keep it or return it??

[Justin Avery]

Hey everyone, as a gift I was given a 40 channel CB radio to aid in storm chasing/spotting this season. Here is the product link:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...radio&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1153337208972

So my question is: is this valuable enough a tool to keep? I'm not real knowledgable in regards to what frequencies storm spotters and chasers talk on so I don't want to go through the trouble of installing this if it proves to be just an annoyance. Thanks!!

 

[Jeff Snyder]

I know some folks use CB for chasing, but it doesn't seem to be a popular radio band. Are you a licensed ham radio operator? If you aren't, then I think you should return the CB radio, get your license, and put that money into a mobile ham radio. I find ham to be many times more useful (99% of the time!) than CB. Of course, when on a storm that is "popular", there can be a lot of radio chatter on the popular ham freqs (though you can shift to 440 mHz band to get away from traffic if you want - 70 cm is seldom used by chasers), so having CB may help here. However, if you don't chase with others that have a CB radio, then you probably actually WANT to listen to the ham chatter (there's some good nowcast info put out by some folks sometimes). I haven't had a CB in my car since I took it out (in preference to a ham rig) in 2001.

 

[Justin Teague]

Good info Jeff, a HAM radio is definitely the way to go for chaser communication.

I've had that exact CB in my vehicle for about 3 years and it does get its fair share of use. I use it for a weather radio because I like to keep my HAM free, so if for nothing else, it's a good weather radio. I've also had it come in handy on the Oklahoma Turnpikes whenever there are wrecks and road blocks. Truck drivers are very good about relaying information over the CB on CH 19, so you are often alerted as to what is going on and to the best route to bypass any congestion. If you don't have room for 2 or more radios, you should get a HAM (by default).

 

[John Erwin]

I still use mine, even though I have a Ham license and equipment for that. More often than not however it's just to listen to chatter in some situations from Truckers that might see something I'm not. I have handed out the odd bit of navigational info over CB though when someone was looking for it.

Your model's secondary function might be useful; it includes the 10 NOAA channels; no need to buy another radio to monitor them.

Otherwise I agree with Jeff's comments above; CB is somewhat limited in most situations for chasing purposes.

 

[Justin Avery]

thanks for the replies guys, this has helped me out alot