There are still MARS (Military Affiliated Radio Service) operators out there for every branch of the service, although many of them are using digital modes more than voice now. They are Ham operators that volunteer to carry message traffic from our deployed servicemen/women and get it back to loved ones at home. http://www.ares.org/groups/mars/index.htm




When everything else fails, the Amateur service will still be around, it's not as popular as it once was, with the readily available commercial/public comm's now available. Most of them, however, rely heavily on an internet, satellite, and cellular infrastructure that isn't as reliable as you might think. Think of what cell and landline coverage was like after Katrina. Even the local EMS teams had Ham operators sitting in their buildings with gear to communicate anywhere beyond their town in some cases because all the trunked nets were down.

There are 2 services in the Amateur radio community that might be relevant for you, ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services) http://www.ares.org/main.htm , and RACES (Radio Amateur Emergency Services) that are corps of Hams that volunteer to work with state and local EMS teams during emergencies. RACES is more restricted to stations licensed to work with local civil defense org's. You might want to find a local ARES group and see how you can get involved. Even without getting formally involved, just having your license means you'll have many forms of communication available that doesn't rely on the public infrastructure.

In US waters, you don't need a license for Marine VHF gear. However, if you are not actually in a boat, on the water, you are supposed to have a station license, and it's only for communication to marine operators. For example, a Marina might have a station license to talk to boats looking to reserve a slip or request a launch pick up. The FCC doesn't allow, legally anyway, the use of Marine VHF for land based comm's. The band they are on has characteristics similar to the 2 Meter amateur VHF band, so it would be good for local point to point comm's, but, it's not really intended for that.
I guess I'm back my original suggestion...that many have echoed, considered getting your ham license

(to Bear_Claw_Chris_Lapp) It looks like you had a cool setup there in 1993, with your "station". That looks like some serious flexibility for your coms!

(to everyone) I was a little surprised to see how many responders to this thread had various radio setups in the past (from CB through HAM), but seem to have totally "ditched" that gear now.
Do some of you still have that gear stored for a "just in case" backup? Or, did you feel that type of gear became worthless to you with the advent of newer technologies (cell, internet, etc..)?

As always, you all have provided me with some good information already, and given me many things to think about and places to start.
My initial goal of communicating over the 12 mile distance to a friends house, involves mostly flat terrain. There would primarily be a few hills and some trees and houses between us; but no major mountains, valleys, or steel buildings.

Right now, I think we might opt for the Cobra 148GTL radios and try the Single Sideband CB first. Those radios are inexpensive enough (about $150 or less, each), and seem to have a good chance of working for what we need.
I will also investigate the HAM radio community too; as that might be what I need if I decide I want more range or options in radio communications.

Any tips on Antennae setups for the CB radio?
A setup that could easily be changed from fixed location (home) to mobile (car/truck) would seem to be ideal?

Well, fortunately CB (and Amateur) is still a popular hobby so you can find a bunch of accessories to help you set things up the way you want. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the CB license (such as it is) effectively prevents you from modifying or building your own radio gear, which is probably the most significant difference to Amateur radio (plus the extra frequencies that hams can use).

What I'm saying is that if you are going for CB you should be able to find fixed and mobile antennas for the house and car which you can plug your Cobra into.

According to this vendor the Cobra comes with a mobile mounting bracket:

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/cb_radio/4634.html

I take this to mean you could fix the bracket to your car and slide the radio into it, so you could move the radio between house and car. In the house you can put an antenna up on the eaves with a wire running back to a desk inside. You will need some sort of power supply (about 3A @ 13.8V) on the desk too. In the car you'd clamp an antenna mount somewhere on the vehicle (or drill a hole (gasp!)) and run the wire to the same place the mounting bracket is. From there you'd pick up a connection to the vehicle power supply too (and 3A is low enough that you can draw it from the cigarette lighter socket). When you move the radio between house and car you have to disconnect power and antenna, then reconnect.

I don't want to make this sound too easy, since it's highly dependent on what space is available in your car and house, but really it's not too hard. The radio is a "black-box" with a power cable and an antenna cable.

A ham radio installation is much the same, except that you have a myriad more choices about which radio, which band, which antenna, what power level etc. etc.

This is my simplistic view of the situation. I know nothing about this model of radio (or about CB usage in the USA, or about the worthiness of Universal Radio), but one thing I will say is that you will need an antenna- Universal Radio do not state that one is included with this radio.

73,

A

I had fun with that stuff, I had 3 towers on the south end of the house, and could really hear some fun stuff.

I still have a handheld police scanner, and one mobile CB that is setup to quick plug into a cigarette lighter in a car.

My Kenwood radio was $150.00 and $12.00 for the ticket, and my antenna is police surplus ($25.00), I have a lighter plug on the end to go from car to house and back again, my antenna is mag mount, When I'm working late I usually get out my FT-847 Earth Station just to listen. My DW says we need to get a "bigger" antenna for the outside of the house (I'm tearing up just thinking about it)

73 Mike
kd7fqd

Let me toss in one more recco for going with a Ham radio setup. You and your friend could study and take the test together, cost is $14.00 for a technician's class license I think. There are no longer any morse code requirements, if you know Ohm's law and study up on some of the most basic radio operations you can pass the test. You could then pick up some used mobile 2meter and or 70cm band radios for about what you'd pay for the CB's, alternatively you could grab a couple of new HT's, (walkie-talkies) for about the same amount. Add a couple of antennas and a power supply and you're golden.

The problem with the CB's is that you will never get as clear a signal on them as you will on the Ham bands, trust me, I was a serious CB radio guy a million years ago and I'm now a Ham operator, the difference is night and day. In addition, once you get the Ham setups, there's nothing stopping you from putting it your vehicle and using it even more. There are 2m and 70cm band repeaters that will allow you to easily talk 50-100+ miles or more if they're linked together.

I still have a CB in my car, it's fine for very short distance work and for traffic reports, I have the NOAA weather bands on mine so I can easily tune in for weather reports as well but the mobile Ham radio works so much better I seldom even turn the CB on unless I'm on a road trip.

Whatever you decide, get an SWR meter and tune your antennas properly, you'll be amazed at the difference between a properly tuned antenna and an improperly tuned one, that applies to the CB as well as a Ham radio.

If you do go the CB route, save yourself some money and trouble and don't bother with any allegedly "tuned" or "tweaked" radios, all you'll end up with in most cases is a seriously distorted signal.

JohnE

300 Ghz!

Thats fantastic! (Or was it a typo?)

Oh, I just assumed he was referring to infrared transmissions as beyond 300Ghz.
Likely trying to transmit by bouncing lasers off the moon.


EDIT:
Hi Lon, the link Be_Prepared posted to the American Radio Relay League is a very good one.
http://www.arrl.org/
ARRL is the grandaddy of all Amateur Radio organizations in North America.
If you want to know anything about personal radio communications they are the people to go to.

Yep, actually, I think the micro links topped out at about 270 GHz. But you're right, we did some point to point telemetry using collimated IR systems. The really wild stuff was using ultrasonic signals at 530 Khz amplitude modulated at 250 yards.