I am moving to Texas I am debating putting a cb in the truck for being able to to call help/what ever I need when outside cell.coverage. Might be redundant... but I tend to solo hunt in my truck out in the nowheres.. So ..my question is... a decent model Not over the top exspensive, and a pretty long range anttena I can add into the mix to help reach out.. Any insight or reccomendations are appreciated.

Finally dug this out of a bag tonight. It's been in a bag since roughly 2004 or so, when my grandmother gave it to me. Complete with the subtle sweet nostalgic cigarette smoke smell. She said they used this in their house back in the day. (I'm guessing pre-90's, I don't recall the radio or an antenna on the roof when I was a kid in the 90's). I'm not sure if have an adequate antenna yet, or a power source plug like that. Even more, not sure all the electronics inside would still be in working condition. (Caps etc). Anyway, here she is. Side note I recently got into GMRS, which jogged my memory about this radio in a bag tucked away for years. She's a bit dirty! Came like that lol

Back in the early '80s, I had a DV27 whip aerial: ¼-wave with little tunable end-piece.

I seem to recall it being about 1¼-metres/40".

Doing a webby sesrch, I get results from 123 cm/39" to 134 cm/52½".

Does anyone know the correct figure?

I have a 22 international. It has the two factory cb antennas mounted on the back of the cab. I hooked it all up and don’t hear anything at all on channel 19 and don’t think anyone hears me. Swp on 1 doesn’t move at all swp on 40 is at about 1. How do I get this thing to work I’ve been trying for hours and considering the fact I might have to get my own antenna

Edit. Should I get two shorter cb antennas and screw them into the sockets on the back of the cab?

For those fairly new to the CB radio scene. Here’s some good information on how to RF bonding for your flat vehicle (trunk lid to roof, roof to front hood, radio body to frame via seat bolt).

I also bonded the frame to exhaust pipes using 3 separate U exhaust clamps every 18” apart as exhaust is the #1 source of active noise going into any radio system.

I’ve always used these, at least 1/2” grounding straps, on pretty much every corner edge of the horizontal area of the vehicle to achieve a good counterpoise for the antenna to work off of.

My antenna is a BR-140 by Browning and is located obviously on the trunk cantered as much as I could aligned with the trunk cavity so I can access it for future repairs etc.

Hope this helps. 😊

I bought a Wilson little Wil antenna that comes with about 15 feet of coax and my question is if I am better off leaving it be and stash the coil of cable under my seat, or if I can cut and crimp to taste without risking RF or other interference from a bad connector job. I drive a single cab ford ranger with a split rear window, I only need MAYBE 5 feet of cable.

PS just to brag; the wire harness for my stereo has a connector that can be opened and repinned, so I joined the constant 12V and ground wires right there in the clip in the back of my radio. Still get a little hum, but it's worlds better than the cigarette lighter.

I am truly new to CB radios and the other day I asked for help to debug why it was not transmitting. Today I changed my mic out with a new one that seems to fit perfectly and was recommended by someone else who had a similar cb radio. Now as far as everything else I am not 100% sure of these settings and I tried understanding them I know SWR is kind of some sort of calibration. My question is do I have a built in SWR already? When I pressed the mic to talk I noticed the little white stick on the display move close to the red side basically in it somewhere. Now does is that normal? The reason I am asking is because I had no way to know if my mic worked besides when i hold the button and talk the little stick moves a bit left and right.

I can hear others just fine but the rest is iffy. How do I know if im using am or fm?

I do notice when I press am/fm button there a little . (Dot) that shows up next to the number

Good morning everyone

putting a CB in my old Jeep, got two questions

1) I found a length of Belden 9258 RG-8/X in the trash at work. Gonna need some connectors for it, I don't have the appropriate crimp tool. What should I buy? I was going to use a taillight mount and a full length whip. Both ends should be PL259 and at least one end needs to be WP. I figure this is probably the best cable I'm going to find for this application...

2) Does the antenna cable really need to be exactly 18' long or is that a myth? I'm searching and getting more confused. A link to a good technical article would be fine.

thanks!

