CB Callsign

[avalon]

Just about to buy a CB Radio and ive found out i need a licence (DOH!). Ive never had a CB before and i need a call sign but the form has confussed me. Any one give me some help ?

[phoebelala]

Just about to buy a CB Radio and ive found out i need a licence (DOH!). Ive never had a CB before and i need a call sign but the form has confussed me. Any one give me some help ?

Call sign? I think you mean Handle Bro.

Call signs are for radio hams that have earned the respect of fellow users by working hard to pass exams.

A Handle on the Muppet Channel (CB) can be ANYTHING you want.

Mr frosty/Happy Frank/Nimrod/Dr johnson and so on and so on. Choose something you like the sound of and change if you like later.

Al.

[avalon]

Sorry Handle! . kinda new to this cb stuff , so theres no limit on the amount of letters in your handle?
cos this form is righttttt confussing
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archi...info/ra240.pdf

[phoebelala]

Sorry Handle! . kinda new to this cb stuff , so theres no limit on the amount of letters in your handle?
cos this form is righttttt confussing
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archi...info/ra240.pdf

As far as I know there aint. Truth is friend, that 90% of users don't bother with a licence. Most police do not even know you need one and they care even less.

Do yourself a favour, put the form in the bin like everyone else and call yourself whatever you so desire.

break break.

[Maverick]

The call sign is assinged to you by Ofcom, and you would never call it out over the air.
Mine is 2H2MA.
Imagine call that out!!

[TonyN]

90% of users don't bother with a licence. Most police do not even know you keed one and they care even less.

Hey, for once I'm in a majority!!!

[Diezel Weazel]

Hey, for once I'm in a majority!!!

The Most Popular majority tho MR T
The Cops will be off playing Keystone Cops up our neck of the woods. once they know were there going !!!!!

There's always a Payback.... You just can't see it Comin !!!!

[M35A2]

Yeah Dude,

Just throw that form away. Why do you want to give your hard earned cash to the government for.

I used to have a CB for a few years. Even got questioned by plod, because I used to sit in remote areas, to get a better signal. They never once asked me for a licence.

My mate has had one for years, he aint got one either.

Just get your rig working, and enjoy. Maybe you will even get an eyeball!!

10-4 Rubber Duck...

[mark g8awo]

They use the same licence application form for the Amateur radio licence so i dont think it applies to you lot on the silly band...

You could do the multi choice foundation licence for the amateur band and get a licence for life as of October plus for off roading you can use an aerial thats 18 inchs in length that does not foul up in trees and you have a range that out performs your choclate box.....More and more HGV drivers are now taking the plunge and doing the exam realising they can keep in touch with fellow drivers for longer and using certain repeaters they can also talk to others up country or around the world.


Here is a site that gives lots of info for obtaining a ticket
www.rsgb.org

[da SLUG man]

i got a form in a CB i bought a while back that said it was CE approved and did not require a license.... i just keep hold of that and that will do for me!

[pops]

what sort of Range does the ole CB have then?
and how many surfers got um?

[da SLUG man]

what sort of Range does the ole CB have then?
and how many surfers got um?

not much range... going opposite directions at 55mph it'll get crackly in about 2-3 minutes
used to lose signal from trailer park at work to woolhampton... only about 2 miles... but i think there's a government signal blocker in woolhampton cos the readio and mobile phones go dead there too.


if you were somewhere like salisbury plain then the range would be pretty good cos there's no obstructions.

[avalon]

is the theory the bigger thee ariel the longer the range?

[Tallyman]

Yes, also height helps as well. Back in the 80's I got a good copy on a small handheld with a breaker in Swansea from on top of Pen-Y-Fan in the Black Mountains, during the day. That was extreme for a handheld but from a homebase I've more than once chatted with someone 50-60 miles away, usually until some donut nearby decided to dead key over us.

[mark g8awo]

CB has a range of about 5 miles mobile to mobile but that depends on the lie of the land and where abouts you site the aerial on the car and on a truck if you have a metal body to the rear which alters your polar diagram.

Now if you use a base system you can increase the range by the use of a more efficient aerial which the rules have been relaxed since the original concept of a 1.5m radiating element. You are allowed to use a 5/8 wave aerial which is about 21ft this gives a theoretical gain over a quater wave aerial if 6db which when put into maths terms is 4 times the efficiency. This is a theoretical gain and not true gain as you can only really gain an increase of signal by using a beam which focuses the signal into one direction. As a CBer you are not allowed beam aerials at all.

Height can also be a factor to improve the range for the obvious reasons but we also have another thing that also comes into play and that is what we call a lift, this is atmospheric and temperature dependant you can get anything from 40 miles to a few hundred miles by this method.

Now here is the best one the Sun also plays a contributary factor if you look at www.Spaceweather.com you can see a up to date image of the sun spots. As the number of sun spots increase over the next few years the range can increase to a few thousand miles and the US is not going to be uncommon.

Another one that gives a lot of people some fun is a solar flare which generates a Aurrora otherwise known as the Northern Lights. By using a beam on the VHF bands on these conditions and aiming north, now VHF is known as a line of sight comms you may get 10 miles under normal conditions but using the aurrora we can happily work into Russia, Scandinavia, Germany and further but every body is doing the same and lookin north. The down side to the Aurrora is the fact for anything from a few hours to a couple of days or so the HF bands are dead and you are lucky to talk to the other end of the country as the magnetic fields of the Earth are still disturbed......


I hope this helps your thoughts if i have some of the facts wrong i appologise cos I`m only human and im working from memory...and im sure there are some more knowledgeable people than me.