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Permission: If you are setting up a base station, your landlord or HOA may have restrictions on the antenna size. There are no permissions or license required

Permission: If you are setting up a base station, your landlord or HOA may have restrictions on the antenna size. There are no permissions or license required in the U.S. from the FCC assuming you are using unmodified CB radios. Keep the antenna and coax cable away from other equipment if you can, to avoid interference that results in neighbors complaining about you. Technical: Look for ARRL sites that describe how to properly install and ground your antenna as well as different antenna types. The same knowledge for ham operators using the HF bands will apply to CB radio (26-27Mhz). HN is not a sufficient platform to give you all the steps you would need. You will need an antenna, SWR meter (standing wave ratio) to tune your antenna, coax cable, antenna mast, grounding connection (new or existing building ground). An all-around decent omni-directional antenna would be a 5/8's wave ground plane. 1/2 wave are more plentiful but less effective for what you are doing. The ARRL sites will give you information on how to do all of these things. You could also find a local ham radio club that will have people knowledgeable in this area. They may try to get you into HAM radio and that does require a license. There are CB radio base station transmitters. The selection is smaller today than in the 70s/80s. You can find equipment on Amazon, just don't trust the positive reviews in my opinion. Try to find something that has both AM and SSB (LSB USB) should you some day want to talk to other countries using skip conditions. You will find truckers and maybe some locals on channels 17 and 19. Channel 9 if for emergencies but may not have anyone responding. Happy to add more later, but I have to step away for a bit.

freediver 5y ago
Thank you for taking time to write this.
jhallenworld 5y ago
One quick thing: antennas made for car rooftops don't work so well on your house- they need a ground plane. Look for CB radio base station antennas. They will either be something like center fed 1/2 wave dipoles (18 ft. long), or shorter 1/4 wave (9 ft.) but with ground plane radials sticking out around the bottom. https://www.rightchannelradios.com/collections/base-station-cb-antennas https://www.rightchannelradios.com/collections/base-station-...
throwawayboise 5y ago
As a kid we lived next door to a guy that was a CB or maybe HAM nut. He had a big antenna on his roof. We were constantly getting interference on TV, radio, even the telephone. He gave zero shits when we talked to him about it, said it couldn't be him, etc. but it only happened when he was home and when he moved a few years later it never happened again.
- zeusk 5y ago
  I work on Displays and we've seen microwaves cause link failures on poorly shielded display port cables. RF interference is really fascinating.
- swixmix 5y ago
  This brings up a good point. Be prepared for a situation like this. Even if your radio set up is correct, your neighbors might not know where to get help to solve interference problems. http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Technology/Neighbor_Info/Neighbor_Info.pdf http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Technology/Neighbor_Info/Neig...
  - wrycoder 5y ago
    Very often it is actually not the transmitter, but cheap, poorly designed equipment at the receiving site. If you are a ham, the ARRL and other hams will help you work out a problem with a neighbor.
User23 5y ago
> Permission: > If you are setting up a base station, your landlord or HOA may have restrictions on the antenna size. There are no permissions or license required in the U.S. from the FCC assuming you are using unmodified CB radios. Keep the antenna and coax cable away from other equipment if you can, to avoid interference that results in neighbors complaining about you. You probably only need to ask permission if you actually entered into a restrictive covenant or other contractual agreement to not place an antenna. PRB-1[1] doesn't preempt such covenants, but the landlord or HoA can't just arbitrarily restrict you without your agreement. My anecdotal experience is that HoAs are usually pretty aggressive about including such restrictions, but I've never personally seen a lease that says you can't have a CB antenna. I have seen restrictions on satellite dishes, which is funny because those actually aren't enforceable[2] (unless the landlord/HoA provides a dish for you to use). I really hope someone somewhere has responded to being told to take down his flag pole by mounting a TV receiver at the top of the mast. [1] http://www.arrl.org/prb-1 http://www.arrl.org/prb-1 [2] https://www.fcc.gov/media/over-air-reception-devices-rule https://www.fcc.gov/media/over-air-reception-devices-rule
- rootsudo 5y ago
  Wow, Thank you!
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
giantg2 5y ago
Just three things to add. One, you could use a handheld to avoid the antenna installation. Range will not be as good, but that might not be an issue depending on where you live. Two, do you live in a higher density area? Are you in a flat area, top of the hill, or bottomed of the hill? Topography can greatly extend or reduce your range. CB is usually short range (5-50 miles) and lack repeaters, so it also depends on who bug your coverage area will be (mostly antenna and topography based) and who else is in your area. If your antenna will be short range and there are not many people in the area, or if you have terrain blocking you, then you might not have many people to talk to. This brings up number three. What kind of emergency communication do you want? I'd you want to listen for info, a boafeng would be good. These can pick up NOAA weather stations, emergency services (police, fire, ems), FRS, GMRS, MURS, 70cm, 2m, and others. Many of these use repeaters, linked repeaters (WAN), and even the internet (echolink) to extend coverage. If you want a better antenna, it's quite easy to build a 1/4 with ground plane and hide it in the attic (much smaller than CB antenna). The important thing to note here is that you do not need a license to listen, but you would need a license to transmit (some of the ones I mentioned you still can't transmit on). The license is easy to get and the cost is very low. If you have the license, you can hit repeaters and greatly extend your range compared to CB. Some of these repeaters are designated for emergency communication purposes and operators will use them to help the authorities communicate during a disaster. Although this is getting more rare to actually be used given they have their own radio channels, cows (cell on wheels), etc.

