Comment

Comment on Why don't cars have a way to contact nearby cars like fictional spaceships do?

I keep a CB radio in my car, and have a few friends with them

It is actually really handy when you’re road tripping together in different cars to be able to just grab the mic and say something to the other vehicle when you need to stop for a bathroom break or you’re having an issue with your car or want to give them a heads-up about whatever.

If you’re fairly close together a set of cheap FRS walkie-talkies from Walmart does the job just as well. Probably worth stepping up to CB if you expect to lose sight of the other vehicle though, range is usually a bit better.

It’s especially handy if, like me, you go camping and such in rural areas with unreliable cell coverage.

You do occasionally also get helpful heads-ups from truckers if you’re listening to channel 19 about road conditions, police activity, traffic, etc. but mostly it’s just idiots babbling about conspiracy theories and immature bullshit.

source

Sort:hotnew top

Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Why is everyone so quick to recommend Walmart? Corpo advertising shouldn’t have a place on lemmy　, intentional or not

source
- Fondots@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Because they’re fucking everywhere, something like 90% of the US population lives within 10 miles of one.
  
  It’s basically shorthand for “this is a common and readily available thing that you can acquire anywhere in the country for cheap even if megacorps have driven all of the local specialty retailers out of business in your areas”
  
  As opposed to something like a HF ham radio which is a specialty item that no big retailers like walmart, to the best of my knowledge, carry, and so you’re probably not going to be able to find it locally.
  
  source
  - Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    I get that it’s short hand for that --but I still don’t think it’s good to push people forward to stores with so many moral and economic issues like walmart as the first suggestion.
    
    source
    Fondots@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    
    A “truckers” (CB) radio is exactly what I was suggesting FRS radios as an alternative to.
    
    I suggested them because they are much simpler to use. With a mobile base station you need to figure out where to mount it in your car, where to mount an antenna, tune that antenna, how to hard-wire it into your car’s power (or splice an adapter onto it to power it from the cigarette lighter), whereas with a walkie talkie you just need to turn it on, put it on the right channel and push a button.
    
    (Handheld CBs do exist. I’ve very rarely seen them for sale in a brick and mortar store)
    
    It’s probably gonna depend on where in the country you are, but CB radio equipment is in fact not commonly available at gas stations and truck stops around me. It’s something I actually actively look for and take notice of because I’m a bit of a radio geek. In fact, if I needed to tell someone where to get a CB locally, their best bet for that would probably also be the-store-whose-name-you-seem-too-think-that-no-one-should-say-like-its-fucking-voldemort-or-something, and even that would be hit or miss, some TSWNYSTTTNOSSLIFVOSes don’t actually seem to carry them, but every TSWNYSTTTNOSSLIFVOS I’ve ever been in absolutely has at least one set of FRS radios for sale.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    But I can buy that thing on eBay for 3X more plus shipping!
    
    source
- mika_mika@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  As evil as Walmart is it’s undeniable they do have everything you could think of under one roof. The idea isn’t awful if it wasn’t so harmful.
  
  source
  - 0ops@piefed.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Well, not always. Mine apparently doesn’t have any vanilla extract right now. I can only assume that it’s tariff related
    
    source
- Steve@startrek.website ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Name another place to but a radio besides amazon
  
  source
  - Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Would’ve looked a lot better if you commented that when I hadn’t already
    
    source