Setup issue for sure.

 

I would agree that you should get more than that from a properly set up CB, however environment does play a part in how far you can transmit. In the city or hilly/mountain areas your distance will be less than the 15-20 miles noted in a previous post.

A couple benefits to ham radio are that using repeaters can significantly extend your usable range, 50-100 miles depending on repeater antenna height/placement and even further with a linked repeater system. Mobile ham radios typically come with 50-100 watts vs the 4 watts (12 for SSB) for a stock CB. Most dual/quad band ham radios have a remote head so the main body can be placed under the seat, in the console/glovebox, etc... and only the head mounted to the dash. The remote heads aren't much larger than the front of a cobra 19 CB. The remote head for the Yaesu ft 8800r dual band is not as tall and only slightly wider than the front of my cobra 19. A big plus for VHF/UHF ham radio is the antenna size. A 1/4 wave antenna for CB is 108".... a 1/4 wave antenna for 2 meter VHF ham radio is about 19".

For general local type ham communication you would just need the entry level Technician license. To have access to the HF bands a General license would be needed.

I used the study guides at http://www.kb6nu.com/study-guides/ and found them to be very helpful...and they are FREE.

 

I used Ham radios in Africa and we all had them mounted on the front passenger side of the ARB bumpers on the defender 110 and hilux. They worked great we could get signals to the base camps 300-500 Kilometers away. It was literally a life saver at one point
I'm in New England and if I could get 15-20 miles of range out of a CB I would feel comfortable with that the furthest away from help we were was 100 miles but we had multipal trucks with us so we had runners if needed.

So a cobra 70 series is a good CB what would you recommend for an antenna?

 

Firestick makes really nice antennas they are easy to tune as well.

 

The small size of the photo shown of my CB all contained in the mic Cobra is under a $100 and works as well as any of my other larger CB both AM and AM/SSB radios costing 3 times as much as most all use only AM on the trails. A good mounting point for an antenna is a front fender on the inter lip between the hood maker for easy electrical and coax connections short runs. There you have the hood for a ground plane to work off of and out of the way for a small CB or VHF/UHF antenna.


I have a CB, Quad band FM 50w 10,6/2/440m and a 200w HF 6-160m Transceiver. Like you have mentioned I have worked the world using an HF radio mobile over 100 countries confirmed its another hobby. Its a great hobby to go along with 4wheeling to mountain topping with homemade wire antennas using low power QRP 5-10w.


All of my radios have remote head units with the bodies being mounted on a tray under the passenger seat out of the way.


I am an FCC License Examiner and the head of my testing unit along with teaching class's for the exams ARRL for all class of license. A license is not hard to obtain as I have had an 11 yr. old pass his Extra exam the highest class and 7 for a Tech license. I encourage everyone to fine out about this wonderful hobby and one you can follow your entire life always something new.