OT: Griff and other truckers; CB info

[3leggedturtle]

Need a decent CB with a weather band on it. Which ones work good? Will be buying at Love's, Pillot or TA truckstops.

[adirondakjack]

Pard, in this day and age about any of em work halfway decent WITH A GOOD ANTENNA that is properly installed. A lousy antenna or one that is not properly installed will give ya "deaf radio" syndrome for sure. The key is use of a good SWR (or "reflected energy") meter to assure your antenna and coax is working properly. With that, even a $5 flea market CB from the 80s will "walk and talk" with the best of em.


73s, de KF2OR, (advanced class ham operator and fomer professional antenna monkey)

[Rusty]

I've got a Cobra 29LTD still in the box but I don't think it has a wx band. No mater what you get you can have it peaked and tuned by a CB shop to make it mo betta.

Like Jack sez, ya gotta have a good match on the antenna.

Rusty <><
KE4VBB

[willygene]

if ya got a good antenna i have a dang good conex thats all i have been using for years best talkin radios out there barefoot out of the box.

[adirondakjack]

True story.

Before I went and got "legit" with my HAM license, I was big into CB, had all sorts of goodies the federales woulda frowned on if they really cared, etc. Worked the "extra" channels outside the band, used a bunch of "heat" and a big antenna at home, etc. But when my car CB got stolen, along with the antenna right before a trip a few of us were making as a caravan, I grabbed a battered but box stock "Pace" CB from a yard sale for $5, MADE a homespun antenna out of an AM/FM car antenna (ya gotta know what yer doing or that doesn't work), and off we went.

While on the road a week or so later, cup of coffee in one hand, MIC in the other, while driving a stck shift car with no power steering, I spilled my coffee right INTO the CB, which was laying on the transmission hump beside the shifter. I was talking at the time, mic button pressed, and watched as coffee ran in the front of that radio and out the back. The guy I was talking to remarled "What did you do? Your signal got much louder all of a sudden?" We had a good laugh when I told him. He was in NEW ZEALAND, I was in NY.

[Griff]

Ahhh, "skip" such a fun, frustratin' pasttime! What Jack, et al, said. Cobra makes several "WX" models, the better ones are the the 25LTD-WX and 29LTD-WX, IIRC.

My CB stays on w/the volume at "0" as I don't care for "trucker chatter', which seems to mostly consist of cussin' n' searchin' for "lot lizards" or drugs. For weather I run a small scanner & have XM radio.

[MikeS.]

I've been running a CB since 1972, I've always had good luck with Cobra radios. I still have 2 that I use occasionally from the mid 70's. Both are 29 channel rigs, legally...