freediver 5y ago

Thank you for taking time to write this.

jhallenworld 5y ago

One quick thing: antennas made for car rooftops don't work so well on your house- they need a ground plane. Look for CB radio base station antennas. They will either be something like center fed 1/2 wave dipoles (18 ft. long), or shorter 1/4 wave (9 ft.) but with ground plane radials sticking out around the bottom. https://www.rightchannelradios.com/collections/base-station-cb-antennas https://www.rightchannelradios.com/collections/base-station-...

throwawayboise 5y ago

As a kid we lived next door to a guy that was a CB or maybe HAM nut. He had a big antenna on his roof. We were constantly getting interference on TV, radio, even the telephone. He gave zero shits when we talked to him about it, said it couldn't be him, etc. but it only happened when he was home and when he moved a few years later it never happened again.

zeusk 5y ago
I work on Displays and we've seen microwaves cause link failures on poorly shielded display port cables. RF interference is really fascinating.
swixmix 5y ago
This brings up a good point. Be prepared for a situation like this. Even if your radio set up is correct, your neighbors might not know where to get help to solve interference problems. http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Technology/Neighbor_Info/Neighbor_Info.pdf http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Technology/Neighbor_Info/Neig...
- wrycoder 5y ago
  Very often it is actually not the transmitter, but cheap, poorly designed equipment at the receiving site. If you are a ham, the ARRL and other hams will help you work out a problem with a neighbor.

User23 5y ago

> Permission: > If you are setting up a base station, your landlord or HOA may have restrictions on the antenna size. There are no permissions or license required in the U.S. from the FCC assuming you are using unmodified CB radios. Keep the antenna and coax cable away from other equipment if you can, to avoid interference that results in neighbors complaining about you. You probably only need to ask permission if you actually entered into a restrictive covenant or other contractual agreement to not place an antenna. PRB-1[1] doesn't preempt such covenants, but the landlord or HoA can't just arbitrarily restrict you without your agreement. My anecdotal experience is that HoAs are usually pretty aggressive about including such restrictions, but I've never personally seen a lease that says you can't have a CB antenna. I have seen restrictions on satellite dishes, which is funny because those actually aren't enforceable[2] (unless the landlord/HoA provides a dish for you to use). I really hope someone somewhere has responded to being told to take down his flag pole by mounting a TV receiver at the top of the mast. [1] http://www.arrl.org/prb-1 http://www.arrl.org/prb-1 [2] https://www.fcc.gov/media/over-air-reception-devices-rule https://www.fcc.gov/media/over-air-reception-devices-rule

rootsudo 5y ago
Wow, Thank you!

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

giantg2 5y ago

Just three things to add. One, you could use a handheld to avoid the antenna installation. Range will not be as good, but that might not be an issue depending on where you live. Two, do you live in a higher density area? Are you in a flat area, top of the hill, or bottomed of the hill? Topography can greatly extend or reduce your range. CB is usually short range (5-50 miles) and lack repeaters, so it also depends on who bug your coverage area will be (mostly antenna and topography based) and who else is in your area. If your antenna will be short range and there are not many people in the area, or if you have terrain blocking you, then you might not have many people to talk to. This brings up number three. What kind of emergency communication do you want? I'd you want to listen for info, a boafeng would be good. These can pick up NOAA weather stations, emergency services (police, fire, ems), FRS, GMRS, MURS, 70cm, 2m, and others. Many of these use repeaters, linked repeaters (WAN), and even the internet (echolink) to extend coverage. If you want a better antenna, it's quite easy to build a 1/4 with ground plane and hide it in the attic (much smaller than CB antenna). The important thing to note here is that you do not need a license to listen, but you would need a license to transmit (some of the ones I mentioned you still can't transmit on). The license is easy to get and the cost is very low. If you have the license, you can hit repeaters and greatly extend your range compared to CB. Some of these repeaters are designated for emergency communication purposes and operators will use them to help the authorities communicate during a disaster. Although this is getting more rare to actually be used given they have their own radio channels, cows (cell on wheels), etc.