[strawberryrhubarbpie]

Does anyone know anything about those handheld mini CB radios? My husband and I are wondering if they would work for our dump truck, but we have no clue what the range on them are or the quality of the sound coming out of them.

We actually don't know anything about CB radios at all, today I hooked up a Cobra in our dump truck and heard some people talking, that was kinda neat. They were talking about tomatoes, LOL.

Handhelds do work, but will have short range with the flex antenna. My wife and I used to use one for backing one of us would get out and be a spotter with handheld CB. I used one when I was a trashman that I bought an adapter for at radioshack to plug into mirror antennas so I could communicate with scale and equipment operators. I think I got out a couple miles with mirror antennas and a mile or so with flex antenna.

[repete]

Originally Posted by crb

Handhelds do work, but will have short range with the flex antenna. My wife and I used to use one for backing one of us would get out and be a spotter with handheld CB. I used one when I was a trashman that I bought an adapter for at radioshack to plug into mirror antennas so I could communicate with scale and equipment operators. I think I got out a couple miles with mirror antennas and a mile or so with flex antenna.

I had about the same results, but it also seems to have dead batteries every time I pick it up

[Endzone]

I've been a radio technician my entire life. A fixed unit (mobile) with a good truck mounted antenna will have much better gain at the antenna than with a handheld radio. The only reason you should want a handheld radio is if you want to be able to talk to the truck while you are away from the truck. For that I recommend a good MURS radio. Here's one that Motorola makes. I'm sure there are others that are cheaper and also use disposable AA batteries instead of a proprietary battery.

Motorola RDM2020 MURS Two Way Radio

But a fixed unit in the truck for CB will have much better transmitt and receive antenna gain, and will have a much better range. The range with a MURS handheld will be about 2 miles.

[strawberryrhubarbpie]

Thanks guys that's what I was looking for. This is for my dump truck, that we are about to put to work... we've never actually worked with the truck here in the US, but we are thinking the radio is only needed for when we get to the mine, so we don't need a huge range. My husband is worried about someone breaking in to the truck to rip out the CB, so he wants to try the handheld one. I can't remember the brand but we bought it on bestbuy.com.