CB Radios

[mikecentola]

Does anyone know a good place locally to get a good CB Radio? I know you have to have it tuned afterwards so does anyone know where to get that done also? I want to put one in my truck and mount an antenna between the cab and bed.

Thanks!

[MassiveAttack]

A good radio can be had without too much searching. If you want something that fits into a DIN slot (the slot where your car radio slides into) try a Cobra 18 wx st II. I picked one up at Jim\'s truck stop in Buffalo for about $50, but you can find them online too. It\'s worked good for me. When I had a Toyota Tacoma, it had two DIN slots and I liked the almost unnoticed look I got by mounting it under the radio. I also like the \"dual watch\" feature. This allows you to scan between two channels. It\'s good for the drive to the trail when you want to listen to the ride channel, and channel 19.

As far as tuning goes, as long as your running the legal 4 watt output limit, you should be fine. The main key here is a good ground at the antenna. In other words, you want a good electrical connection between the base of the antenna and the metal part of the car chassis. Make sure also that the antenna itself is not making contact with anything that might ground it. It doesn\'t hurt to have someone do a check on the SWR (standing wave ratio). Sounds complicated, but it\'s not. This is the ratio between how much power you are sending to the antenna, and how much of that power is being sent back. You want it as low as possible, but 1:1.5 is a good working number. This is done easily by connecting an SWR meter to the line between the radio and the antenna. If it\'s high, the length of the antenna can be changed to lower it.

You may want to try and talk to Doppleganger, last I knew, he was going to the meetings as well as being online. He also has more CB experience and if your nice to him, he could probably help you after a meeting!

Sam out.

[CoraC143]

radio shack has decent cheap CB\'s ($40ish)

go to a truck stop to buy a firestick antenna ($40ish)

Ask Mindless (aka Mike) or Dopple (aka Jay) to tune it.

[smichaelR22]

ebay it.

[mikecentola]

cool thanks guys... i\'m gonna go down to sparky\'s CB on lyell and see what they\'ve got. They only charge $10 to tune.

[fedrusion]

Wally World carries the cobra ultra 19 for about 30. make sure to get a good antenna like a firestik.

[mikecentola]

the guy at sparkeys was real cool. He\'s got a Uniden 78, a K40 4\' whip, stake pocket mount all in stock. He said he\'d mod the uniden to get the wattage to like 10-12 watts, and tune it all for free :) Ends up being $209 for everything, and then uniden has a $30 rebate on the radio, so for $179 I end up getting the full package  :)

[MrMindless]

not a bad deal IMO

[silverado432]

you can go to radioshack.com and order them that way.

as for antenna\'s i would advise going to the TA truck shop right off of 390 South in Dansville.  I bought a set of Diesel antenna\'s with brackets and wiring for 45 bucks, and they work GREAT!! they are the 4ft fiberglass flex antenna\'s i love them and they get great reception no matter where you are!

[smichaelR22]

i radioshacked a new cable since mine got munched when my scrambler self boatsided the last rausch trip.

interestingly the 20\' cable as $10.99 and the 10\' cable was $13.99?  

weird.

[silverado432]

thats a little odd, im looking for an adapter for my cable to my CB as well, haven\'t really looked yet because i have been busy at the shop.

I got a 10\' cable with my new diesel antenna\'s but its to short to reach and have enough room to hide the cables
so no one can rip my antenna wire outta the back of my CB haha