Thanks for watching and commenting! Be sure to check out Will's channel for some action with this Jeep JKU: kzfaq.info/love/ZSoYGCdgXOcA0Pm7eBvFEQ

A true mobile Ham radio wired into the vehicle with a proper mobile antenna would be a slam dunk winner.

For the buyer who just buys radios off the shelf (CB, FRS, GMRS, MURS) this is a great video of what they will encounter. Main lesson here if you are not going to take the time research how radio frequencies work just go with CB as it is easy and gets decent performance.

Don’t use a HT inside a vehicle and then wonder why poor signal.

Thank you for the effort to help out the overlanding and off-road community. I have to say, that even though a number of people in the comments found the video helpful. There's a lot of missed points that lead people to improper conclusions. 1. Radio configuration, what do I mean by that? I mean the difference between mobile, handheld. Any mobile radio with a vehicle mounted antenna is going to do fairly well. Handheld radios by default of configuration and antenna connection are not going to have the same RF gain. 2. Product manufacturer. Testing one of each type regardless of manufacturer is not going to bear out any reasonable results. Product reviewers will test out the same configuration against several competitors and come up with the same unexpected results, because...not all products are equal within a radio category, i.e. ham, CB, FRS, GMRS, FURS etc. To the uninitiated, they would assume this test was rather fair. I believe you ran the test with the sincerest of intentions, but forgot a lot of what I just mentioned. Anyway thanks again for the video.

Without watching the video, I can tell you which one should work better based on the presented equipment. First, lets talk frequency. Gmrs(FRS is same frequency but limited to .5 watts no matter what power setting the radio is on) is ultra high frequency or UHF 462.000mhz, HAM radio is very high frequency or VHF 146.000mhz and CB is high frequency or HF 27.000mhz. Now, UHF and VHF are line of sight only radios, meaning both radios have to have a clear line of sight in order to work properly. We'll talk about why this isn't hard and fast in a minute. CB is on the upper band of the HF spectrum and therefore it has some HF properties. However, the 27mhz band is high enough in frequency and regulated to such a low power, that it's basically a line of sight radio. All this being said. if you had identical radios with properly matched antennas of roughly the same performance, direct line of sight cb would get the farthest distance, followed by the VHF HAM, followed by the UHF GMRS. Just as a rough rule of thumb and under ideal conditions, at 5 watts (the maximum allowed on gmrs and CB) the cb will gain about 30 percent more rang then the VHF, and the VHF will gain about 30 percent more range then the UHF. In simply terms, the higher the frequency, the faster it dissipates. Now, remember how I said CB has some HF properties? This is how CB gains it's extra distance over VHF and UHF (for our purposes). At two meters of hight(a person standing up with a radio to thier ear) the max rang that could be expected from a line of sight radio is about 6 miles across a "flat" plain due to the curvature of the earth. Now, due to the chemical makeup of the atmosphere, the air acts like a prism and the lower frequency of the CB band actually gets bent back towards the earth very slightly over distance. Therefore, electically the Earth appears flatter to the CB band and it gains a bit of distance. Furthermore, the 27mhz band is better about bending around and over objects due to it 33ft wavelength, vs the 6ft wave of the 146mhz. This is why you don't have to have a completely clear line of sight with radios. The radio waves will bend, go over, reflect or go through certain objects. Now, here is why you experienced the results you did. First, I'll bet the cb had a vehicle mounted antenna on the outside of the vehicle. This is a clear advantage over the handheld radios because of surface area and height above ground. Now, even with a vehicle mounted antenna, the VHF and UHF frequencies wouldn't be able to overcome thier technical limitations. But the UHF and VHF would gain significant additional coverage due to the unobstructed view and additional height. All this being said, the reason the UHF works inside of the vehicle is because the higher frequency is able to pass through the vehicle body, while VHF is being reflected off the metal surface and back into the cab. No surprise. Some signal is able to escape out the vehicles windows, however communication would be limited to line of sight out of the window. The easiest solution to gain maximum range on VHF and UHF is to run a roof mounted external antenna. Remember, FRS cannot use external antennas, which gives a clear advantage to the 146mhz HAM. By knowing the properties of each band and what equipment has what effect, you can choose what equipment will serve you best in the intended role. For example, VHF has a clear advantage over UHF over a open field, but is pretty useless inside a large industrial building. At least compared to UHF. CB is pretty much usless in a large skyscraper while UHF might cover multiple floors with ease. Where VHF excels over CB is transmission clarity, the ability to use digital modes, higher power (raises your signal above the noise floor of the surrounding area) and repeaters. With repeaters, it's not uncommon to be able to communicate 40-50 miles on a handheld. 40-50 miles is not going to happen on CB unless it's mountain top to mountain top. Anyway, great video and hope this helps.

