(12-14-2020, 11:22 PM)Mystic Wanderer Wrote: Thanks y'all for the information. Guess I need to look into buying a CB radio. Sigh.
Depends on far far out the folks are whom you might want to communicate with. FRS is fine for fairly short distances, under a mile or so. The lower channels, 1-7, will reach further, and the upper channels 15-22 will reach further, but channels 8-14 are strictly for VERY short range.
CB's will reach out there better, and under some conditions called "skips", will reach a LONG way. I used one to communicate up to 1200 miles away when a skip was on. "Skips" are some sort of atmospheric temperature inversion that causes the signal to bounce off of an air layer back to the ground, and then bounce around back and forth like pool balls on a break. It'll really reach out there then!
I used an 8 foot omnidirectional antenna on a mast, and may have... MAY have... overamped the power to the radio just a touch...
Also, with separate (not "built-in") antennas, different lengths of antenna work better with different frequencies than others. It has to do with the radio wavelength that you are propagating vs. the length of the antenna, and each frequency has a different wavelength. That's why antennae have to be tuned to freq.
Rangers and Special Forces will teach you how to operate some seriously long range stuff, but most of it is line-of-sight. FM ("Frequency Modulated") radio is line of sight as well, which is why it doesn't reach very far but uses massive amounts of power to reach as far as it does. AM ("Amplitude Modulated") radio is not line of sight, so you can reach farther per watt than you can with FM.
Me knowing stuff like this is why Franklin Horton gave "Hugh" a background in radio in his "Borrowed World" series. That, and the fact that when I met him, Franklin and I both worked at a radio station... He has one of those permanent RTO licenses, too.
I'd like to get hold of one of those fancy little satellite radios that work off an ear-bud. I knew a fine young man that was in Kuwait City and was talking to folks in DC in real-time, instant communication, over one, half way around the friggin' world - and no one knew he was even talking, much less who to!
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Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’