On Tue, 16 Apr 2019 17:39:30 -0700 (PDT), Its Me wrote:

On Tuesday, April 16, 2019 at 7:38:20 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Tue, 16 Apr 2019 15:46:40 -0700 (PDT), Its Me
wrote:

On Tuesday, April 16, 2019 at 1:20:14 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Tue, 16 Apr 2019 05:18:39 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 4/15/2019 9:04 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 15 Apr 2019 16:58:47 -0700 (PDT), True North
wrote:

I was thinking of getting a set off and on for the last 15 or more years. They started off with modest range claims but seemed to get more powerful maybe up to or so kilometers. Even wondered if they would help communicating with the wife while backing the boat into the driveway. She likes to hide in my blind spot while directing me.

The range claims jumped when the upped the allowable power to 5 watts.
Five watts and a decent antenna should get you to the horizon in open
country.



FRS radio output power was "upped" from half a watt to two (2) watts
(not 5 watts) in 2017. Some channels are still limited to half a watt
though.

I finally found the chart that explained all of that. It is
interesting that I still haven't heard anyone else on these radios and
they are on all day.

As Luddite points out it's 2 watts, not 5. The other limiting factors are that they have non-detachable antennas, so it's not so easy to replace with an upgrade. And they are UHF (around 450 Mhz), so *anything* messes with the signal. Walls, leaves, grass, you name it. That theoretical 30 miles drops to a mile or less in normal terrain.

They are cool radios, but they are best suited for short distance, occasional use. You are seeing that with your absence of other users. Tt's not our old CB.

The funny thing is before the truckers got cool (Smokey and the bandit
stuff), CB was that way. I knew some CB guys and it was real quiet on
those bands before around 74-75. There were fishing pros on the
Chesapeake who used them because people would be listening on VHF but
they had the CB bands to themselves.
With the right antennas you could get from Schiebels down to Tangier
Island or beyond (25-30 miles)

Even that was a stretch and required the "just right" conditions. Over water was better, but over land was just a few miles if you were lucky. I got into CB in the late '70s, and had a Shakespeare "Big Stick" on a 35' mast in the back yard. With an old Johnson "White Face" base station tweaked to put out about 15 watts and a Turner +3 power mic, I had the county covered. If I needed more, I could crank up the 200 watt linear amp and walk tall, as they used to say. With SSB, I talked from SC to TX and beyond late at night when the "skip" rolled in. Heh, fun memories.

My furthest CB chat was from the east side of El Paso over the valley to the west side - about 30
miles.