Man, thanks to everyone for taking the time to do this. Having a camera running in each rig and the way you edited the sound made for a great video. As a new Ham operator, it gave me a lot to consider. Thanks again!

I am a licensed ham operator, and been so for many years. But one thing I can't stand is for ham operators who always get so furious, constantly trying to police things and panicking over petty things like this. The only time I am concerned is if someone is causing "harmful interference" or right out causing the kind of trouble that ruins the hobby for us licensed operators. Although it is technically illegal in the eyes of the FCC, but they were in a rural area, not using a repeater or intentionally trying to do any harm. I think ham operators just need to enjoy the hobby, and stay out of affairs that don't concern them. Going 1mph over the posted speed limit is just as illegal, but you don't hear anyone making a big fuss about the people who do it.

External antennas are a must if you want any kind of distance with any of those radios.

It's all about the antenna

Thank you for your time, the great edit job & meticulous test. It certainly helped me being a beginner trying to understand which one to install in my truck. Keep up the good work!

Those "Rugged Trail" radios are nothing more than rebranded Baofengs at 4x the price. They are also 100 percent illegal to use without a license. Want to use license-free vhf? Get the Btech MURS radios. They use the same frequency range, but are actually legal to use. Plus they're much less expensive.

Radio channels need more videos like this! Well done! Hoping to see something with GMRS vs UHF Ham and CB vs 10m Ham one day on youtube. Distances would be cool, not necessarily analogous to other areas but still a cool little demonstration of real world distances. Also listing wattages of each would be cool to show that maybe wattage isn't as important as other aspects (like external antennas) to newbies.

The external CB antenna is going to do the best because the radios are a bit higher powered and the fact the antenna is longer and outside. But if the individuals would step outside and away from the vehicles, each radio would do better. Even stepping up on a close small hill would greatly improve the reception. The HAM radio can be equipped with an external remote antenna to mount on the top of the vehicle. It would also greatly improve that radio's usage. A mic/speaker unit can also be added.

Great vid for a non-radio/rookie guy like me.. Looking to buy radios up here in Idaho.. Great to see the effects in and out of the car and the it was done in plain English...

Man you have something in that truck of yours that is just puking RF noise. I’m impressed with the Midland radio in this test.

Rugged is nothing more than a vastly overpriced rebranded Baofeng... SMH

Moral of the story, have an externally mounted antenna radio system. I've never heard of the rugged radio before but I think the main thing this video shows is that all radio systems are great for short range but to reach out you need an antenna that is up high above the plane of your vehicle to work at longer distances.

where are all these "checkpoints"? what are the distances?

The gentlemen in the grey shirt in the Rubicon, whoever's jeep that is, that is one sick build. i love how everything looks so in place on the dashboard. Props!

Renoite here too...I have the same Yaesu handheld and I also have a Yaesu mobile radio. There is no comparison with simplex reach. However, you made a really important comment early on to the effect of...most of my friends don't have ham equipment or license. So, while ham with an external antenna would have won this challenge, if no one in your group has a radio or license, it doesn't matter! When I lead my friends on rides out in northern or central NV, I just make sure we stay physically close and we all use FRS. Curious if you ever have meetups? Love to join for a trip, Cheers, I enjoy your channel.

