Best cell phone alternative on the road?

even if truckers have a vhf in their car its illegal to use them. VHF's are for boats only!!! per coast guard rules. If this is a semi i say stick to the cb if you don't want a cell phone. Get a wilson antenna. If it is a 4 wheeler, then go with a gm and get onstar! its about 15 per month and all your emergency services are there. If the airbag is deployed onstar will try to contact you. If they cant reach you they will contact emergency services and tell them where you are.

 

A trac phone is pay as you go . Get one with and rf port ( external antenna connection ) and pick up a good antenna to connect to it . If you are driving in really deserted streches you might want to consider a good cellular amplifier.

 

Not all VHF is illegal. VHF is defined as frequencies above 30 mhz. It is not explicitly ruled by the coast guard. There are quite a few legal frequencies available to an unlicensed radio operator. Portions of the 49mhz are set aside for unlicensed use albeit with extremely limited power. Also FRS radio has frequencies in the UHF band around 462 mhz.

If you have or get a Amateur Radio license then you can use a fairly sizable portion of the VHF spectrum.

One side note, VHF frequencies for truckers are popular in Australia. They even have repeaters and stuff there. Quite the cool system

Now to the original question...Who says truckers rarely use CB's anymore? Get one and listen but don't listen around the truckstops. You will hear better conversations on the highway rather then the truckstops.

As to what is the best, You can go with a CB or an FRS radio. CB is much more popular then FRS for highway travel.

 

there is GMRS on UHF (general mobile radio service) that has been an alternative since before cell phones came out ... but generally it has a cost to. And the UHF busness band wich is strictly busness. Now if you go get a amateur radio license this can be a great alternative, though you are limited to atmospheric conditions and no busness related conversations can be discussed . A laptop with wifi internet works well over a cell phone, but limited to having to stop to use it and wifi can be difficult to find at times on the road.

 

There is also 5 freq set aside in the VHF band for open use but they again are limited and low power the are called MURS and just google it i have used them for dear camp for years with my friends that aren't hams.

 

do you have a link so i can see what radio you are speaking of?