9 miles thats it you need to have the radio tuned and while your at it throw a 200 watt linear amp to boost it a tad

and mics are not that expensive

 

I believe you are confusing GMRS with HAM Radio. There are no licensing requirements that I am aware of for GMRS. They are being sold at Wal-Mart and other retail stores as Walkie Talkie's that get up to about 14 miles range.

Ham Radio operates on 2m, 6m, 10m, 70cm, etc. bands which are restricted bandwidths that require FCC licensing to operate legally.

 

Technically, you are required to register for GMRS. Or at least when I bought my radios 3 years ago you had to. How many people actually do is another story. I didn't register because you had to be over 18.

 

GMRS apparently does require a license, but how many actually get one is beyond me. For the use I do with it I didnt bother.

 

What I ended up doing to get a toolbox that'll fit with a rollbar was, I went down to the local trailer sales place and bought a wedge shaped box that was originally designed for the tongue of a trailer. Like you see on a lot of jetski and ATV trailers. It works great and looks good too!

About the GMRS Licensing, if you read the information that came with your radios. You are supposed to have a license to operate on certain channels that transmit further and with a stronger signal. But like everyone said. How many actually get the license is the question. I know I haven't.
I also like to carry a handheld FRS/GMRS in the truck along with my CB so I can communicate with most everyone on the trail. For me, most of the wheeling I have done in groups/clubs, most people have had both. And like someone mentioned, if you have more than one, you can hand it to a buddy if they don't have any radio in their truck and now you can communicate. : )
I guess I've generally had the experience of running in a group and not being spread out over miles. So I've never been able to or had any reason to test the over all distance capability of any of my radios.

 

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned, but you can get a pre-amp, which is basically a linier amp that works on RF aswell as TX, so it pulls in the signal at a similar rate that an amp puts out.

Check link for example;

http://www.4x4cb.com/public/item.cfm?itemID=760

Choice of antenna is very important too, as your signal will only be as good as your antenna, so some research is worthwhile.

 

i started with a midland handheld cb radio almost a decade ago.

it has the 5 watts MAX power for any CB.

the trick is to tune the antenna to the radio. first time i worked the CB after tuning my antenna, the performance was great.

i still use it as my primary although recently, i started using a cheapie uniden mounted unit i got tired of making sure the AA batts of the radio is charged... lol...


secondary comm unit is my ham radio. a handheld yaesu unit that maxes out at 5 watts. but the cool thing about ham radios is you can get like 50-100 watt amps to increase your transmitting power... all LEGAL.

finally, i carry my FRS radio too, just in case.

so i think i have just about covered comm-wise.

oh, i have a uniden digital trunk scanner too. JUST IN CASE. lol...

 

I guess i'll update this...

It does not matter much anymore because when my truck was stolen the took my cb mic (not the cb?) and i never bothered to get a new one, so i finally just pulled it out so my passnegers could have more leg room.

By the way my antenna was a firestick and was professionally tuned at this little CB shop where I bought the antenna...

The guy that tuned it was like 70 and had been tuneing and doing CB setups for big rigs for like 30 years or something.

Maybe my poor experence with range is due to the fact that i wheel in very dense forest most of the time with lots of hills.

 

hit the wrong key check below

 

Weld a tab on the rear of the roll bar try to center it the the middle for the ground plain and drill the hole to fit your mounting kit leave the area around the hole bare for a better ground then you have a high point for your antenna to get out and receive.

P.s.
I have a GALAXY 99 DX that has both 10 meter and the 27 mhz range with both am and fm bands and a 102" like custom antenna and my range is normaily about 25 miles but I deal with the D.C. area bleed over from the cells , wireless and military bases. With a good clean night I can reach as far north as NY NJ area and south as far as the carolinas west as far as ohio/ill area on cb freqs. am side fm double that and on 10 mteres around the world.

 

It does require an FCC license; I got mine for use with the GMRS hand helds because I obey the law when it isn't contrary to my religious beliefs....but that's just me. Others may break the law out of habit or just because they feel like it. Personally I think having to get licensed to use them is ridiculous & way to expensive.


Sorry for the bump but I was in here looking for CB info since I'm shopping for a set-up right now.