The CB has an Antenna on the out side mounted to vehicle so it is no surprised it was working little better. Rubber duckies aren't as good as 1/4 wave vehicle mounted antennas .You might want to do it again with a hand held CB or get a mobile mount ham antenna." Your test is highly flawed". Even using a rubber ducky on a mag or window mount isn't as good, you need a mobile ham antenna and the same transmit power to get a good and fair test.(low profile VHF antennas are as bad as rubber duckies) At a distance handheld antennas needs to be held in the same direction.If 1 is vertical and the other is horizontal the the polarization are off and signal quality will very. HF can go over and around a hill a little better because of the longer wave. It is always best to have more then 1 form of communication in the back country. Have at least 1 VHF and/or one UHF along with HF "CB or ham" The ones you need are the ones most people are using in the area.You can have all the radios in the world if no one is listening then they are useless especially in an emergency situation. There a few mobile 2m/70cm mobile rigs that are under $200.00. I think you might have at least a Tech license, I am not an expert but I have been you using CB as far back as the 70s and obtained my Ham ticket in 2002 I currently hold a Extra class Amateur license, Several decades ago I went through Basic EMT school as well as Open water and wilderness search and rescue courses. Those certifications are expired. 73 Jim KG4TRI

I really like 27 MHz CB radios. They are convenient, easy to install and do not require a license. They do their job very well with a good quality antenna properly installed on the car. Many miles of range are possible. There are beautiful CB radios from various well-known brands of excellent quality for little money. On CB you have 40 channels to choose from in AM, FM or SSB modulation. CB radio is so easy to use, for everyone. No hassle with HAM permits needed, just grab the mike and speak to your friends in the group. I love it !

If this test were done today it would be interesting to see how much more out of area signals on CB were affecting communications. You see there's an 11 year long sunspot cycle and the more sunspots there are, the more reflective the ionosphere gets allowing distant signals on HF to skip off and return to Earth far beyond line of sight. In the last three years we've gone from the bottom of the cycle and conditions have perked up making long distance communication on CB easier but adding to the background noise that can make local communications more difficult. VHF and UHF are much less affected by this than HF which includes CB frequencies. I appreciate the effort it took to make this video.

Excellent test of the radios thanks for the effort put into this it was much appreciated and I enjoyed it immensely.

Try the same test with external antennas mounted on top of your vehicles. When your inside a vehicle, your essentially inside a mobile (Faraday cage). 2m and 70cm bands are pretty much (not always) line of sight propagation so anything in between the radios will cause some interference.

Imagine paying $85 for a $26 Baofeng. 😬

The distance between coms is just one factor to the quality of transmission and reception. Basically terrain is another factor for consideration. Most GMRS, and FRS are line of sight radio bands which means as long as the is no obstruction between coms and the area does not have hills or maintains in between, the transmission will be clear. Hight is another factor to consider. As a rule of thumb "hight is might". The higher you and you com is the better your transmission and reception will be. A vantage point of being on top of a hill will definitely improve your com.

You may have not noticed, but most of the bad reception situations, you had the antenna in position other than vertical. Omni-directional antennas radiate in a doughnut shape, so if the transmitting antenna is under a different angle than a receiving one, the signal is reduced. As for the ham radio, you should have used a magnet antenna on a car.It is not expensive, and requires no permanent installation. The huge amount of metal in the car acts as a "electromagnetic ground" so unless the whole antenna is above the roof, you are effectively transmitting from the basement.

Really appreciate this video. We are told get a ham radio. Getting a license is easy. But as one who is not into ham radio, antennas, & programming the bloody devices. It all seems so daunting. Not to mention, getting a ham is only useful if you assume all overlanders are licensed. This is a tough sell to the average 4x4 weekender.

Cb has the longest wave so I would think it should perform better and being mounted vertically and a more stable swr grounding. Edited still watching... awesome video guys

Licensed HAM operators: Heavy angry breathing.

