effective, may be useless when the solar flux rises. Whether your low power small handhelds would provide effective communication over the roar of thousands of other users trying to use the channel for hobby purposed during the coming sunspot maxima years remains to be seen but seems very doubtful to me. The biggest problem would be in trying to monitor the channel thru the cacophony of noise.

Why not invest your money into VHF or UHF equipment that is not effected by Ionospheric propagation at all? Why not use a band of frequency's that you can count on to provide good local communications day in day out and year over year? Also with this type of equipment with a properly set up CTCSS/DCS tone encoding, you can effectively monitor a silent channel for hours, days weeks or years without someone else in your immediate area likely using that same squelch code and opening up your receiver. While this doesn't ensure that someone else might be using the channel at least you are not going to hear them while your receiver is squelched waiting for your little groups code to come across. How are you going to do that with a CB radio? Think this stuff through, ask a professional for help. Don't invest your money into something that isn't going to be satisfactory. If possible, borrow some equipment and try it out before going whole hog with a multi house setup.

 

[plowhog]

Don't invest your money into something that isn't going to be satisfactory.

At the risk of "overcomplication," it might help if you consider posting about manufacturer claims of transmission distance capability when those figures are based on dBi. Maybe starting with: what is dBi? :laughing: