I have one of the hand held battery powered CB radios. Do you guys use any of the standard CB channels? I thought standard walkie talkie channels and CB's were the same. Hoping so anyway.
Cb operates at the bottom ( or top) of what is considered HF frequencies - depending on weather, time of day etc you can get a skip that will allow you to talk miles across the country but not to the person next to you.
The radios every one keeps referring to as “ham” are actually UHF, VHF or both and will cover a range of frequency’s - commonly used for Business, GMRS, FMRS, Marine, MURS and allotted Amature Radio bands. Most people are using these radios on the FRS or GMRS frequencies which provides a more consistent direct line of sight transmission. Basically as long as you could see some one you should be able to stay in constant contact and not have to worry about skip ( although skip at these freq can happen).
On FMRS - the channels are actually pre programmed to specific frequencies but those radios only put out 1/2 watt I think when the Ones mentioned above are capable of height wattage ( just know the rules for the band you are on and make a decision you are comfortable with as some freq have wattage restrictions)
Know that in radios you get what you pay for. That said I use a boefang on the trail and it works fine but the audio, receiving and transmitting is no where as clear as my more expensive Yeasu handytalkie - even at same wattage.