The stress testing on these units was an exceptional side by side comparison. The terrain being a tough environment. Amazing the difference when the vehicle component was removed and introduced. Good data results. Great job to all.

I just took my technician exam and one of the questions was on needing an external antenna because of the chassis and shell interference.

I'm ex-law enforcement and fireman. After paying close attention to the participants inside the vehicles, I will conclude that most of the radios work the same except that some of the participants point the radios down or away from the direction the receiving radio is. Even your body can block the signal if you just turn a bit while speaking. Great information anyways. Thanks

The ft60 is able to operate through a repeater and simplex and would also be able to communicate with the rugged radio and frs, if you connected the ft60 to an external antenna it would improve range and give better comparison to cb, ( ft60 is 4w and cub is probably 10w) if I were stuck I would rather take my chances getting help on the ft60,

A CB with a good antenna will outperform a 25w handheld (especially inside of a vehicle). 90% of your radio performance is the antenna.

Mounting and tuning a HAM or GMRS antenna is just as easy, in most cases its actually easier since many times when you hook your meter up to it you wont even have to tune the GMRS or HAM antenna. The antennas are far shorter than CB so a lot less to get hung up on. As far as talking to a repeater vs simplex? Yes it is different. Repeaters typically have much higher quality antennas at an elevated postion and high quality radios as well. Its a lot easier for the repeater to deal with a weak signal than another mobile or handheld unit doing simplex. As far as cost. Yes a cheap cb is a lot.cheaper. Theres now plenty of affordable HAM and GMRS options out there.

I put a BNC adapter on my HAM handle talkie. Allows me to quickly swap the antenna to a cable connected to an external antenna when I'm in the truck. Best of both worlds.

Great experience for a weekend with the family. Your parents are so much kind. Nice video, thanks. A 73 from Brazil.

If I am not mistaken you are using a Yaesu ft-60. This radio is one of best Hamradio ever made. You need and exterior antenna. We use them at the rubicon trail flawlessly.

Outside of what everyone else pointed out, a noise filter between the CB power source and radio could be used to filter out the alternator noise in Jr's car. Sr's car is okay. Might filter out that fan noise, be it ac blower or electric fan for cooling engine.

great real live test run! would have been really nice to know the milage/distance away from you at each or any of the check points..

Ham handheld with a Mobil antenna would do better than the rubber duck. Also a regular Ham 2 meter/dual band Mobil Rug at 35-50 watts would really do great. Same form factor as a compact CB Mobil mount, probably close in price too. Also, 6 meter Ham (54mhz) is supposed to do better in hilly terrain vs. 2meter, 440, vhf, uhf. Do like a nice CB too!

As far as the cb, if you would put a traditional dash mounted unit in the jeep and add a 108" whip, you would have no problems with the cb at all. As for the ham radio also antenna mounted on vehicle with external mic.

Really looking forward to the distances and terrain for the checkpoints. Your video is one of the better comparisons I have seen between different competing communications services. And showing the real time comparisons with the video inserts between stations was very professionally done. - Could you detail the frequencies and power levels of each of the radios? - A GMRS 5 watt handheld would be nice to compare with the FRS. - I sure would like to see a comparison with MURS which is licensed by rule (like CB and FRS) and allows up to 2 watts output on VHF with detachable gain antennas and would be similar to a 2 meter radio. - Is the FRS transceiver a 500 milliwatt (.5 watt) HT or one of the newer ones that now allows up to 2 watts ERP on all channels except the 467 MHz interstitials (Channels 8 through 14) which remain at .5 watts? Using an HT inside a vehicle (Faraday shielded cage), or as you noted, even near the vehicle, causes tremendous loss of signal. Using any outside antenna, even a somewhat inefficient shortened CB antenna (for CB) can work fairly well. I also notice that there are not that many users of SSB on CB. The SSB capable radios have really come down in price (such as the Uniden 980SSB for just over $100) and can significantly extend range because they operate with 12 watts PEP output and reduce receive interference (narrower bandwidth) over AM CB which only allows 4 watts output.

