I was riding along the other day listening to my scanner on the CB frequencies when I began thinking, once again, how nice it would have been if we hadn't needed to worry about staying close enough together so we could maintain radio contact. So today I began researching what it would take to get a ham radio license. I have had mine for about 15 years now. The requirments have changed considerably. When I took mine I had to be able to translate Morse Code at a rate of 5 words a minute. That is no longer the case. In fact there is no longer a Morse Code (CW) requirment for any of the licenses. With a basic Technician's license you have access to a range of frequencies (QSY's) that include 3 seperate bands. The two most common are 2 meter and 440 centimeter. (Those are the height of the radio wave from the Peak of the wave to the Valley of the wave) To give you an idea of the benifits of being able to transmit in the FM bands let's compare them to CB.
CB is using an AM frequency which is effected by weather, foliage, Topography, and several other factors.
These same items will effect FM also but not to the extremes that they do AM.
When you trasmit on a CB you have a range of about 5 miles as long as the terrain is flat, the weather is perfect, and there are no leaves on th trees.
With a handheld VHF radio transmitting at about 3 to 5 wats, the maximum for CB, I am able to tal to people 10 to 15 mliles under the same conditions but I also have trepeaters at my disposal. With a repeater Imy range goes from 10 to 15 miles point to point, to upwards fo 50 or 60 miles using the same power.
