A well tuned CB is great for the car. For years I had a CB (peaked out at 7W) and could sometimes get 10-12 miles with low cloud cover. Besides relaying info to eachother, a lot of truckers have police scanners and just listening in can let you know whats going miles ahead, find alternate routes, etc.

Thats why I went with a handheld CB over an FRS or GMRS, since I already have one in the truck if one of us wants to get out at a rest area and talk back to the other its much easier to just grab the handheld CB. I found an older model that had a removable battery pack on the bottom and that pack opens to hold AA's so I have two packs stocked with Syano Eneloop, I've never drained one pack yet even when loaning it out to someone else so we could talk back and forth between vehicles on a road trip.

ROTFLMAO!!!!!

AM or FM has absolutely no bearing on how the signal "bounces" around.

It is the rf frequency you are operating at, the amount of power you are radiating, and atmospheric conditions that predominately determine propogation characteristics.

Personally I prefer FM operations because of the "capture" effect of FM discriminator circuits in rejecting adjacent channel interference. AM operations can get pretty tight on channel bandwidth, especially running ACSSB mode. Of course, nowadays with phase deviation narrow band digital and spread spectrum predominating the airwaves, coupled with the saturation of improved cell sites and low orbit satellite cell systems, it won't be long before all of our two way comms are full digital conversion, wristband sized bluetooth transeivers using hundreds of channels.

The days of discreet two way point to point comms is almost over.

Well I bought a set of Midland radios!

http://www.midlandradio.com/comersus/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=5518

They work well about 2 miles in a suburban environment. They work in the house or in a car about a mile. I think they will be fine for my intended purpose.

I would like some other communication other than a cell phone. The CB radio may be something I have to look into!

Mike

We have set of Cobra 20+ mile radios, and access to Midland 25 milers. Neither of them are worth a damn at more than a couple of miles if there is a bump in the terrain, or a building, between sets. I am not impressed....