Cool video. We use CB radios in trucks. There's places we might be on a narrow road for miles and we can't pass each other so we use CB radios that out 100 watt's or more we can talk for 20 miles and more. So with that being said it's just a matter of what you prefer and how much you are willing to invest in whatever you choose to use. Great video though I enjoyed it

You can add a Mobile Ham VHZ/UHF 50 watt unit that has an external antenna just like the CB abd it should easily outperform all of them. It is less expensive than the HT. The externa antenna will use the roof of the vehicle as a large ground plane. Good report!

Mountain terrain can be rough , but you should also consider what's IN the mountain. I have a mountain in the way of a repeater which should here me even with the rough terrain but... the mountain happens to be the site of an old iron ore mine and my signal simply doesn't escape the valley. The repeater is within 10 miles and hears the next valley over fine. Just something to think about.

When using an HT inside a vehicle, you are basically putting it inside a faraday cage, which prevents signals from getting in or out. This is why most vehicle mounted radios use exterior antennas, along with having better range/ reception. Otherwise, this is a cool video. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the time you spent trying to find the best solution to this problem, that being said you were comparing apples to oranges. It was quite obvious you were using three handhelds and a mobile CB with an external antenna. You were also using the Ham Radio in simplex mode and not using the Repeater. The reason you are having so much trouble inside the vehicle is that the vehicle is acting as a faraday cage and blocking most of the RF. It's all about power and gain of the external antenna. I think for most overlanders , the mobile CB with an external antenna is going to be the best bet . However, I would take a 50watt VHF HAM mobile with a 5/8 wave external with the ability to work simplex or through a Repeater over any radio you tested. Thanks, Heath N4TWT

Hey, really appreciate you all for showing your results.. very cool, thank you 😊

I would love to see the test with a vehicle mounted antenna. The HT connected to a vehicle mounted antenna with a quick connect to go back and forth between mobile and in vehicle and reap the benefits of a better transmit and receive

Love all radios. FRS, GMRS, Ham, and CB. The advantage to Ham radio is you can run much more power. When condition are bad you may run 1500 watts and not really go anywhere. When one band is dead you can always go to a different frequency or band and usually find one that's working. That is not the meaning of the video. If I had to pick one during a complete blackout in a car (hate to say it being a ham)probably would be a CB. Only because more people have them in there car or truck .It would have to be a long black out with repeaters down. Worst case scenario type thing.

As a kid in the 1970's CB's were massively popular in most 4x4 trucks and other vehicles of the day riding high on the great CB radio craze sweeping the nation , that is until the skip phenomenon (super long distant signal propagation) became a regular occurrence and by decades end many were turned off to CB. By the time me and my friends were driving in the woods in the 80's and 90's we had no radio communications of any kind or could care less for such a thing. Given where I live (western Canada) I think its still a question where all can be aware or agree on a particular radio band or format model be it CB, GMRS, VHF/HAM ect or even wanting a 2 way radio at all. . I think its all still up in the air at the moment.

Ham Radio is the way to go. If you're wheeling with a club everyone should invest in a vehicle mount dual band radio. 1. They generally operate at 50 watts not the 5w max of a handheld. 2. They can operate on MURS/GMRS freqs (with proper license legally) and FRS freqs (Illegally). 3. They also transmit on Race Radio frequencies. 4. Easily monitor police, fire, ranger, SAR frequencies. 5. some mobile radios can crossband repeat. Which means you use HT's at five watts and transmit to mobile radio freq and it can send that signal out on other freq at 50watts. Great for spotters that are close enough to their 4x4's but too far to reach radios at base camp or back of the pack. 6. Ham HT and mobile rigs often have APRS which readily transmit location data. Hard to know what transmit power the ham radios in this test are set at they may have been 1 watt. HT radios work significantly better with roof mounted antennas.

