Radios

[Ethan Lang]

Hello I'm 17 years old and this will be my third year of chasing but this is the year I am finally going all out instead of just chasing the storms close to me and I am trying to fit my truck with a cb radio tuned to a spotter frequency to make easier work of storm reports. Any one got any ideas for me?

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[Matt Tottle]

CB is pretty much useless for chasing other than short range car-to-car. There is no 'spotter frequency' on CB, and since CB works on AM it picks up a LOT of interference from lightning.. If you're interested in the radio aspect, you're much better off getting your ham license. Higher power, longer range, and there are many repeaters that are used by spotters/chasers and some are monitored directly by NWS. If you wind up in Kansas we have an awesome statewide linked repeater network (K-Link) that is used for Skywarn nets during severe days (in fact you might even be able to hit the Norway or Osborne 2 meter repeaters from Hastings depending on your power and antenna). Oklahoma and Texas have similar large scale linked systems.

The Technician test is relatively easy (you don't have to know Morse code anymore), and there are plenty of study guides and sample tests online to help you get ready. It costs $15 for the test, and test sessions are usually held monthly by your local ham club. The license itself is free and gets renewed every 10 years.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

+1 for getting your amateur radio license. Nobody messes with CB's

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[Karen St John]

Plussss...there are a tremendous number of other enjoyable aspects to amateur radio, such as Field Day, overseas communication, building your own gear...too much to list. Visit ARRL.org for more information.

I might be biased though, as my dad has been an amateur radio operator since 1954.

Karen KD8JUN

 

[John Erwin]

Ditto on everything said about Amateur radio. I used to have a CB in my Jeep as well but ditched it years ago since it was practically useless for this purpose, other than hearing some Trucker chatter in a few cases.

If you only have a scanner you could always set it up to monitor the repeaters in your area of chasing, along with Simplex channels 146.52 (national calling freq) and 146.55 (often used by chasers when not on a repeater). Some areas will have variations of course.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

The CB isn't even hardly used by truckers anymore now with smartphones. That sounds scary, huge semi trucks with drivers texting and playing angry birds - LOL.

Ham radio is a good thing to consider, many local area spotters are still heavily involved in ham radio and it would help that community to become part of it.

I eventually will get ham certified when I finally make time for it. I have a radio (Vertex) now that I use in fire department/emergency management related activities where I can report on directly to county dispatch or other sources but that is a special frequency that you can only use if you are something related to public safety. I've not really had a chance to use it for that particular situation all that much.