Radar Detectors and CB Radios

**Zonne** · 05-01-2005, 09:57 PM

I have had great sucess with my rx65 so far, but I was wondering about CB radios. Little background, I have always thought CB radios were cool, especially after seeing Smokey & the Bandit the first time lol.

Do, CB radios really help in finding cops? Or, is it just a waste of money to buy one for that purpose?

Just curious also, for people that do have one, do you talk on it a lot for any purpose? Do you use it for fun?

Just curious, because I had always thought about getting one, and might actually do it if it is worth it, and I had a actual good reason in my mind to buy it lol.

**CLTX11** · 05-01-2005, 10:15 PM

Some people like em and some people dont. My friends dad was a trucker and we used to play on it a bit and very seldom would you here about any "smokies."

Only time mine really came in handy was when I was broke down on a 2 lane HWY and had no contact with anyone. I pulled out the CB and a trucker passing helped us out.

Mine was used mainly for the PA system, got me into trouble sometimes

**jimbonzzz** · 05-01-2005, 11:07 PM

I run one on long trips. On the interstate highways, IMHO it is almost as good as having an RD, if you are willing to listen to the chatter. If the police are running speed traps, you can sometimes hear about it hundreds of miles in advance, from the truckers going the opposite way you are. Pretty useless if you're not on a big highway though...

Jim

**waltj2k** · 05-01-2005, 11:26 PM

My dad was on the road quite a bit in the 70's and 80's. When CB was much bigger than today.

I have to say from what I have seen having a CB helps. You have to keep an ear peeled for info that is pertinent to your location. I have seen myself how effective a "Bear" call can be. Several miles notice that there is trouble ahead.

So my dad had a pretty sweet setup for the 70's. Big toaster sized Fuzzbuster and CB radio. Kept the Bears, Smokies, Local Yokels off his tail. Should do the same for you.

Walt

**CLTX11** · 05-01-2005, 11:27 PM

Originally Posted by jimbonzzz

I run one on long trips. On the interstate highways, IMHO it is almost as good as having an RD, if you are willing to listen to the chatter.

Jim

Yeah that is a problem I would encounter, hearing them. My radios is usually up and the chatter can get annoying, passengers hate it more then me.

Jim, what model CB are you running?

**jimbonzzz** · 05-01-2005, 11:36 PM

A Cobra 75 WX-ST, all electronics are in the handheld mic:

It has done a pretty good job...
For a while, I also used the CB receive capability of the Uniden Beartracker BCT-7, coupled through the vehicle AM/FM antenna.

Jim

**CLTX11** · 05-01-2005, 11:40 PM

Originally Posted by jimbonzzz

A Cobra 75 WX-ST, all electronics are in the handheld mic:

It has done a pretty good job...
For a while, I also used the CB receive capability of the Uniden Beartracker BCT-7, coupled through the vehicle AM/FM antenna.

Jim

Do you get pretty good range with that one? I used to have a cobra I believe in my old truck and it got stolen one night, never did replace it. I have a new truck now and been wondering if I should get one. I know technology has changed, just seems that those handheld ones wouldnt get a good range (dont sound right but you know what im saying, its late) Right now I own 2 GE handhelds, Used them out on our land during hunts before they came out with these little walky talkies

**CLTX11** · 05-02-2005, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by jimbonzzz

For a while, I also used the CB receive capability of the Uniden Beartracker BCT-7, coupled through the vehicle AM/FM antenna.

Jim

Also, how does the highway patrol alert work?

**jimbonzzz** · 05-02-2005, 07:20 PM

Originally Posted by CLTX11

Do you get pretty good range with that one? I used to have a cobra I believe in my old truck and it got stolen one night, never did replace it. I have a new truck now and been wondering if I should get one. I know technology has changed, just seems that those handheld ones wouldnt get a good range (dont sound right but you know what im saying, its late) Right now I own 2 GE handhelds, Used them out on our land during hunts before they came out with these little walky talkies

Yes, I got pretty good range with it. As far as range goes, most of that is in the antenna you use. With the 75 WX-ST, you connect it to power, and the external antenna, there's no "base". Space is at a premium in my car, I don't really have a good place to mount a CB "base" so this model was a very good solution for me.

A handheld wouldn't get good range in a car at all, unless you connected an external antenna. You could probably connect an external antenna to one of your handhelds, and get almost as good of range as a regular unit.

**jimbonzzz** · 05-02-2005, 07:42 PM

Originally Posted by CLTX11

Also, how does the highway patrol alert work?

Some police radio systems utilize "mobile repeaters". This is more common for State Police (hence the name "Highway Patrol Alert"). The idea is that the police usually wont get too far from their patrol car:
The police handhelds are much lower power than the regular radios, and if they're far away they don't have enough power to transmit to dispatch. So, what they do is transmit to the "mobile repeater" in their vehicle, which relays the transmission to dispatch at full power.

But in turn, whenever dispatch transmits, this also keys up the mobile repeater in the car in order to transmit to the handhelds. In some of the systems, whenever dispatch transmits, it keys up every mobile repeater in all of the police cars in the district. The mobile repeater transmits to the handhelds at lower power. So, the Beartracker scanners monitor the mobile repeater frequencies, and if it hears activity on them it beeps, letting you know that there is a cop within a couple of miles of you.

The Beartrackers also alert on "simplex" frequencies used for direct Car to Car transmissions, aircraft to car etc etc, basically the types of frequencies that would pretty much be short range. They likely use these kind of special "tac" simplex frequencies for things such as VASCAR traps: why would every other cop car in the district need to hear these transmissions? This would only tie up the regular radio freqs preventing more important stuff from getting through...

You don't care if there's a cop within 20 miles of you, you only want to know when one is close.

In the past, the "Highway Patrol Alert" worked very well in the states that used it. However, a lot of states have shifted to different radio systems using different methods. In their current model, the BCT-8, Uniden does have some special scanning modes for some of the states that have switched systems to digital etc. I don't know enough about what they're doing to be able to tell youi how well this works though. Also, in the states that DO still use the regular systems, the police could shut off the mobile repeaters, but I suspect that a lot of them just leave it on all of the time. This, like everything else, isn't 100% but it DOES have the potential of saving your a$$ once in a while. It might offer some protection against VASCAR without listening to all of the chatter...

Jim