Considering many people will use them the way you tested this was a good test, I am sure some people will have 50 other things you should have done, etc. But most people buy the hand held radio and use it as a hand held radio. Once you start talking the extra price and installation costs then people just do not buy it. You could probably filter out the fan interference I am guessing is what some of it was. I received my license many moons ago and have forgotten most of what i learned. I understand why you no longer can get a lifetime license I would need to study up to pass the test again since I never do anything to keep it fresh in my mind. Good real world test, yes you could have done a bunch of other things but people do not buy antennas for cheap radios and mount them on a vehicle. Be Safe!

That's all pretty good to be a hand held. I personally like to have a good set up inside and hand held. There is some good Ham/Cb radios out there. You could get it peaked and tune with a good Antenna and it do wonders. I know it be a little bulking inside but it's worth it.

Thanks for the video, as a new HAM it was a bit eye opening with the real world aspect of the HT's. Reading the comments were not a surprise, but you were doing a 'real world' test with how people who haven't been researching or playing in this field for years would try and use the radios and that is valuable! I got my tech license because I thought this would be the way to go for 4x4 comms in the future, but actually am now thinking the GMRS route with vehicle mounted radios and antennas, and handhelds for outside use, are the way of the future. I think Jeep Jamboree will be moving this direction since this year they aren't requiring CB anymore (like they have for many years up till last year), they recommend it but are 'evaluating' future radio requirements. Too bad the government is so damn greedy and are charging $70 for a license where no test is involved! I just paid $10 for a test and license for HAM.

A ham type with an actual antenna would have won this in every single way.

You an exterior antenna for the Hamradio

Probably would have had better luck on the Yaesu on a 70cm simplex frequency instead of 2m simplex frequency. Think it would have worked better from within the vehicle. An external mobile antenna (1/4 wave or 5/8 wave) on 2m would help hugely. A 2 meter-only mobile radio wouldn't cost anywhere near $400; more like $140. -73 W5ESE

thank you to everyone for taking the time to do this.

Very interesting the video thanks to you and the others for the dedication and the review

A mobile Ham rig would be (in my opinion) the best choice by far. Especially paired with a handheld while set up for x-band repeat

We’ve used handheld HAM for spotters and reserve mounted HAM with external antennas for inside the vehicle for best results. The handheld % of success inside a vehicle without an external was too low to rely on. As mentioned, CB is easiest as no license but I like having HAM for reaching people not in the group in case of emergencies. How far were these checkpoints? Thanks for this video!

Thank you for putting this together, great production value! Very helpful!

My hams were horrible till I found out that the frequencie being used makes a huge difference. Now they work over 10x the distance from before.

For those getting into radios find the newer 2watt FRS radios. The old blister pack frs/gmrs radios were limited to .5watt on FRS and 5watts for GMRS. This was part of the latest FCC change in the guidelines for FRS and GMRS. They were split apart and FRS got the power upgrade.

CB all the way. If you get the right antenna and set it up correctly, you can have a powerful setup - especially with SSB. Most of this stuff is all circumstantial, it's whatever works best on YOUR own rig.

I have radio that operates on the MURS frequency, using a Larson mag mounts on trucks with a 5/8 wave antenna can give you extended range . 152 MHz. Thx

I am not surprised the AM CB 27Mhz worked better than handhelds, those "rugged radios" looked suspiciously like a rebadged Baofeng UV5R (entry spec ham radio). Given the plethora of aftermarket gear for the Baofengs a handheld could be configured with an external microphone and antenna 👍

It would be great if you could add GMRS radios to the comparison. I have a Midlands 40 Watt GMRS, and It would be cool to see how it compares to the others.

A 1/4wave or 5/8 wave mag mount on the ham would have been amazing, and did you even check SWR on the CB ?

