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W2MC what range do you shoot at when i lived in north jersey i went to EFGA and it was about 40 mins away but now is about 2 hours away i do have current member status there till 2016 but looking for something close and not a lot of mony to join i would love to join cjrpc but that is expensive 

Telco Sportsmen's Club in Atco NJ

 

http://telcosportsmensclub.com/

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what's the consensus on plain old cb radios?

Not many people on cb like it use to be years ago. Especially since cell phones. I have an old tube job. Lafayette Comstat 25b like brand new packed away somewhete. All you'll hear now are an occasional trucker or some foul mouth old timer still using a linear. Don't need a license anymore.

Have a couple mobile units too.

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Is there an area at Telco I can shoot my utas shotgun that holds 14+1 using bird shot and is there a way to shoot pistol closer then 25 yards?

I have no idea what a utas shotgun is...there are some lanes at 50 yards for shooting shotgun.  

 

If you want to shoot pistol closer than 25 yards, and as long as everyone else is good with it, you can move the line forward.  Guys do it all the time...(obviously its got to be coordinated with everyone else on the pistol range, but many times you'll be the only one on the pistol range)

 

 

With the exception of Monday night Trap, Telco is Members Only.  No guests.

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Sorry I missed this before.  There is a lot of interest in emergency comms due to events like Hurricane Sandy.  Depending on where the other party you want to communicate with is located, you've got several choices:

 

FRS/GMRS.  To be legal you need to pay for a license which covers up to five units.  No test.  These are advertised as covering up to 35 miles but it is a line of sight signal so a hill in the way will block the signal.  As a practical matter, you'll get a couple miles depending on the terrain.

 

CB:  anywhere from a couple miles to a dozen, depending on line of sight again.  The longer end of that range depends on having SSB, which is available, but not common.

 

HAM/Technician license level:  This will allow you to use VHF frequencies which are again line of sight.  However, you can also use repeaters, which are pretty common in NJ and getting 30 miles or so via a repeater is quite viable.  For a 2 way conversation you both need licenses which require a test.  If you know nothing, you can prepare for the test with about 10 hours of study, more or less.  There are some really cheap radios available in this category.   Note that most of the repeaters continued to operate during Sandy.

 

HAM/General license level:  This opens up more frequencies for you, that will allow longer distance communications, but requires another test, again about 10 hours of prep.

 

No matter what you choose between the first 3, you'll do better if you can get an antenna with some height.  A long haul trucker will get more range with his CB than you will in your car because his antenna is mounted higher than yours. 

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Sorry I missed this before.  There is a lot of interest in emergency comms due to events like Hurricane Sandy.  Depending on where the other party you want to communicate with is located, you've got several choices:

 

FRS/GMRS.  To be legal you need to pay for a license which covers up to five units.  No test.  These are advertised as covering up to 35 miles but it is a line of sight signal so a hill in the way will block the signal.  As a practical matter, you'll get a couple miles depending on the terrain.

 

CB:  anywhere from a couple miles to a dozen, depending on line of sight again.  The longer end of that range depends on having SSB, which is available, but not common.

 

HAM/Technician license level:  This will allow you to use VHF frequencies which are again line of sight.  However, you can also use repeaters, which are pretty common in NJ and getting 30 miles or so via a repeater is quite viable.  For a 2 way conversation you both need licenses which require a test.  If you know nothing, you can prepare for the test with about 10 hours of study, more or less.  There are some really cheap radios available in this category.   Note that most of the repeaters continued to operate during Sandy.

 

HAM/General license level:  This opens up more frequencies for you, that will allow longer distance communications, but requires another test, again about 10 hours of prep.

 

No matter what you choose between the first 3, you'll do better if you can get an antenna with some height.  A long haul trucker will get more range with his CB than you will in your car because his antenna is mounted higher than yours. 

 

With the GMRS license you can have a repeater setup and on the air, get one or two used UHF radios for the cars and a few hand helds, nice setup and no test :)

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No matter what you choose between the first 3, you'll do better if you can get an antenna with some height.  A long haul trucker will get more range with his CB than you will in your car because his antenna is mounted higher than yours. 

 

That's half the story. He also has a better ground plane. 

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what's the consensus on plain old cb radios?

 

They are good for short distance comms. I see a lot of people up here with them, because cell service is spotty.  Beyond that you want ham radio, but you can't do commercial stuff with it.

 

You hear a lot of things on CB, distorted echo chambers, linears, belching, farting, barnyard noises etc. Most of the serious skip shooters are off CB and go onto the illegal freeband (11 meters). 

 

Oh, and one time I heard a strip club talking to a trucker about their available services...

 

SSB is what you want for longer range. The classic Cobra 148GTL has it, as well as some uniden models. 

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