Illegal Radio

The Cobra 148GTL or the Uniden PC76 are both very good radios. Couple one of those with good antennas, with your SWR set right, you will get good reception and have decent Transmit.

 

As long as you stay off the frequencies set aside for the hams, no one will give a snot about the legality of the radio itself. It is illegal to broadcast, without the proper license, in the 10 meter bands, but owning the equipment to do so isn't that big of a deal unless you use it illegally.

But, be aware. You will be over-powered (more than 4 watts is illegal), and if the radio Nazis ever start searching trucks (not likely) you could be cited.

On second thought, you really shouldn't keep that radio. The risk are far too great for prosecution. You send it to me (I'll pay the freight), and I'll dispose of it discreetly, and quietly for you. No charge.

 

LOL! Man it pays to have friends like this!

 

study up and get your ham license,It's not that hard anymore and they have eliminated the morse code. Just use it on the cb band and no one is gonna bother you,even if you are pushing a few extra watts....


keepem rollin...CH

 

Well I'm not well read in mobile Amateur radios but many of these 10m "export" radio's can do more than just the 10 meter band. Many of them have switches for CW/FM/AM/USB/LSB, and like a 6 or 8 band switch (would be labeled something like A B C D E F G H). Because the CB is limited to 4w legally and SSB is limited to 12W, people like these types of radios because they are much more powerful for usage on 10m, 12m etc. flip a switch and you got high output on CB... and you will be heard, and probably piss people off because you dominate the channel you are on (unless someone else is running with more power output).

Anyways, because i dont know too much myself I would recommend keeping your unit and figure out what it can and cannot do. Perhaps it will turn out to be a good radio for you. From what I have read, not a lot of Hams even use the 10m band themselves, but piss 'n moan when they get a wild hair, turn over to the band and find truckers yapping on an "unused" channel. They even cry about the usage of the so called "freeband," or "bootleggers band" that are above and below the citizens band and not allocated to amateurs either.

What kind of unit did you buy anyway? A good example of a popular 10m radio is the General Lee (General Washington for the yanks), which is basically the same thing as a Connex 3300. Galaxy and Ranger (RCI) are other really popular manufacturers.

Google up The CB Radio Talk Forum and you can learn quite a bit there on just about every topic regarding 10m, 11m(freeband ), and CBs.
AARLweb for Hammy stuff
FCC of course for the rules.

Hope everything I said was helpful and nothing was incorrect. If so, flame on!

 

These switches are for modes or types of transmission in the 10m band. Not "more than just the 10 meter band" They all use the same 10m frequencies, just different modes

You won't p*** anyone off and dominate a channel simply because EVERYONE ELSE is running the same or MORE power then the simple 10M radio is modded for

Wait until solar cycle 24 begins to pick up. You won't be able to find an unused or empty frequency ANYPLACE on the 11m OR 10M band. The only reason 10M SEEMS to be quiet is because the solar cycle is at a minimum right now. See this: http://www.sec.noaa.gov/SolarCycle/

I am sure if you came home from the road to find bunch of wild hippies camped out in your house, wrecking your yard and bugging your neighbors, you might get a bit uptight about it, regardless of how your house is occupied, maintained or cared for. We Hams actually have to WORK to get our licenses. We don't really appreciate freeloaders using and abusing our resources.

The majority of hams have no care about what happens outside of the ham bands. We police our own allocated frequencies. Freebanders exist below the 10M band. "If you want to break the laws, knock yourself out. Just don't come to the ham bands to do it." Most hams have this philosophy. There are a few who try to be cops for CB'ers and freebanders but they got no juice other than the ability to try to whine to the FCC or whine on the net about it.

You got most of it correct. A few slight mis-characterizations of us ham ops but basically correct on everything else. It's ARRL.org for the hammy stuff and FCC.org for the rules and regs. No worries otherwise.
QRZ.com is another rules and tech resource, but make sure you have flame retardant hip waders on. their political forum makes the TR politics forums look like a preschool discussion.

 

from what i hear if you are using an overpowered CB broadcasting on channel 19 (for example) you could also be broadcasting on a different band at the same time. Ham operators dont like this, it annoys the crap outa them, and sometimes they try and catch these people.

If i ever need to dispose of a radio i know where to go!!! even better than ebay!!