Think about the wavelengths versus the size of the windows. The FRS wavelength is about 65cm whereas the ham radio was 2m. The vehicle was probably more of a faraday cage to the 2m signal. If I was serious about using ham radio for this application I'd be using 50w mobile rigs with roof antennas. Or, instead of FRS I'd be using 40 watt GMRS with roof antennas. --de N3TPS/WRAT786

You may have mentioned this, but the Rugged radio is just a rebranded BaoFeng $30 (from Amazon) radio with pre-programmed channels. The BaoFeng is an amazing value, but it's a cheap VHF UHF radio. ICOM Yaesu are better quality. Wattage, antenna length and your physical position with make a difference between a readable signal and nothing. VHF and UHF signals reflect very easily and do to signal phasing can cause receiving nulls. Moving just a few feet will clear up the signal. I have several BaoFeng radios, they are great nearly disposable radios, mainly designed for HAM radio. I believe Rugged programs them for GMRS and FPRS. Personally I'd just get a $30 BaoFeng instead of a $85 Rugged. CHIRP and a $9 cable will allow you to program the $30 radio with all the Rugged channels.

For simplicity GMRS is about the best that you get. A properly setup HAM will be better in every way, except simplicity. The argument that no one has the better equipment is flawed. It's up to the community to stop using the worst equipment.

I will stick with my Amateur Radio's, but may buy a decent Chicken Band unit for backup. (Ham since 1992) And Reno Resident since 1993.

This was a great idea. Turned out very informative for us beginners . Thanks

When in vehicle, you want a mobile radio with a mobile antenna, regardless if it’s cb, ham, gmrs, or frs, handhelds are generally going to be used outside a vehicle and it’s main purpose, the point of the ham “2 m 70cm” is being able to use a repeater, but it will do simplex, if you’re out of range of a repeater then your range goes way down, that’s the uhf/vhf and doesn’t act in the same manner as let’s say 20m or 80m. If I’m going to operate in my vehicle though, I’m not going to use a handheld, I’m going to use a mobile radio with a properly tuned antenna. I have both a cb and a ham radio in my truck, my cb will out perform my ham radio if I’m out in the middle of nowhere, my 2m ham radio will out perform my cb if I’m near any repeaters that I can hit, as for my handhelds, I use them for camping and such, but I use them outside where it’s meant to be used. For you off road guys, I’d highly suggest getting a mobile unit with a good mobile antenna, you can go cb, I don’t believe frs makes a mobile unit, but you can go gmrs if you don’t want to go ham radio, besides, most of the older ham guys are stuffy, which is why I mainly stick to cb, even been thinking of getting my gmrs license and trying my hand at that. In short guys, a handheld is designed for outside use, thanks for the video.

I have Midland two-way radios 36 miles how far are you communicating from your checkpoints can you do another video like in the city limits

Great video technique, poor radio testing technique. Your discovery of poor reception and transmission being close to the metal truck body should have answered all of your questions. Yes, radio waves are effected by metal. The CB is always going to have an advantage because the antenna is mounted outside the vehicle. The rugged radio and the ham radio can operate on the exact same frequencies. The rugged radio is really a rebranded Baofeng UV5R. If you spent $ 20.00 and put an antenna on the roof of the truck you would easily get about 5 miles in open spaces with no interference. The word handi talkie or walkie talkie came from the use of the radio in walking scenarios like police work or the military. When working in a vehicle the superior radio is always the one with an antenna mounted outside the vehicle using the body of the vehicle to reflect signals away from the vehicle. I hope that you repeat this test with the great camera work, using proper radio technique. Don't bother with the ham radio if you are not licensed. Have the Baofeng or as you call it Rugged Radio programmed for the GMRS 5 watt channels and retry. By the way you also need a license for GMRS.

Antennas work omnidirectional. They receive and broadcast best when all the antennas on the channel are vertically polarized(everyone holding them at the exact same angle, straight up and down) Also vhf and uhf radios and their range rely greatly on length of the antennas being relative to frequency in Mhz, not all brands and models are created equal.

Thank you for this video, really helped to make a decision on which radios are right for my needs

Almost forgot when using ham radio and the rugged radios is to get out the vehicles.

