Alphabet Soup -- Which radio do you use?

[deputy5211]

One of my next purchases will be a radio for bike to bike communications, plus the Autocom interface cable for it.

Wondering how popular the various types of radios are in the motoring community, and the pros and cons of each.

Please cast your vote for your favorite, and add your opinions to this thread.

[hschisler]

In very general terms, CB seems to be preferred by the Gold Wing crowd, FRS/GMRS seems to be the favorite of the BMW crowd. Many BMW owners have CBs, and some have both; some have ham radios, too. With a CB you can talk to/listen to the truckers, of course.

[Steve_R]

Raffy sells a good MilSpec ICOM FRS/GMRS radio that can be found at the bottom of this page (http://motogear4you.com/mcart/index.cgi?code=3&cat=14). He also shows an ICOM FRS radio just above it. There are also FRS/GMRS radios by Kenwood, Cobra and many others. You just need to make sure that there is a cable that connects from your radio to your intercomm, or you're good at building your own cables to make the interface work.

[BerryG]

I use ham radio. All my riding buddies are hams as well so there is no problem there. I do carry a frs/gmrs combo rig in case there might be someone else to talk to. I like ham because I can use it on the ham repeaters and cover hundreds of miles. I have yet to find a place where I can't get into a 2 meter repeater but have found many places where a cellphone doesn't work.

[munson]

One of my next purchases will be a radio for bike to bike communications, plus the Autocom interface cable for it.

Wondering how popular the various types of radios are in the motoring community, and the pros and cons of each.

Please cast your vote for your favorite, and add your opinions to this thread.
CB is AM, while FRS/GMRS are FM. AM is susceptible to interference, and the Autocom is not good at dealing with it. The ballast of my HID headlight puts out a lot of noise. Sweetpea and I use some cheap Midland GMRS radios for short range bike to bike with no problems. The ICOM would be better for bigger groups because of much better range.

[JohnR]

I have a 2003 LTE and it came with the Midland CB radio. I added a Motorola FRS radio last summer, and it is far superior in sound quality than the CB. Voice reception on CB is very muddy, but as clear as intercom passenger on the FRS.

My Goldwing buddy uses his CB, so have to listen to all the CB static and outrageous noise coming thru the CB, but FRS is much quieter... get very little outside noise interference on FRS.

Commsystem can hear both, but only transmit to one or the other at a time. Have to switch between CB and FRS when travelling with CB and FRS users.

Has anyone relocated the CB/FRS switch from the oddments box to the handlebar or someplace where it is easy to reach?