Total noob to communications

[Dropy]

...so where to begin? When i was a kid and living with my grandparents my grandfather had home base and car CB's. I know i wanna be able to know how to use various sorts of these forms of communications like CB's, HAM and walkies. But where to start without going broke?

[bacpacker]

First thing is to decide what your major goal is to start with for comm's. Do you want to talk around the farm with your family, Around town while your away from home, with family a few counties away, or several states away?
What type comms you go with depends on your needs. A set of FRS/GMRS radios, which are available at places like walmart, bass pro, gander mtn, probably at good hardware stores. A pair of the with chargers can be had for under $50, maybe even a 4 pack. These are good for short range comms since they are low power and operate around 460mhz, which is on the UHF band.

CBs are a little higher power and work on the top end of the HF band, 26Mhz. They are good for around town and probably for several counties around.

Ham radio has many bands and frequencies avalable. With it you can work anything from across the house to around the world. There are many modes available on many of the bands as well. This is also the most expensive comms available as a general rule.

[Dropy]

Well i wanna be able to keep in contact with something portable incase of a bug out situation. So a good set of handhelds would be nice. I also want Cb's for the vehicles and maybe a homebase. Being able to make contacts from afar would also be nice evntually.... So HAM it is there i guesse.

[bacpacker]

I would get a set of FRS/GMRS to start then for what your wanting. Just be aware you are going to be limited to line of site. Hills and buildings will affect coverage. But a good set will not cost very much. A great place for anyone to start with.

[Dropy]

Ok i was looking at a handheld Cb that looked interesting. Staying with Line of Site is gonna be an issue. I need something with a bit more punch for my handhelds.

[dragon5126]

That hand held cb is about the size of a small thermos... not all that small and with a fairly awkward antenna as well. You seriously are better off starting off with the frs radios. Line of site under normal conditions will give you a good mile, the higher powered frs/gmrs will give you several miles and dedicated gmrs radios can do much better. There is less interference on the GMRS band than on CB as well. You cam also look at the MURS radios which are essentially a uhf version of CB but again line of sight but less interference. Remember line of sight means from the antenna to antenna, horizon to horizon so the higher the antennas are the farther the range, FRS and FRS/GMRS can not have removeable antennas, GMRS and MURS can so a base unit can have an antenna mounted up at height.

Look at the thread titled a question about gmrs for explanations about power and antennas