CB or walkie, one or both?

[v7guy]

I've been reading a lot about trail riding and see mentions of both CB and Walkie communications. Do we as a group prefer one or the other... maybe both?

Just trying to narrow down the communication options. In general... and up here in the NE. Our terrain will obviously be different than roadie and the fellas in the West.

[bartonmd]

CB, by far! Much longer range!

Mike

[The Roadie]

As a sometime trail leader for noobs, I'd recommend CB for universality, but carry a set of 2-4 cheap FRS/GMRS walkies to loan out. CB can sometimes attract help from 10 miles away, but 2M can reach out 50-75 miles to a repeater.

[HARDTRAILZ]

I have my cb mounted and it is typical for that to be used. Have a couple handheld cb w magnet mount ant to loan out. Have half dozen two ways but only used them for atv riding .

[TangoBravo]

IMO you can not have too many ways to communicate, you never know when something may fail or you might find yourself in a situation where portable coms are needed. I have a cb in my TB but I also keep handheld cb's incase of an emergency. It would allow me to be out of my truck treating a patient or whatever the case may be and have communications with incoming help as far as guiding people in or once they arrive asking for certain items. For noobs it's good because you can spot for them and talk them through a line.

[DirtyBacon04]

I gotta agree with the other guys. Carrying both is best. Or if you're a badass whiz like Roadie, you'll get about 5 different forms of comm (CB, walkie, HAM, GPS, smoke signals, african drums, etc). But having the flexability to be able to leave your vehicle if needed and still have some form of communication is recommended.f
Example, i led a guy out who was in a stock ranger. He had no CB yet, but i had set of walkie talkies. Now they worked fine, but the limiting factor was battery life. We had to swap out batts 3 times for a 2 day trip. So CB is the best option for permanant in-vehicle comms.
There's my 2 cents.

[NC_IslandRunner]

I have 2 hand held CBs but would like a hardwired one, I think they get better reception.

[djthumper]

I gotta agree with the other guys. Carrying both is best. Or if you're a badass whiz like Roadie, you'll get about 5 different forms of comm (CB, walkie, HAM, GPS, smoke signals, african drums, etc). But having the flexability to be able to leave your vehicle if needed and still have some form of communication is recommended.

There can never be too many different ways to communicate.

[DirtyBacon04]

Thats why I carry a 40mm flare gun... It's essentially a hand held mortar. It's my "oh shit we're sinking" comms

[Trail X]

Thats why I carry a 40mm flare gun... It's essentially a hand held mortar. It's my "oh shit we're sinking" comms

It doubles as personal protection too!

[The Roadie]

Never thought about a flare gun. Shocking, isn't it? Gotta get me one of those.

[djthumper]

I am slightly surprised Bill. I guess that is part of the reason I say you can't really have enough communications. No matter what you have it may not be enough alone. Cell phones have to have a signal. Radios, someone has to be on the frequencies or close enough to hear you. Smoke & flares, someone has to be able to see it and see it long enough to determine where it came from.

[Trail X]

That's why Bill needs a sat phone.

[navigator]

just turn your offroad lights up in the air like the batman beacon!

you could make a couple of cut-outs to spell words to put on them.
"SEND" "HELP" "NOW"

j/k, I doubt the cut-outs would work but the lights shining straight up might help someone find you if they were looking.

[The Roadie]

That's why Bill needs a sat phone.

Considered sharing one. Figured it needed four friends who did similar sorts of offroading. Couldn't identify that many. All of them said they'd want to be WITH me on those sorts of expeditions, not go alone or let me go alone.

The SPOT beacon, which I forgot to mention here, is good enough for what I do now, which is LESS aggressive than the solo stuff I used to do. Been considering upgrading to the new Delorme GPS/SPOT combo gadget (inReach) that is bidirectional, but the monthly fees for that are still not reasonable for the added insurance level.

Michael, I would have loaned you the SPOT beacon if you had only called ahead of time.

On the GMRS walkie-talkies, I carry two pairs so we could have up to four folks on one channel. Two of them are AA-powered, and the other two are rechargeable Li-ion, and could be recharged in the vehicle with their AC base station and one of the two inverters.

Or I could light this sucker up:

[v7guy]

They have flares for 12 gauges. If you carry a 12 GA anyway...

[cbbryan]

We used a lot of pyro for signaling while at Ft. Benning. Star clusters, smoke, and flares. The rule we were taught is audio/visual. This dealt mainly with giving orders to units spread out, but also for identifying supporting units coming in.

[Mooseknuckle]

IMO you can not have too many ways to communicate, you never know when something may fail or you might find yourself in a situation where portable coms are needed. I have a cb in my TB but I also keep handheld cb's incase of an emergency. It would allow me to be out of my truck treating a patient or whatever the case may be and have communications with incoming help as far as guiding people in or once they arrive asking for certain items. For noobs it's good because you can spot for them and talk them through a line.

[SaltWaterDrinker]

We use CB on the trails, VHF MURS when were too cool for the CB, and FRS radios outside of that. I love VHF - much better than CB. Plus, the VHF mobile can be complemented by a portable which is just as good in some instances.

[Speed]

I'm a total newb but I've used an RCI 2950 (you can get various models) for years. It's a 10/12 meter radio stock but a simple mod will allow it to talk on 11 meter (which covers CB band). A lot of outlaw radio guys use them but they have lots of good functionality with the ability to talk on AM (common carrier for CB), FM (allows you to use it at very close range), as well as sideband, etc. Another good one with lots of functionality is the Uniden/President 2510. These are good old school radios that are still well supported with lots of mods.

Anyway, would love to hear what others are using and how they are mounting their antennas.