cb radios

[YGF]

hey just wondering if there is any kind of "emergency" channel, and if anyone else here has one that they are usually on while wheeling?. i have one in my truck but if im not out with my buddies it would be nice to know just in case a guy gets in some trouble

[Doc McCoy]

hey just wondering if there is any kind of "emergency" channel, and if anyone else here has one that they are usually on while wheeling?. i have one in my truck but if im not out with my buddies it would be nice to know just in case a guy gets in some trouble

Well it really depends where you are ... the likelyhood of actually reaching someone with your cb. I believe the generally accepted "emergency" channel is 9. You need to be in range of someone monitoring that channel for it to be effective.

Here at CT4WD, we are all moving over to the amateur radio bands and the team leaders are in the process of getting their licenses. Much further range and a higher likelyhood of contacting someone outside of a few km away.

[YGF]

ya i was jsut thinking if by chance someone was in range or if something happened what channel might get a response

[Winch]

As Doc said, channel 9 is set aside as the emergency channel, i.e. you will almost never find anyone on there talking. Your best bet in an emergency would be to flip through all 40 channels in the hopes of finding anyone.

[Andyl]

19 is the yammerin channel,

16 = 4wheelers channel (ie 4x4) typically...

[Tarzan]

It's not official or anything but most of he people I wheel with use and monitor Ch 4 and we use the same channel on FRS. Twice now I have been in Mclean and have had contacts on Ch 4 one to hook up with another group and once for help. As I travelled north on the main road heading home after a days trail ride I picked up a cryptic radio message "Help I have rolled over". I recognized the voice and we began to turn around and try and locate the caller. The fellow was a buddy who had gotten seperated from his group and put his rig over on it's side. Odd thing was we could hear him but his group could not. All worked out ok in the end and so I would recommend monitoring Ch4.

[Doc McCoy]

It's not official or anything but most of he people I wheel with use and monitor Ch 4 and we use the same channel on FRS. Twice now I have been in Mclean and have had contacts on Ch 4 one to hook up with another group and once for help. As I travelled north on the main road heading home after a days trail ride I picked up a cryptic radio message "Help I have rolled over". I recognized the voice and we began to turn around and try and locate the caller. The fellow was a buddy who had gotten seperated from his group and put his rig over on it's side. Odd thing was we could hear him but his group could not. All worked out ok in the end and so I would recommend monitoring Ch4.

That's good to know Harry. Thanks for the tip.

[Tarzan]

One other thought and I'm sure this is mentioned in the course but the first rule of wheeling is do not go alone. We all break his rule at one time or another and my worst stucks have been attributed to this more than once. If you have people with you typically they can get out and locate help. There is some great new technology available for truly dire situations called "SPOT" it can send real time tracking of where you are and activate SAR if needed or contact a group friends if it's not life threatening. Kevin has one of these and we tracked his last trip it was very impressive. http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=1100

[BeachBoy]

I am buying a SPOT next month, mainly for my sailboat trip, but will use it in trails. It's not hyper fast but waaay cheaper than a beacon. and you can let your friends know where you are.

the reviews are good, I've read quite a lot on them

[freeze]

Have you read about the new SPOT 2.0? I'm thinking to pick one up for b/c skiing as well. Plus it'll be good to have when you're on more remote trails.

[BeachBoy]

yes the 2.0 will be better. I'm getting one anyway because my gf will want to know where I am while I'll be on the boat for 2 months :)

[YGF]

good to know, i try not to go out alone but sometimes its works out that way. usually me n my buddies try and use chnl 8 but its good to know what channel most you guys are on. and i know alot of ppl that use the spot for snomobiling and supposidly they work really well.

[mookie]

Have you read about the new SPOT 2.0? I'm thinking to pick one up for b/c skiing as well. Plus it'll be good to have when you're on more remote trails.


I heard September maybe? Good stuff about the 2.0. I'll be upgrading mine!

[BeachBoy]

I have inquired directly to the PR person about the exact date. Will let you know

[BeachBoy]

Got a reply...


Hi Etienne,

Thanks for your email. The new SPOT will be in select retailers in including REI and West Marine on October 1st. Have a fantastic trip!

Best,



Derek Moore
SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger
461 S. Milpitas Blvd.
Milpitas, CA 95035
O: 408.933.4112 | M: 408.493.3475
Fax: 408.933.4100
www.findmespot.com

[Sugarphreak]

I wanted to bump this thread to talk about CB channels a bit; our club is looking at establishing a primary and alternate channel and we didn't want step on anybodies toes in doing so.

So I have been scouring trucker & off-road forums looking for what channels typically get used for and by whom & compiling it into a list. This is what I have so far;

1: Road Reports / Trucker Channel
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7: East Indian Trucker Channel
8:
9: Emergency Channel
10: Alternate French Trucker Channel
11: Common 4x4 Channel (Alberta)
12: French Trucker Channel
13:
14:
15: Alternate Trucker Channel
16: Common 4x4 Channel (general)
17: Alternate Trucker Channel
18:
19: Common Trucker Channel
20:
21:
22:
23: Alternate Trucker Channel
24:
25:
26:
27:
28:
29:
30:
31:
32:
33:
34:
35:
36:
37:
38:
39:
40:


If you have any you know of to add to this please let me know!

[Dante's Taco]

I don't have any specific channels to add, but I do have a tip:

When you set up your CB antenna, you should always check the SWR at both ends of the channel range, and then in the middle. Typically aiming for the lowest reading overall, of course. Given that as you change your channel, the frequency changes (obviously) but the length of your antenna doesn't, then there will be some channel at which your antenna is most efficient.... and some that it isn't.

