SKP this past week.....

The FCC when it moved CB from 460 mhz to 27 Mhz caused this problem. It is a fact 27 Mhz is just not a good place to put a short range band ....

How do you fix it well expand MURS and bring MURS power up to 30 or more watts AND allow MURS to be built into all CB radios would be a start .... at least truckers and shippers would have a clear block of ch to go to ...

But that makes sence and the goverment dosn't know how to handle sence .....

 

I don't usually use the squelch knob on my radio(s), just turn back the RF Gain a little bit. Yesterday, I had to use my squelch

 

I agree, the FCC is the main reason you have as many issues as you do. They decided to take an amateur frequency away from the hams to make a citizens band channel. it was a great idea but they picked the wrong frequency....but I guess in 1958 there was nothing else better at the time...or so they thought.

However I do not think it's always people on linears causing problems....truth is when skip rolls in, even a bone stock 4 watt radio can talk hundreds of miles away when conditions are right.

If it weren't for the billions of CB radios in service, I'd say the FCC should re allot the CB frequencies back to amateur radio ops and give the truckers a new CB frequency somewhere on the VHF side. That way you wouldn't have to deal with skip, you could actually run a good antenna on your truck w/o being too tall (mobile CB radios require a 9 ft antenna to work their best - the short trucker antennas really hinder your range) plus you could run on FM which is far better than the typical AM that all CB radios work off of.

 

There is MURS VHF CB ...... I wish the FCC would expand it ...


The following are the frequencies authorized for use by the MURS:
[TABLE]
[TR]
[TD]Frequency[/TD]
[TD]Authorized Bandwidth[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]151.820 MHz[/TD]
[TD]11.25 kHz[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]151.880 MHz[/TD]
[TD]11.25 kHz[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]151.940 MHz[/TD]
[TD]11.25 kHz[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]154.570 MHz (also part of business band)[/TD]
[TD]20.00 kHz[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]154.600 MHz (also part of business band)[/TD]
[TD]20.00 kHz[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

Doesn't the fire/paramedics use the MURS?

 

I echo what Bruce suggested. Actually, even though it's limited to 2 watts at the transmitter, you can use unlimited "gain" in an antenna, and at the 150 MHz range, an antenna that will double your effective transmitted AND received signal level is only about 3 feet long.
My wife and I use MURS because she's not a ham, and we can get around 12 miles between our mobiles before there isn't enough signal left to talk with. A modest base anenna (a "j-pole" made of copper pipe at the house, with the tip at around 35 feet above ground, will extend the range out to a mobile to around 28 miles around here (intersection of I-40 & I-77). Not many people use the service, but by putting a "CTCSS" or "PL" tone on the signal, you can have what'l like a party line with selective ring so you don't have to hear the occasional user who's on the same channel as you. Our radios actually continually scan for a vacant channel, making it sorta like a "poor man's trunking" system.
If you wanna hear everyone on the channel, just leave the tone feature off. If trucking could establish, say, 154.570 or 154.600 as their standard calling channel, it'd perform the same function as CB Ch 19 is supposed to be, but without the skip to plague local reception.
MURS-capable radios are available as handhelds for less than $100 each, and mobiles w/power supplies at well under $250. Base antennas can be as modest as a panel-mount SO-239 with brass brazing rods soldered to it, to cost around $10 a copy, or commercial gain antennas are $50 to $200 or so. Add some low loss coax and a support structure, and you've got an ideal MURS base station.
The FCC modified a couple of business channels to allow for MURS, so folks could talk farther than the junky blister-packed FRS radios. Speaking of which, FRS radios are limited to one-half watt and must have a non-removable antenna that has a 3 dB *loss* built in to them. With MURS, you can disconnect the antenna and run a coax to whatever you want, as long as it's not more than 20 feet higher then its supporting structure (which can be mighty tall if you've got a tree, etc. handy).

There are still legacy business channels on 151.805, 151.835, 151.865, 151.895, 151.925, and 151.955. However, all so-called wideband (20 KHz wide) channels will have to be changed to narrow band come January 1, 2013, so most potential interference on any of the MURS channels (so-called "adjacent channel" interference) should pretty well disappear six months from now. 154.570 and 154.600 have been wideband business channels virtually forever, but have been long limited to 2 watts of power, so they were meant to be used for local comms (think Wallyworld or concrete plants, etc.)

Turbo -- fire/EMS and police are free to use the MURS freqs if they want to, but the rules say *anyone* can use those five freqs, with the correct bandwidths and FM. There are public safety and business channels above and below all of the MURS channels, and a couple of the local volunteer FDs around here use one or two as their unofficial, non-life-safety-related chat channels. But they're not allowed to use scrambling/encryption on them; same rule as FRS radios.

Hope that helps.
Sorry I've been gone so long, health problems have kept me out of the area quite awhile.
Cheers,
-- Handlebar --
diddly dahdidah

 

Man, skip really has been serious for a week or two now.

 

Will the VHF maritime band be going narrow band???

 

Typical for this time of year, expect these "E" skip conditions to last until around mid-July.