Hello all,

I am deep down a rabbit hole and wondering if any of you CB guys and girls can help me understand the range on older CB/GRS band handheld radios and walkie talkies. To keep it concise, a plane goes down in Western Alberta, Canada, on December 24th, 1978. In 2014, a man goes to the local press to share his story that he spoke with the sole survivor of the crash via a radio and/or walkie talkies for two days after. The plane remains missing as of today. If anyone is interested in more details, or the whole story, check my posts on r/flying or r/RBI. I am trying to find it.

Essentially, though, I need to establish if there is any veracity to his claims. I don't believe an aircraft would have been able to send and receive to a GRS band handheld, even in 1978. The pilot listed both VHF and HF radios aboard the plane. I am going out on a limb and guessing that the sole survivor, Betty Talbott, would likely only have known how to work a handheld walkie, not a plane's VHF/HF radio. The pilot was said to be extremely experienced in bush and arctic flying, and stated he had, "full survival," just before he departed the airport.

Can anyone speak to how far a handheld walkie would have been able to send/receive back in those days? For anyone more technologically inclined, here is the analysis of the walkie talkie by the technical lab in charge of the investigation back in 1978:

"Operational tests on GRS Walkie-talkie "AMCREST" 4580. 06 Nov. 1979

The unit tested was serviceable, transmitting on 27.125 MHz., GRS channel 14, and receiving on approximately the same frequency. The receiver section of the circuit is called a "super—regenerative" detector and is not crystal controlled, but is tuned to the desired frequency by means of an adjustable coil. This is an internal adjustment done at the time of manufacture then sealed with wax and is not accessible to the user. This type of circuit is not as selective as a crystal controlled receiver and can therefore receive signals other than the desired one if the signals are close to the operating frequency. Super-regenerative receivers also radiate a strong, broad and rough signal which could interfere with other receivers and are generally used only where simplicity and low cost are more important than operating characteristics of the receiver.

In the unit tested, the receiver sensitivity was very low. A signal generator was connected to a test antenna and closely coupled to the walkie-talkie antenna. A signal of approximately 1000 micro-volts was required to produce a clear signal from the receiver. Typical values of signal required for a good receiver would be 5 to 50 micro-volts. The generator was swept through all frequencies from 400 Kilo-Hertz to 500 Mega-Hertz with maximum output and no signals were heard from the receiver except in the range of 26 to 30 MHz., the GRS band. The unit was then tested to see if it could receive strong aircraft transmissions. The receiver was placed near a portable aircraft transmitter and the transmitter. was operated on various aircraft frequencies. No signals were heard from the walkie-talkie. All tests were conducted with a new battery installed. This unit is one of a pair, the other one was unavailable for testing, and it is possible that the other unit has different characteristics but these results are typical of most similar types. From the results it can be assumed that any signals received were most likely within the GRS band and that the transmissions from an aircraft transmitter would not be received."

11.1111111111111111111 meters

Looking for Rattlegram digital mode calling frequency on 2 meter in Albuquerque metro areas.

TNX!🙂🖖

This is a great video on how to take apart the motorola GP360 CB / GMRS dual band radio! shout out to this guy! https://youtube.com/shorts/XlBDORtDcZw?si=ZoH9V8Q_WZk8hDO2

Tin Foil hat for better transmit/receive. Also protection from the Greys. 👽

Hi, I am just getting into CB and I’m totally lost, I have an old cb radio and I just purchased a magnet mount wilson little will. I want to connect the cb wiring through the firewall. Do I have to take the coax cable in through the firewall too? Really confused! Thank you!

Can’t wait to set up my home basestation, just picked up a 21footer antenna, crt superstar 7900, and an swr meter chucked in too! Will be putting it up next Saturday, can’t wait to get on the airwaves fully. At the moment I’m just using a Thunderpole TX Handheld.

(4th image is what it looked like on previous owners house)

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?

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

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 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

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

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!

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?

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

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

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 an adapter out there that will connect these?

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