all 13 comments

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (12 children)

Wavin and welcome to the cb radio sub.

11 meter cb radio is largely unregulated, unless you attract attention. Depending on how you operate your station, it can be safe. The closest thing to censorship on the band would be an agitator with a box.

The band is monitored, but by just hobbyists. In today's world of smart phones, their eyes are elsewhere. You can use various methods of rf encryption over 11 meters, they just don't like it.

Cb radios will be the best shtf radio, as no license is needed for operation. I believe when martial law is "officially" activated, ham radio operators will be told they can no longer operate.

Hope you like it, your welcome. If your interested in cb radio, a good starter radio is the cobra 29 ltd.

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

Interesting info. What's the distance range of a radio like the cobra 29?

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Its not about the radio, its the about the antenna you use with the radio. The cobra 29 ltd is a good radio, but you could have the best cb ever made and not get far if you don't have a good antenna.

With a good antenna 30-40 feet high, you'll get 35-55 miles running it as a base, mobile setup, 15-25 miles with a good antenna. I'm giving mileage ranges cause it depends on how the land is, if you have big hills between you and other operators, they won't receive you as well if at all running barefoot.

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Ah that makes sense. That's a pretty good distance, I suppose. Is there enough density of radios to form a nationwide meshnet at those distances? Or is CB the wrong technology for that

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

lol, cb radio is the wrong tech for that, lol, its just basic 2 way communications, if your looking for a radio based internet, ham operators have the ability to put up mesh networks of this type :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99H6z5rmvco

[–]i_cansmellthat[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

So, say you have access to radio towers of around 300-400 feet. If you set the radio up at the base of this tower, would that give you access to a couple hundred miles? And is weather a factor?

I haven't read an intro guide on cb radios yet. My dad builds radio towers, I need to pick his brain this weekend!

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

mmm, well, you wouldnt wanna go that tall, the losses, even with the best coax the losses would outweigh the gains unless you put in a 100-250 watt kicker behind your radio, then it would help. preferrably you would want 80 foot tower max.

my ranges are by my area, i get prolly 60 miles tops in certain directions, with my antenna about 30 feet high.

this is a good starter video for ya :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaWaskIZh40

[–]i_cansmellthat[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Thank you!

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Your welcome 😁

[–]wellwellwell 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

wait, forgive my ignorance, but are you saying channels can be encrypted? To what extent?

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

with todays technology, you can employ some unique encryption. Being a linux user, i can use my manjaro laptop to send a data transmission at like 37.3 kbps :)

there are many ways to make communications private over the 11 meter cb radio band :)

[–]wellwellwell 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Fucking sick

Alright pretty sure I just went from heavily considering buying one to absolutely buying one with that. How many people could speak on an encrypted channel at once? Assuming location is generally close. I'm not talking like a massive group here, but more like a 5 person conference.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

yea, its pretty cool :) the method i used as an example uses minimodem which is a linux command line application. like cb radio, minimodem is simplex.

this would have to be done as a professional cb radio net, otherwise people would likely be keying over eachother and transmitting data at the same time, and minimodem would just receive it as a jumbled mess.

another data method is SSTV, mainly used by ham radio operators, it can be used on cb radio too. with slow scan tv, a cb radio operator could send a picture to another cb'er.

minimodem would be the preferred method of comm encryption, in any shtf/martial law or other possible scenario requiring privacy. a group of 5 could successfully share audio encrypted information with the help of a net operator :)