fletch359

Hey guys.. wanting to put a cb in the truck finally. Just had a few questions on what brands i should look for. Also what is 10 meter? Is that a better radio bc it has a longer distance? Ive also heard that its illegal? But if thats the case im not going with the 10 meter but at this point i dont even know what that means lol. I bought dual 5' firesticks today so now all i need is the cb. Any info is appriciated! Thanks

Haulin_in_Dixie

Ten Meters is a ham band and you must have an Amateur License to go there.

thumper549

What I think I know,
4 watts is 4 watts
Years ago some would pay big box to pump them up...with the advent of the cell phone ........would not.
You biggest factor is the grd. plane for the antenna . I am not a pro at all, but been with those who are
They say mount it on the highest flattest area possible (roof ) Not mirrors

Bluedually4x4

Dual sticks are useless unless they are 8' apart. Other wise they interfere with each other. Center of the truck would be best, mine is mounted to the headache rack.
Radios, I really like my Uniden (spelling? lol) It has the standard 40 channels plus it will receive 7 channels of national weather service stations. Handy when you are trying to avoid storms.

fisherjaw

i am running a galaxy 979 in mine with a coil antenna and get ecellllllent range i have it mounted to my tool box. the galaxy has low and high band so i can reach out to my buddys across the hunting camp. i got it for about 150? i think

CTD2001

You can have a 10meter radion converted over to work on the 11 meter cb band. Yes it is illegal, but with the 10 meter radios, they put out more wattage then your 11 meter cb radio. Plus most of the 10 meter radios have features like talk back, echo, frequency counter ect. The biggest part of running a cb radio is to have a good antenna with a low SWR reading. You can have the most expensive, highest power radio there is, but if your SWR is not good, then the radio will be useless. If you like the look of the dual firesticks, you can mount them both, but only hook one of them up, cause like mentioned before, if they are not spaced far enough apart, they will actually hurt the performance of the radio. Check out www.radioactiveradios.com they have some nice equipment and are very helpful. You can also check out www.cbradiotalk.com which is a forum like this one but dedicated to cbs.

Dennis

I would stay far away from the two links above. Radio active radios are hacks and have a very bad reputation among users. The forum listed is full of praise for hack shops because they pay for advertising. When people post about all the problems they have, the post are removed and the users are banned. Stay far away from both of those sites. They are simply after your money.

A good on-line radio shop
http://www.sparkyscbshack.com/home.html

Staying legal is not something that is common with cb radios. Modified 10 meter and export radios a very common. More power and extra channels are two of the big benefits. I would not worry about getting in trouble. Enforcement is next to non-existent.

Haulin_in_Dixie

Technically cophased antennas on the mirrors should be 102 inches apart and the coax cut to phase them correctly. Eight foot is not a good number at all, it has to be a multiple of a wavelength. that is why they work well on big trucks, about the right distance. Around 76 inches also works well but again the combination of 72 ohm and 50 ohm phasing harness has to be cut right. You very likely do not need to get to all.

As of the 40 channel radios, all radios put out the same power legally. For going up and down the road using the cb on the highway, the stock radio is fine and will do what you need. Of course if you want to become a "GOOD BUDDY" you can spend a fortune on equipment that makes you hard to understand and prevents others from legally using the bands.

Haulin_in_Dixie

I might also add that a whip antenna properly set up will have a swr of near 2 go 1. "tuning" will fool the electronics to see a lower number but a standard whip antenna has a 2 to 1. Why is that? Because the antenna has an impedance in the mid 30's and the coax is 50, hence the mismatch that cannot be fixed. A short tuned antenna may be nearer to 1 to 1 but then the losses are in the antenna instead of the coax mismatch.

hotdram

More than you wanted to know:

Firestik FAQ

Links on the following page discuss co-phasing and SWR and a whole lot more:
Firestik Tech Document

~Rob

flatbed beast

I run a Cobra 29 with night watch and weather channels.

I also have dual fire stick antennas mounted on my head ache rack.

All Work great couldn't of asked for more!

Wicked500R

Cobra 29LTD, Wilson 1000 antenna, with a special kind of amplifier...LOL The Cobra 29 is time tested... Go on Ebay and try to find an older one... They are better than the new ones. the Wilson antenna is the shizzle. and the amp, well.... research linear amplifiers... I almost blew every speaker in my house...LOL...

cody_d

I'm running a Cobra 29 Night Watch (tuned up), with dual oil coil (?) whips (some old whips that my step-dad just had sitting around) one on each side of the hood (toward the back on the bolt just infront of the radio ant.). I have the coax. cable run out the rubber gromet in each door jam, drivers side ant. end goes out passenger side, and vise versa . Anyways, that said, I can pick up about 3, maybe 4 miles on an average day, (A LOT more when i'm up on the mountain, and a staticy (sp?) 10 on a good night.)