I grant you that these radios and CB are different, but I thought you CB buffs might know off hand something about VHF's as well. I'm aware that some people have CB's with a linear? mabe broadcasting 20-30 watts, or way illegal, but my question is for a VHF. Can you also pump up these radios from stock. Not that I'd ever, ever do something to tamper with, and incur the wrath of the FCC. Ahemm. Thanks for your responces.....also what about if that (radio) ahemmm, was found to be pumped up, would the antena requirements be aparrant? Thanks in advance for this tutorial....ahemmmm....

Plotus wrote:
I grant you that these radios and CB are different, but I thought you CB
buffs might know off hand something about VHF's as well. I'm aware that
some people have CB's with a linear? mabe broadcasting 20-30 watts, or
way illegal, but my question is for a VHF. Can you also pump up these
radios from stock. Not that I'd ever, ever do something to tamper with,
and incur the wrath of the FCC. Ahemm. Thanks for your
responces.....also what about if that (radio) ahemmm, was found to be
pumped up, would the antena requirements be aparrant? Thanks in
advance for this tutorial....ahemmmm....

Height is might. The higher the antenna, the better your range.
VHF is more line of sight then CB is. Don't use marine frequencies
on land. MURS will keep you out of trouble. Use the lower three
channels on 151 because there is too much stuff on the 154 MHz ones.

Of course a ham tech ticket is a simple test and the range there
can be statewide on 2 meters with through a repeater. Since 2 meters
sounds like CB, you'll feel right at home!!

-Scott/AE

On Sun, 30 Jan 2011 14:21:44 +0000, Plotus wrote:

I grant you that these radios and CB are different, but I thought you CB
buffs might know off hand something about VHF's as well. I'm aware that
some people have CB's with a linear? mabe broadcasting 20-30 watts, or
way illegal, but my question is for a VHF. Can you also pump up these
radios from stock. Not that I'd ever, ever do something to tamper with,
and incur the wrath of the FCC. Ahemm. Thanks for your
responces.....also what about if that (radio) ahemmm, was found to be
pumped up, would the antena requirements be aparrant? Thanks in
advance for this tutorial....ahemmmm....

Commercial VHF radios are totally different animals. Yes, they can be
legally pumped up quite a bit. What will incur the wrath of the FCC is
transmitting out of the assigned band or frequency and splattering the
airwaves so bad nobody nearby can talk. But most commercial radios are so
designed that outboard linears are not needed.

When I operated a search and rescue group's radio system on 47mhz, we had a
100 foot tower with a 100 watt radio as a base. Each of our mobile radios
ran 100 watts. We covered about 75 miles from the base with ease.

As for marine radio, that is definitely not to be compared to CB. As marine
radio has a purpose and is very strict on it's use. Yes, you could even
mount one in your car if you wanted to.

As for the antenna, most antennas can handle quite a bit of power with no
apparant changes that would catch the FCC's eye. A stainless steel whip can
handle nearly a 1,0000 watts with ease.

If you wanted to get into 2 meter ham radio, you wouldn't really need much
power unless you were off the beaten path. As most major cities generally
have a good network of repeaters.

On Sun, 30 Jan 2011 13:11:14 -0500, Scott in Baltimore wrote:

Plotus wrote:
I grant you that these radios and CB are different, but I thought you CB
buffs might know off hand something about VHF's as well. I'm aware that
some people have CB's with a linear? mabe broadcasting 20-30 watts, or
way illegal, but my question is for a VHF. Can you also pump up these
radios from stock. Not that I'd ever, ever do something to tamper with,
and incur the wrath of the FCC. Ahemm. Thanks for your
responces.....also what about if that (radio) ahemmm, was found to be
pumped up, would the antena requirements be aparrant? Thanks in
advance for this tutorial....ahemmmm....

Height is might. The higher the antenna, the better your range.
VHF is more line of sight then CB is. Don't use marine frequencies
on land. MURS will keep you out of trouble. Use the lower three
channels on 151 because there is too much stuff on the 154 MHz ones.

Of course a ham tech ticket is a simple test and the range there
can be statewide on 2 meters with through a repeater. Since 2 meters
sounds like CB, you'll feel right at home!!

-Scott/AE

Certainly is. Do you know why the FCC changed the rules for CB radio
antennas to be no more than 60 feet above the ground?
Because of what some friends of mine did as a test.
The radio shack store had their regular antenna up on the roof. So we
decided to see what would happen if we put one on a 60 foot mast.
Within two weeks after we had it running, an FCC inspector came and had a
look. For two hours he sat in his car going through his book. He was ****ed
because he couldn't find any law to slap us with.

We tested the system by talking to people and switching antennas. We got
something like a 6 to 10 db gain on the taller antenna, with no added
power. Most people thought we were running a linear.

The VHF Marine Radios (generally) operate in a Freq. range of 156. and 157. MHz. VHF FM. These radios are generally not designed to put out more power than the way they come from the factory doing. They just are not made that way. However adding more power to these radios is very easy, all you need to do is get a VHF linear amplifier such as what ham radio operators use for 2 meter VHF FM, you can find these amps in all sizes and shapes with many different input and outputs capabilities. But be sure that the linear amplifier you get does include the 156 and 157.MHz frequencies. A lot of them are very broadbanded and will work between 140 and 170 MHz. But be sure to ask around and make sure or it will not work.
Concerning the antenna, unless you really boost the power up (way up) you will (should) be able to use the same antenna..... Happy sailing.......