It is no coincidence that channel 19 is popular... right smack in the middle of the range. Non-tunable antenna's tend to split the difference & aim for around this spot. I would avoid the extremes of the channel range, for your club i.e. stay away from 1 & 40, for example. For my Wilson Silver Tip Flex, I am (if it ever stops being winter) going to re-tune it for Max efficiency (i.e. Min SWR) on channel 11, since our club uses that freq.

Take it for what it's worth :)

Geoff

[--weezl--]

i should point out, that channel 9, on most radios, is programmed to a hot link button, on mine, i've got a deadman's switch, if i'm say, on channel 11, (which is what we typically use) i press it once, it will go to channel 9, press it again, it will go to 19, and one more press will go to what ever channel i was using (in this case, 11) 9 and 19 are hard wired to the button.

from what i have been told, channel 9 is "monitored" by law enforcement, and is only to be used in emergency situations, when i say monitored, i don't mean there's someone who has a radio sitting on channel 9 at all times, making sure no one needs help... What i was told when i was younger, that most police vehicles, especially RCMP in the boonies, and Sheriff highway patrol often have a CB monitoring channel 9, so if they come across a transmission of someone calling for help, they can assist... that being said, don't count your life on it, as if you get stuck in waiparous, unless someone is driving up highway 40, they aren't going to hear you...

Sugarphreak, i don't think 19 is a trucker spesific channel, i think it's just your general gabber channel...

but like others have said, UHF/VHF radios are a much safer bet... there are sections of waiparous that can reach the calgary repeaters, and if you are able to do that, you can talk to anyone from airdrie to oktokes who is on that channel, being it's a repeated channel, there's a much higher likely hood of someone to be monitoring it, if nothing more, they would be able to relay a message to SAR or such...

just remember UHF/VHF radios/users require licensing, not that it's hard to get, just it's illegal to use without one

[Doc McCoy]

...
just remember UHF/VHF radios/users require licensing, not that it's hard to get, just it's illegal to use without one

Illegal to transmit anyway. You can own one and listen all day and night.

[Tarzan]

I will have to check (VE6GAB) but even if the repeater is not linked most have a phone line and you can make a phone call thru it. I've never done a phone call thru repeater but have seen it done and it really sold me on HAM radio. Like I posted earlier in a pinch I would try channel 4 it's way more common than 11. I usually monitor 4 when on a non CT4WD type run.

[Sugarphreak]

I don't have any specific channels to add, but I do have a tip:

When you set up your CB antenna, you should always check the SWR at both ends of the channel range, and then in the middle. Typically aiming for the lowest reading overall, of course. Given that as you change your channel, the frequency changes (obviously) but the length of your antenna doesn't, then there will be some channel at which your antenna is most efficient.... and some that it isn't.

It is no coincidence that channel 19 is popular... right smack in the middle of the range. Non-tunable antenna's tend to split the difference & aim for around this spot. I would avoid the extremes of the channel range, for your club i.e. stay away from 1 & 40, for example. For my Wilson Silver Tip Flex, I am (if it ever stops being winter) going to re-tune it for Max efficiency (i.e. Min SWR) on channel 11, since our club uses that freq.

Take it for what it's worth :)

Geoff

I will definitely keep that in mind, thanks Geoff!


i should point out, that channel 9, on most radios, is programmed to a hot link button, on mine, i've got a deadman's switch, if i'm say, on channel 11, (which is what we typically use) i press it once, it will go to channel 9, press it again, it will go to 19, and one more press will go to what ever channel i was using (in this case, 11) 9 and 19 are hard wired to the button.

from what i have been told, channel 9 is "monitored" by law enforcement, and is only to be used in emergency situations, when i say monitored, i don't mean there's someone who has a radio sitting on channel 9 at all times, making sure no one needs help... What i was told when i was younger, that most police vehicles, especially RCMP in the boonies, and Sheriff highway patrol often have a CB monitoring channel 9, so if they come across a transmission of someone calling for help, they can assist... that being said, don't count your life on it, as if you get stuck in waiparous, unless someone is driving up highway 40, they aren't going to hear you...

Sugarphreak, i don't think 19 is a trucker spesific channel, i think it's just your general gabber channel...

but like others have said, UHF/VHF radios are a much safer bet... there are sections of waiparous that can reach the calgary repeaters, and if you are able to do that, you can talk to anyone from airdrie to oktokes who is on that channel, being it's a repeated channel, there's a much higher likely hood of someone to be monitoring it, if nothing more, they would be able to relay a message to SAR or such...

just remember UHF/VHF radios/users require licensing, not that it's hard to get, just it's illegal to use without one

I don't think there is any kind of official designation for CB channels aside from channel 9; I basically just went through a ton of trucker and off-road forums and pulled off what people said they were using.

As mentioned most truckers in this are are using channel 19 and channel 1, a few mentioned channel 11. Also channel 7 apparently gets utilized a lot by East Indian trucker drivers. Most of the trucker forums referred to channel 16 as the off-road channel.

But then again I barely pick up anybody on my CB around here, lol

I agree that VHF is a better way to go, but a lot of our club members have already committed to new CB equipment so that will be the standard for us at least for the time being.

[--weezl--]

i agree, channel 9 is the only standardized "this is what this is for" channel... and even 9, i honestly don't know if you will get in trouble for using it for gibber jabber, but i still wouldn't use it except for an emergency...

something i think everyone would agree on, any radio is better than no radio, even if you were to go get a dora the explorer walkie talkie, it would probably be better than nothing... just don't expect it to work over the hill or through the trees...

http://catalog.sears.ca/wcsstore/MasterCatalog/images/catalog/Product_271/std_lang_all/66/_p/606_82666_P.jpg

[Sugarphreak]

Hot pink... sexy!