AM vs UHF

Hi Jason, I am sure there is plenty in the archives about this subject but I will give you my opinion... UHF is way and above superior for car to car communication. Its clearer and the radios are much more sophisticated with selcall etc etc. Dont get AM and HF confused, they are very different beasts.. HF for looooooooooong distance communications eg, VKS737 and RFDS... UHF can also be used over a fair distance but only with the use of a repeater... TX3400 is not a bad unit. You could maybe also look for an ex-commercial radio that has been refurbished. More power and built very tough. Some names to look out forn are Tait, Philips, Kenwood, Motorola etc etc. Hope this helps.

Cheers

"i know truckies still like to use AM ."

they do?

Stick with UHF..

27 megs being part of the HF spectrum is more susceptible to noise both atmospheric and man made though atmospherics is not bad on 27 megs. Ignition noise though can be a problem and make weak signals difficult to understand. Truckies are all moving to UHF with most of them there already. All things being equal yes 27 megs AM will have a longer ground signal but really UHF FM is superior for the clear signal so yes rest assured your purchase decision is correct.

there are lots of pros & cons to each. I use radio comms alot! To give you my perspective, on my next big trip, I am going to take UHF for car-car, and 100 watt HF SSB (amateur) for emergency and recreation. 27MHZ AM can give you good (but unreliable) country-wide comms, but is stuck in a part of the HF band that is useless at night; I'm not bothering with it.

g'luck