I know handheld CB's are not meant to be great for range with rubber ducks but I did not understand how bad.
I have two midland handhelds and tried them out by having one in the house with the wife and one with me while walking the dog. I must have been, as the crow flies, 200 meters from my house and the signal dropped. I know there was houses in between and FM is a line of sight technology but I thought this was a bit steep. I was literally around the corner.
In desperation, I flicked to an illegal AM channel at 4 watts. This, I thought, would have to be better as AM can 'bounce' and does not fall foul of the line of sight FM issues. Nope. Same issues. AM no better then FM. Not even old AM!
Gutted.
I know handhelds are bad but my goodness. I did not try with both units in the outside as the wife is unwillng to help too much with my communications obsession. Nor is she willing to have a 18 ft antenne stuck to the house. So my little love has stopped dead as it appears that I cannot even use the units to stay in touch around the village!
Go on lads - kick me while I am down if you like. I should have known.
Drastic
