Private pilot with some CB questions

I think you will be fine with just about any basic CB radio. I'm interested in what you will be doing for an antenna. I used to talk to another Ham that flew out of Chattanooga that used a tiny credit card sized Alinco 2 meter radio that only put out 500 milliwatts, but altitude is everything!

I'm not sure of any FCC rules forbidding CB in aircraft, but there is a rule that they don't want you talking long distances (skip), not that anybody enforces it. As for FAA CB rules, I have no idea.

 

RULE 5 - Areas of Legal Operation You are authorized to operate your CB station from:
{A} Within or over any area of the world where radio services are regulated by the FCC. Those areas are:
[1] The 50 United States
[2] The District Of Columbia
[3] Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
[4] Navassa Island
[5] United States Virgin Islands, it's 50 islets and cays
[6] American Samoa
[7] Baker Island
[8] Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands
[9] Guam Island
[10] Howland Island
[11] Jarvis Islan
[12]Johnston Island
[13] Kingman Reef
[14] Midway Island
[15] Palmyra Island, and it's 50+ islets
[16] Wake Island
{B} Any area of the world, except, within the territorial limits of areas where radio services are regulated by -
[1] An agency of the United States other than the FCC, you are subject to it's rules.
[2] Any foreign government, you are subject to it's rules.
{C} An aircraft or ship, with the permission of the captain, within or over any area of the world where radio services are regulated by the FCC or upon or over international waters. You must operate your CB station according to any applicable treaty to which the United States is a party.

 

None of this address type acceptance by the FAA. You may key up your CB and knock out your altimeter, RDF, etc... Let us know if you find a accepted CB radio.

 

I want to see you land your plane at a CB shop to get the SWRs checked. That would be funny as ####.

 

well, a good handle wuld be FLY BOY

 

There are those of us that have a NABER/NARDI (Grandfathered in) license that also are FAA, Marine (Ships Radar) certified. We (meaning the FAA tech) go to the plane for a handsome fee, thank you very much. The Mojave Airport is almost in my back yard it will hold anything that flys.

 

How many "SWR'ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ" are there in ONE feedline?

GF

 

I think you're going to have way too much traffic on the calling channel which is channel 19 I guess. You're basically going to have an HF radio with an antenna tower that is 1,000 feet high. Your line of sight coverage is going to be considerably larger than the LOS of a truck on the road. If you install a good antenna and have a good match from the radio, 5 watts is going to blast every truck on the road within a 100 mile radius of you. You may also hear several stations calling on Ch. 19 at the same time. Then throw in the skip that will occur mostly in the late afternoon and early evening as we are nearing a sunspot max, and you will have just about the entire US of A covered. VHF does not have skip as at this frequency radio waves do not bounce off the ionosphere. Also VHF does not have as much of a tendency to follow the curvature of the Earth on the ground wave like HF does. In other words I think you will have major interference problems on channel 19--assuming your antenna will properly load and is in a good location outside on the aircraft.

Here's a chart from my own web site that shows how much antenna height is a function of distance for VHF band radios. The same applies for HF ground waves and then some! 300 feet is the highest tower listed. Think what a 1,000 foot tower or higher would be like.

http://home.earthlink.net/~craigcoffaro/images/RangeChart606X451.gif

 

I do believe you are wrong about VHF skipping. While The VHF band doesn't open as much as lower frequencies VHF does indeed have skip.

Myself and many other hams have QSL cards that confirm these contacts.

Leon
(kc0iv)