I have an old Cobra... guy at Dallas Pike CB shop off I70 tested it last year, said it got out okay....but it doesnt seem to me that its that strong. Anyone have any advice/suggestions for a good radio setup? BTW Im not sure the model, but its a popular unit, but very old.

i run an rci 6900 with built in amp in the big rig.gets out great.others i haul with have galaxy's and they work well too.if cash is no option,i would go with the ranger but the galaxy is a little less expensive.

I have a galaxy and love it. I don't know chit about CB's. My brother has his own trucking company and told me to get a Galaxy. So far it works good just stock.

http://home.comcast.net/~tophog/duramax/images/cb/cb1.jpg

Check the antenna tuning.

yeah, go to radio shack and buy one of those SWR Things a friend did mine for me and it made a big differnce

I have a galaxy and love it. I don't know chit about CB's. My brother has his own trucking company and told me to get a Galaxy. So far it works good just stock.

http://home.comcast.net/~tophog/duramax/images/cb/cb1.jpg:cool2:

Did your Galaxy slide right in there or did you have to do some trimming?

The max power from a standard CB radio is 4 Watts by law, I think most every manufacturer powers them to 4 watts. Check your SWR reading to tune it for max range. Standing Wave Ratio is the measure of the amount of signal lost due to poor anntenna performance the lower the SWR the better. If you want to get the most bang out of a legal radio running 4 watts use a 102 inch whip antenna and try to mount it as close to the center of the vehicle as possible to get the most ground plane in all directions. With a good and well tuned antenna (no need to tune a 102") Your Cobra should get out pretty good.

If you want to bump up the juice I agree with the others here get a Ranger if you have the cash as you can make them slide into CB frequencies and still run 25 watts of power or up to something like 150 watts on Sideband, plus most will run FM as well.

I had to do some cutting with dremel tool as the CB is too large for the opening.



:cool2:

Did your Galaxy slide right in there or did you have to do some trimming?

55 Watts on Vhf with the Alinco, 100 Watts on HF and 20 Watts Uhf/Vhf with the Yeasu No Citizen band radio, but I should have one to talk to the truckers.

Guys, kinda an off topic question.

Is there any hard mount radio that you can use to talk to the same frequencies as those talk around radios that are so popular now?

I need some radio help!

I'm really interested in getting a CB for my truck, but I don't care for the old school trucker style radios, but I really like the Ranger RCI models. Although these are "10 meter" radios, I won't need a license to operate on the CB channels in the 26 and 27 Mhz range, will I?

The nice thing about going with one of these radios would be that I could eventually get my license and then be able to use way more frequencies. As long as I manually enter the actual CB frequencies, I'd be fine, right?

I have run a Ranger AR 3500 for years and never had a problem. Of course I live in Montana (I see you do too) and no one really cares if you are a little "hot". I even used one as a base station on CB Freqs. They are really nice to have, plus if your buddies have one too you can slide all over the scale and even to FM to get a little privacy or lose an agitator. I added a kit to my regular Cobra radio in the Wife's car to give it 40 channels above and below CB so we could have a clean private channel all to ourselves. Long story short, you can't go wrong with a good RCI radio in my opinion they are well worth the cash. Mine has AM, FM, USB, LSB and CW.

In 15 yrs I have never run into any one that has had problems with the FCC in Montana.

I have the cobra 75 WX ST its the one with out the big box, i just tucked it under my dash really clean install and works well.

Also for the antenna, I have a Firestik Kw-4 which is the 4' black fiberglass whip.

For the mount I have a Firestik Stake pocket mount, i didnt want to drill into my brand new truck.

I went to www.premiere-electronics.net

the whole setup cost me about 150 and i installed it myself in about an hour

Cool, this is good to know--we're lucky not to have many restrictions when it comes ot emissions and the FCC.

It would be totally legal, though, if I only used an RCI type radio on the dedicated CB freqs., right?

OK, after some more research, I'm kinda confused. How do you operate a "10 meter" radio on the CB frequencies? Do they have to be modified in some way, which is most likely illegal?

You may have to mod it to make it slide to Citizens Band, but it is usually really easy. The Ranger 2950 my Cousin had would go the CB Freqs and had adjustable power from 2 watts to 25 watts. It is illegal if you are putting out over 4 watts, which you would be with most modded 10 meters.

RCI also makes the Texas Ranger models that are not 10/12 meters they are only CB and side band, they are legal and Sideband is fun to shoot skip. However they look like all the other "trucker" radios.

midland 79-290, looks like a el cheapo but has tons of extras. mine had been unlocked to go 120 below and 80 above, as well as 10 or 11 meter ham band. dont use it and i had it detuned to 4 watts but if you want to push it it will dead key 15 or better mine at one time would put out 22 dead key and swing 30. SSB to so its a nice deal.

OK, after some more research, I'm kinda confused. How do you operate a "10 meter" radio on the CB frequencies? Do they have to be modified in some way, which is most likely illegal?

(10 meter) is 28 Mhz to 29.7 Mhz. CB (11 meter) is 26.965 ~ 27.405 MHZ in 10Kc steps, (12 meter) is 24.890 MHz to 24.990MHz or just 100 Kc. As the frequency climbs the length of the wave decreases. There are "export" radios that will run up to 28.775 Mhz (band G) Is there a reason to run a 10 meter radio on 11 meters? No, not really, get your favorite CB radio and gab all you like. The new 10 meter amateur radios can not be modified. I suppose one could purchase a "export" and use here in the US but the FCC does monitor and they now fingerprint transmitters. If you are looking for power, get a better antenna, there are no regulations for "ERP" or "Effective Radiated Power". 4 watts will multiply quite nicely with a high gain antenna. 73

Cool, thanks for the great help guys.

Is there a quality unit out there that does't look like the "trucker" radios? I'd like a true CB that has a little more modern look to it that matches the GM interior a little better.

If by "trucker CB" you mean chrome faced, Midland has a couple, and Ranger has one that are black. They look a little more modern.

I've been looking at this after doing some research... looks a bit more like it belongs than the chrome doodads...so far forums seem to give it a thumbs up, anyone know any more about these??

https://www.rflimited.com/ShowProduct.asp?productID=23&NodeID=c3

i know its not on the CB channels. it starts at 28.000 try this
http://www.binghamelectronics.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=79-290&click=131

Thanks Chev, I'm going to look into that Midland