more features on CB radios than 2m mobiles

I've often wondered about this, and decided to go ahead and post it. I've often wondered why CB had more bells and whistles than 2m mobile radios.

I mean things like reverb, roger-beeps, the day/night lights, built in SWR meters, and the like.

now, I know most of those maybe are a bit "captain-midnight"-ish, but I often listen to the local police radios on my 2m and the nice little "dah-dah-dip" beep at the end seems like a nice feature. you know the other guy is done and you can talk. . . etc.

anyway, just pondering. . . oh, FWIW, I thought many of the old CB radios looked nicer too :-)

Those features make CBers feel like big boys.

why would that work if the "big boys" don't have those features :-)

but yeah, I'm probably just compensating.

My two meter rigs are used mostly on repeaters and they have a tail from the repeater to let you know the transmition is over. And on simplex I say "over" which works well. If you really want to compare…open one up and look at the insides... most hf rigs have a swr meter now. On 2m I have used one once in 12years. On hf a lot. But I don't trust the built in ones. I also have no use for echo or robot voices on the radio. I think most of the Cb things are cheap add-ons to sell over competition. And I am not bashing 11m. I own a few Cbs.

The type that like the fancy bells and whistles (lights/leds/reverb/beep/echo/etc) are the same type that buy a POS car, stick on some spinners and a fart can.

Hams typically recognize that all those extra toys have no practical use. As for SWR meters... what ham doesn't have, or prefer, a decent external SWR meter? And what CB'er is going to spend the money on a decent external SWR meter? THey'd rather just trust whatever the radio says, crank up the modulation, and play "Earache My Eye" over CH19.

I think this is kind of like discussions we've had before about manpack radios. It seems hams often don't want the same things (as other hams). They want this radio with that tuner, or this SWR meter, with that HT. I don't know much at all about CBs, but it just seems many hams would rather have their "bells" separate from their "whistles."


As far as the police radio goes, the "dah-dah-dip" you're hearing might actually have another purpose than just to signal that the other guy is done talking. I suspect the sounds you hear are some sort of MDC or DTMF signaling. The dispatcher's console is getting information from those sounds that indicates who is talking, and any other messages they have set up. Sure, that would be awesome to have in the ham world, but it would take a lot of coordination, and wouldn't really be useful unless you had a base station.

all my yeasus have the beep. all i have to do is enable wires

In some cases, an ETX/Roger beep may come in handy. Are there any legal issues with enabling such a feature?

my Wouxun has roger beep, I keep it off...nobody else on local 2m uses one.

On my Galaxy 959 CB I use the Roger Beep-but have grown past echo boards/mics...

Speaking of such things, IZ1HMT sounded like he was using reverb when calling 5B4AIF yesterday.

5B4AIF (currently located in Cyprus) was calling for stateside stations by region number, making sure everybody stateside got a shot. IZ1HMT kept tailending every QSO (although he finally did turn off the reverb).

I have to say, 5B4AIF was keeping his cool better than I would. He did make some pointed remarks about "European QRM" though.

But why use reverb? Did he think that was going to make him stand out and give him a better shot?

the local LID put a roger beep on, makes everyone cringe when he keys up the repeater.

intersting thoughts guys. Just sort of seemed like a "Hmmm. wonder why?" for me. I guess it's the more mature crowd, I guess.
I do notice that no matter what repeaters I listen to, the cops radios are alot clearer and quieter than anyone elses. bet they cost a bunch though.

good discussion, thanks.

Nope - Perfectly legal.

Way back before they existed in the commercial world, I home-brewed one for Field Day operation on the HF bands. It worked well, and probably prevented a lot of duplicate contacts (due to the fact that nobody else was using one).

On radios equipped with a squelch, it's pretty much a useless feature, since the squelch closing already provides some audible indication that the transmission has ended.

Awesome. I really think this would come in handy. Especially for some of our HF nets, where we're pretty spread out. Sometimes we fade, and can't tell if someone has stopped talking, or is just pausing for a second. I personally see where such a beep would be quite useful. Might have to look into configuring something for the 857.

the beeps you hear on the PD freq's arent "roger beeps" they are the radio identifier. the "beep" is actually an encoded signal that shows on the dispatch console as the unit number of the car that is talking. we have the same thing in our FD radios, but have it as a "silent" beep instead.

Doubtful it was "reverb", probably just an excessive amount of mic processing/compression.

Anyone who thinks CB has more features than a 2m radio hasn't looked through the menu list on a 2m radio.


Mostly high power radios, good professionally installed antennas, and all in a small area with a high performance repeater = no noise.

Most LE types start complaining about audio and claiming inability to copy with the smallest amount of noise.

Amateur repeaters by contrast tend to have users spread out over a large area, with wildly varying station setups for antenna and power. Mismatched microphones, old radios out of alignment, outboard repeater controllers with poor audio, all contribute to poorer overall sound. Amateur operators by and large don't even flinch when it comes to copying traffic with a little noise in it.

a few usable things my 2m/440 mobile and HT rigs have that no cb has...

ARTS
APRS / GPS
crossband repeat
significantly better range
multiband capability

Hmmm, after dinking around with electronics, sound reinforcement, and music production for almost three decades, I have pretty good recognition of reverb, delay, phasing, flanging, and compression pumping.

This sounded for all the world like he was running your typical nasty trucker CB echo box.

The other odd thing was that, despite the Italian call, he sounded like he really ought to have been named Bruno and have been from some former Soviet Bloc country.

And one of the features on the average HF ham radio is that it will also work on the CB channels, after a simple mod...

My mobile 2m Icom IC-V8000 has more features than I'll ever use

You can change the LCD color apparently, and dim it as well. It also has DTMF signaling right from the keypad on the mic, so with an autopatch capable repeater I can make telephone calls. I've never heard of a CB that you can use to call 911, or order a pizza

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not sure if serious.

if you are, i'll take this opportunity to remind you of an old adage.

"putting lipstick on a pig does not make it smell any better."

ar-jedi

This Youtube Video is too good not to share!

Notice he is wearing an ORANGE shirt....'nuff said

my brain stopped processing half way through that video...

Wow!

Is that guy just bitter that he isn't smart enough to pass the tech exam-or is he just trolling?


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dear lord..... please tell me he is sterile.

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