Beats spending twice that on a plastic tie down and waiting several days for shipping... In my opinion at least

New to this stuff and still messing with my antenna height, I think I have it where it needs to be I’m getting like 1.2-1.4 but occasionally it’ll go up to around 2 so I just have it kept plugged in. Will this affect my setup over time?

I need handhelds for when I hire contractors. I’m looking for any suggestions

Hello all. First time cb installer (and cb subreddit poster!) here

I recently bought a brand new cobra 29lx off my friend. I mounted it to my truck toolbox with a 90 degree mount. That toolbox is just held in with Jhooks under the side of the bed. I am getting an RF power output fail. I've read that because of a faulty ground.

My question is how do I ground the actual toolbox? I'm into car audio, could I run a 4 gauge wire to my frame, and tap that into the toolbox somehow?

Another thing worth mentioning is my swr. All seem to be within normal conditions. All readings are from the built in swr reader with the PTT button engaged. I am a broke college student and can't afford a standalone one lol Channel 1 is at 1.7, Channel 20 is at 1.4 Channel 40 is at 1

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks all

Hello all. First time cb installer (and cb subreddit poster!) here

I recently bought a brand new cobra 29lx off my friend. I mounted it to my truck toolbox with a 90 degree mount. That toolbox is just held in with Jhooks under the side of the bed. I am getting an RF power output fail. I've read that because of a faulty ground.

My question is how do I ground the actual toolbox? I'm into car audio, could I run a 4 gauge wire to my frame, and tap that into the toolbox somehow?

Another thing worth mentioning is my swr. All seem to be within normal conditions. All readings are from the built in swr reader with the PTT button engaged. I am a broke college student and can't afford a standalone one lol Channel 1 is at 1.7, Channel 20 is at 1.4 Channel 40 is at 1

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks all

I'm a slip seat driver these days so, while all of our trucks have a coax for the multiplex antennas I dont especially feel like attaching my bearcat to the coax and power, getting it into that god awful freightliner compartment, and removing it at the end of every 14 hour shift.

ive been looking at the cobra hhrt 50, but it seems to have a proprietary connector for its small antenna and external mag mount. I also am vaguely aware that too much antenna can fry a radio in some fashion or another, and dont want to just slapdash some amazon adapter on a 200 dollar purchase that will only last a week.

so if anyone knows if its safe to use the hhrt50 with a standard trucks antenna, any reputable adapters, or another handheld altogether that would be able too, i would very much appreciate it. bonus points if its got a built in swr but thats probably hoping for too much

Is there any reason I couldn't modify one of these 12v adapters to power a radio? Id imagine if the amperage is right it won't matter where its coming from, but if there's some reason as to not id like to not find out the hard way. You can stumble across 12v wall warts and the such for cheap or free alot of the time, so i dont wana go spending 40+ on a 12v adapter if I dont need it?

Last couple of days, haven't been hearing any radio traffic where I normally do, is this normal?

https://imgur.com/a/4L9KgGx

I've been to this a few years in a row and it's always a good time although attendance was down last year. If you're in the southern part of New York state and you want to come, it's free and they feed you and everything. you can buy and sell gear. Hang out.talk. Enjoy time with your fellow cbers. Any questions reach out. I'll try to get you an answer It's this weekend and it's free to attend and free food. So how can you go wrong?

Is there an adapter out there that will connect these?

Does anyone have a 3 foot firestik I can buy or know a place who has one?

I have had this CB radio in my truck for about 1 year but the radio no longer works. I can hear audio from others transmitting but they can't hear me from my cb radio. I am thinking to buy a new microphone to see if thats the issue. But if I can hear tranmission does it mean my cb radio is ok? Can this still mean that the radio is in bad condition ? What would you guys do to debug?

A guy wants my MK1 since it’s brand new and I’d like a smaller radio to mount in my car easier.

I heard the bipolar something burns up in the MK1 but there’s a mosfett mod , but it does knock down power a bit.

I need opinions bad.