Alan Strawinski wrote:

"Dave or Debby" wrote in
:

In the past, one bought a base when he wanted to talk from the house.
Mobiles were used from cars. Walki-Talkies (that's HAND HELDS for you
YUPPIES and Hamsters) were used for people that WALKED AROUND the
block OR in the woods OR for camping. NONE of them ever switched
jurisdictions. NO ONE would of ever think of using a base when
walking around, OR a WALKI TALKIE in the car (unless you were under 15
just experimenting). Because of the advent of SMT technology for the
Hambos, the "walki-talki" has DIED and now EVERYTHING has got to be
HAND HELD ! Hence the hand held CB for the car, which is something
that should NEVER BE even thought of ! Just POKE that antenna in the
passengers eye while driving and see what I'm talking about!!!!
Dave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I thought I'd weigh in on this one.

A handheld is perfectly fine for use in the car. Many are capable of
using an external antenna and microphone. With these capabilities, the
handheld starts to shine a bit. They're still 4 watt radios, and can be
mounted anywhere - which is great in things like small trucks where it
can be tricky to find a suitable mounting location.


While your response was very rational, and to the point, as much as I'd
hate to say it, I sort of agree with DebbyDave's conclusion, although
not for the exact same reasons.

My experience with handhelds, both CB and ham, shows performance that
was not as reliable or robust as radios designed for permanent mounting.
Most handhelds can be run from an external power source, but they lack
the power line filtering to block things like alternator whine from
being superimposed on the transmit carrier. Noise blanking is also
seriously lacking on the receive side as well. It is also harder to work
an awkward small handheld radio while driving, and the potential for
driving distractions increases.

Another point is that while there are CB handhelds which are rated at a
full 4 watts, they often fall a bit short of that value. Typically 2.5
to 3.5 watts is the usual norm for output power. More power out means
greater battery drain, so they often keep that in mind when designing a
handheld radio. Handhelds are designed to work best on battery power,
and many of their circuits were trimmed back to facilitate longer
battery life.

The price of a full featured handheld CB is also usually more than an
equivilent mobile CB. So unless you have a specific need for the
portability of a handheld, you would be better served with a mobile rig.

Dave
"Sandbagger"