With the recent post of the rollover last weekend, it brought up a couple good points, judgement, seatbelts, safety , ect.ect.ect. But it also brought up an issue in our group with CH9. We tried several times to get in touch with someone on CH9 with zero response. We had seven rigs and no one was able to get through, most of us were running elcheapo cb's but a couple guys had decent cb's with still no response. Is it just me or is their someone really on the recieving end of CH9. I don't know JACK about cb's except that mine works OK on the trail. Is it just us or is CH9 actually a useful tool ? And please no flames because I didn't read the manual, or I need to take a class, or anyother crap. I'm sure others are interested or have run into the same problem...


Thanks
RJ

i've wondered the same thing. my guess is no one is close enough to hear most of the time. I know my CB wont transmit farther than a couple miles at best, and most trails i do are way farther out than that.

Dallas

Even if someone were monitoring 9, they would have to be on the trail to hear you..

CB won't get out very far unless you are on top of a hill and have a good setup and/or are running a heater. ( external amplifier).

best if someone in the group has a ham setup.

Originally posted by Dan-H
best if someone in the group has a ham setup.

I have the ham setup, yea, it took me a while to get my license (actually studying :flipoff2: ) but I have heard enough "horror" stories about people getting into trouble, and having to send for help.

Whenever I go somewhere, I make sure and have the freq of the local Forest Service. Yea, they'll bitch about me using that Freq, but if me or one of my bud's needs help, they can fine me all they want.

I consider it as important as a seatbelt.

What band do you run? 2m? 10m?

Originally posted by IndyCJ


I have the ham setup, yea, it took me a while to get my license (actually studying :flipoff2: ) but I have heard enough "horror" stories about people getting into trouble, and having to send for help.

Whenever I go somewhere, I make sure and have the freq of the local Forest Service. Yea, they'll bitch about me using that Freq, but if me or one of my bud's needs help, they can fine me all they want.

I consider it as important as a seatbelt.

Originally posted by SMART ASS
What band do you run? 2m? 10m?



2m

I've got an Icom that a buddy bought, and then changed his mind 3 weeks later. Fortunately for me, they wouldn't take it back, and I told him I'd give him 75 bucks for it. :D

I don't think anyone actually monitors CH9. I tried using it in teh city with no luck before.

Even then... the most range I have gotten out of my CB was approximately 20 miles, on a ridge, with little obstruction between me and the other guy down below. Its a 8yo cheapie Radio Shack CB. I for some reason can transmit/receive farther than the guys with $$$ CB setups. go figure.... just saying.. don't assume its your cheapie CB thats at fault. ;)

I have only used ch9 once. On hwy 4 between hercules and Martinez. A pickup lost a Lazy Boy chair near franklin canyon golf course. This was back when it was a two lane road. The Martinez sharrif department answered right away and evern gave me permission to chase down the truck to get his license plate number.

:smokin:

Hey Scott how have you been?

I thought yo uhad dropped off the face of the planet.

Good to see you back:beer:

Originally posted by ScottN
I have only used ch9 once. On hwy 4 between hercules and Martinez. A pickup lost a Lazy Boy chair near franklin canyon golf course. This was back when it was a two lane road. The Martinez sharrif department answered right away and evern gave me permission to chase down the truck to get his license plate number.

:smokin:

Soo.. uhh... how long you wait between you got permission and commenced chasing? I mean.. hitting 120+mph before you reach the guy takes some distance. ;) :flipoff2:

When I am down in the pinebarrens and am parked and not chating on it, I will turn to channel 9.

I figure I dont need my cb to talk to people in camp with me, and five feet away. So if I keep it on 9 and some one starts screaming I can be Johnny on the spot with help.

Oh and my college monitors channel 9, as if the fawking students there even know what a cb is.

Years ago, there were voluntary "REACT" groups in most cities that monitered 9 but nowadays with so many cell phones and 2m guys out there ch 9 just doesnt get used.

I've been in lurk mode for about a year now. I have to work for a living now!

How long did it take? You assume I wasn't chasing him till I had permission. :D

How do you find forrest service freqs? I have a 2M rig and a ham license and I'd like to be prepared next time I go wheeling. The repeaters often don't cover the trails too well. ;)

9 isn't used much anymore. If U need to get help, find the channel with the traffic on it, and call out on that! We have administered help to people who have done that!

Originally posted by ttabbal
How do you find forrest service freqs? I have a 2M rig and a ham license and I'd like to be prepared next time I go wheeling. The repeaters often don't cover the trails too well. ;)

You have to REALLY look for them sometime. I found the some for the Cherokee National Forest (Tellico I think) on their website, and two of the three were good.

You can find them, just surf more. :D

THe only way Ive gotten help before is ch19 and a 500watt amp... The truckers usally are nice enough to help out or call it in...

REACT (ch9) is slowly going away. not enough clubs & people that want to give the time anymore. It is still there, but not everywhere. Best thing is to find a busy ch. and get on it and call for help.

I've been asking the local PD, county and CHP. There are very few cop vehicles with CBs left and the ones that do have CB don't monitor it. Your only hope is to find other folks to relay to someone with phone service. Take a buddy with another rig so you have some options.

try ham. who cares about licsenses if you are going to only use it for emergency reasons. then for trail just use the cb. night that guy fell off the hood of his truck smahing his face into the granite at sluice/spider is a good example of ham usage. without it his buddies would have been driving off the trail till they got cellphone reception. area between walker and soupcan where you can see loon has 2 bars of service with at&t. and even at soup can if you are lucky. just for you guy's that really need to get a call out especially for emergency reasons.

i like the idea of when sittin in camp switch it to ch9. who knows maybe somethin will come up one afternoon at lunch or something?

I run with a few clubs, sometimes at the same time that can't share a CB channel. (no one wants to move their dial for some reason)

I've thought about getting a second cheapie CB to run the other channel, maybe listen in on 9 at other times. Just haven't had teh $$ or inclination yet.

Does anybody know how they got a hold of lifeflight this weekend?

Only do something like this by contacting the Fire Dept, the Sheriffs Dept, or Search & Rescue.

There are certain proceedures that go along with this as most flights will cost into the 10 grand mark and they do not like mistakes....

See this posting please


http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=181261&referrerid=1535

Originally posted by noodles
try ham. who cares about licsenses if you are going to only use it for emergency reasons.

The flaw with this suggestion is without practicing and learning how to use a ham radio, you may not be able to get in contact with anyone during an emergency.

It would suck if you knew the repeater frequency, offset and activation subtones, but couldn't figure out how to set your radio properly.

my .02 is if you are gonna invest a small amount of money in a ham radio ( hundred or two) , also invest the time learning how to use it and part of it starts by studying for your tech license. The test is not hard to pass. Once you have it you can use your radio and learn where it works and where it doesn't work.

Learn how to use a phone patch and you could call the sheriff's office from the trail.

It isn't rocket science, but it is more difficult than using a CB.

all that said, it is perfectly legal and appropriate to use a ham radio in an emergency.

Originally posted by SAR_Sammy
See this posting please


http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=181261&referrerid=1535

Yup, for about 90% of people 2M ham is the way to go. It's
one 35 question test that's easy to pass with just a little bit of
study. For about $200 you can get the radio & antenna. there
are very few spots on any trail I've been on that you can't connect
to a repeater and get help. Beats the hell out of CB.