I didn’t read thru all 700 comments, but it would be interesting to know if you were using the ham radio in the vhf or uhf band. The vhf goes farther thru unobstructed terrain, while uhf goes thru obstructions more easily.

Did you forget as a ham radio operator that the car acts as a faraday cage? It’s ham radio 101.

CB radio most likely had an exterior antenna but that wasn’t mentioned. Each of the other handheld radios were probably using the same UHF frequency which is fine. Only thing not mentioned or adjusted is the squelch threshold which will make a substantial difference in your receiving of signals. Also you did not mention the power output of each radio as you can control this output by the radio settings. A higher wattage output will go further than a lower powered rig. The ham radio was being used on VHF in a frequency that is for ham radio operators who have a licence to operate there. Same with using a HAM repeater, you must be licensed or you can get yourself in legal trouble. All radios using a rubber ducky antenna operated inside a metal vehicle will be difficult because radio waves don’t penetrate metal very well. Reason you had some success was because you had glass Windows in the vehicle. My suggestion is to purchase a mobile rugged or TYT radio for your vehicles with an exterior antenna mounted to the roof, fender without drilling holes and or a magnetic roof mount. This will give you an amazing distance between stations and you can still use your hand held radios as portable communications. All the best, I enjoyed the video and I have the identical ham hand held as your using. ve1dfg from Nova Scotia, Canada.

This was good. When the water level is low we like to camp out in leviathan hot springs. We dont always go all together and some times cell service doesn't work that well down there. Do you think if I was in gardnerville a C.B. signal would reach? We are always looking for some kind of communication when head down there

5:20 Not shocking. He's using the stock antenna INSIDE the car.

The best way to go about it is to set it up as similar as possible - similar antenna's, similar radio (mobile rig - CB is mounted vs. handheld FRS / "rugged" / HAM). HAM antenna's are an important part of a HAM rig.

Should try a proper GMRS radio instead of FRS. A full 5 watts. The biggest handicap on the FRS are the antenna. A GMRS with a Nagoya would improve it greatly.

Thank you. Seems no one wants to do a side by side test like this. They always seem to test what they use and just say it walk all over the others. From this video it all looks pretty comparable with a few variations. Of course ham with repeater will do better but what if there is no repeater close enough? For the cost of installing a cb in my jeep combined cost of approx $50 for a used radio and antenna I will stick with cb.

Gotta love the tried and true functionality of CB radios

Nothing is more important than a well tuned ANTENNA. It's more important than the radio itself. A crappy radio with good antenna will out talk a great radio with poorly tuned antenna. Everyone needs a SWR meter and tune antenna to lowest swr possible. A stock 4 watt CB radio with a well tuned antenna is good for 10 miles and often further than that. I've talked 30 miles on a stock radio many times. The key is antenna antenna antenna

Good video. I run cb & gmrs in my truck.

HT’s are not a good comparison for hams. Most only have 5-8 watts. Also do not work that well at all inside vehicles. Next time compare a mobile Ham radio like the yaesu 400 xdr that’s one of the most popular radios for vehicles. The mobile radios is what we use most for off-roading. With an externally mounted antenna with more gain and a yaesu 400 with 50 watts will be much better. Also we can not use HT’s while driving. Less interference and more wattage will INCREASE THE RANGE SIGNIFICANTLY... I have gotten more than 6 miles on my 400 using simplex. With a repeater I have talked to people in London and I’m SoCal. Cool stuff though! Keep it up!🤙🏽

If you want you can just put a outside antana on the ham it would work much better. I didn't think the FRS would work that far.

Something in your truck is desensitizing your 2M receiver. Dashcams are notorious for causing this, but the interference could be just about anything. I typically see the UHF bands are not affected, exactly as you are observing.

Great video... Respectfully The Rugged Radio is a Ham radio. It's a rebadged Baofeng UV5R that comes programmed. You can buy exterior antennas for the Baofeng/Ham/Rugged radios and put the antenna on the roof which will give you better reception. Inside of the car causes RF feedback