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Kingcodez

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 13, 2009
300
0
China
Looking to start playing Airsoft again, and my wife wants to get a little walkie talkie to mess around with. I know the cheap ones work for about a mile before crapping out, with the trees and everything. I also want one for when we buy motorcycles.

I remember watching Die Hard (300 times) and I've always liked the walks they used, little "CB communicators". In Die Hard 2, they also had them; except those units had encryption.

Is it possible to get a consumer CB that is decently powerful with encryption? Ex-Military hardware would be too outdated and bulky, I'm just wondering in the past 20 years if they've made something legal and pocketable. I don't need real military-grade encryption, I just like the scrambled noises that they made. I like buying stuff that I can hack and play around with so I was just checking here if anyone could point me in the right direction.

Are the sub-$200 radios CB? I had always thought they were just small transmitters, hence the poor quality over a distance.

Furthermore, has anyone found a good way to maintain communications with iPhones that doesn't rely on an internet connection? I had toyed with the idea of creating a mobile hotspot and then group-Skyping over that. I know I'm bringing a cannon to a sword fight but the cool factor is too much. :)
 
You won't get encryption over the CB, but it is pretty easy to mod a standard issue Cobra 25 or 29 to put out over 100 watts and make it a better "listener" at the same time. Anything over 4 watts is illegal though. The antenna is FAR more important than the output though.

The radio in my work truck swings to around 45 watts and dead keys at 6 and I have a properly tuned antenna. That basically means that if I want to be heard, I will. Though most of the time it is off because the chatter annoys me.
 
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