By far the most important communication on trail will be vehicle to vehicle
communication, this has been traditionally always been held by the CB radio.
Do not worry, you are not going break out with trucker lingo, or have to learn
a bunch of stuff to use one of these. Nor do you need to go to a truck shop
to purchase a CB rig, For well less than 100 dollars you can get a functional
set up from Radio Shack. What you are looking for is basically a rig that can
carry down trail. All CBs run at 4 watts or less so power is not a option.
And when you are just learning, you can get magnetic mount antenna so you
do not need to find a permanent mounting site on the vehicle.
Once set up, you will be enjoying the ride more as both trail information,
and trail banter is passed back and forth on the CB. You will find that some
guys talk more than others, and guys that have wheeled a bit will tease those they
have wheeled with about old trips and mistakes. This is the best way to get to learn
the group you are in as the CB is the line of communication preffered on trail
FRS, or family radio is a thing that pops up every run. It seems that a lot
of guys buy it as a cheaper way to communicate. It has a valuable place
among the radio family, it gives newer guys a way to communicate that do not
have a CB, as many guys have them, but also it has 2 other nice features;
give one to a driver and one to a spotter and it rules. Direct communication
between the 2, and the driver can ignore anything not coming over the radio.
Plus now if you take a short hop out of the vehicle you can talk to your partner
Sometimes that is a huge success.
Now here we will talk a bit about the HAM Radio. The 2 meter band is a huge boon
to anyone going offroad. It offers long range communication the CB or FRS can
only dream of. It's range is limited by area repeater knowledge and the
units commonly can produce 50 watts or more. Even the Hand Held units have
a range that far out produces a mobile CB. It is only a matter of time before
you want ot get your Ham License and join in the fun. For safety reasons,
it is always good to have a Ham in the group, and also when multible runs are going on,
it is nice to be able to talk between them to set up dinner time back at camp.
There is what we suggest, browse our forum for more info on each type of radio