AND THEN TURN IT OFF WHEN YA HEAR ALL THE CRAP ON IT :lol:

Go to a garage sale, pick up the best CB worth the price.. and then when you want a "real radio" just listen on the cheap radio for these dimwits who drink or screw (pardon my french) their second or third payroll advance away and pick up a "good radio" with all the bells, whistles and the Tarzan yell, for a fraction of what it cost the super truckin goober..

I got a novel idea..... why not open up and read the directions. There IS a step called calibration, for what that's worth.

Best of luck.

did you meaan SWR calibrtioin man I cant spell, figner to fat for ttis laptop

Don't see the point personally with the peak and tune.

The setup I have right now is simple as simple can be.

Stock Cobra 29LTD. My model doesn't even have the night-watch or weather channels. The radio in the truck takes care of the weather channels. Connected to a Firestyk antenna. Via generic co-ax. The only thing I'd add to my set up is better quality co-ax. Though that maybe over kill.

Before I switched antenna(bought the firestyk last week) Barely could get out or even receive anything much more then a mile. Since the swap, Talked to a a guy and kept track of mile markers, and was losing him when we were almost 5.5-6 miles apart.

Total cost
Radio $85 (used my road miles to offset cost)
Antenna $20

total out of pocket cost
$105

personally I think my radio sounds better then most of the big rig echo/talk back/roger beep/sound effect/over modulated radios you hear on the road. And I get out nearly as far as they do.. sounding better in the process :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


you could have the best radio in the world, but will only work as good as the antenna you've got. Don't neeed anything super expensive. Check out http://www.firestik.com/ they have tons of info. If you feel like you need a billy big rigger radio after you get a decent antenna, knock your self out, but would just be a waste of money.

I got mine peaked and tune but the tuning is easy to ge tit out of wack. But I can get out to 10 miles on mine with wilson 5000 ant.

I'm sure the peak and tune when done correctly works great. Problem I'm finding is depending on who does it, you may end up with an over modulated radio, then end up having a raspy, dirty sounding radio. Sure it's LOUD, but doesn't sound clean.

Antenna, co-ax, and getting your SWR correct is key. I've heard great things about the wilson, Just felt better spending $20 then $40+.

Either way, in the end it's your money. Just keep in mind some people wont even respond to a radio they can't understand. :wink:

I just want to keep it simple. I'm not looking to "soup up" my CB, I just want it to talk to shippers/receivers as needed, and talk to drivers within about 2-3 miles max of me. Nothing special. I just want the simple stuff. I have never had a CB or used one very much, so I don't even know how to set up the antenna or anything. I didn't think I would need an antenna because I was told that some Volvos and Freightliners come with antennas equipped, even sometimes with them wired internally for a CB.

With that in mind, keep your radio stock. Don't waste your money having a P&T. As the others responders said, the Standing Wave Ratio [SWR] means the most because the lower the ratio, the less reverse power reflecting back into the radio, which will ensure that your one CB radio purchase is your only and that your radio won't die an early death.

If your radio doesn't have an onboard SWR meter, you can buy a radioshack SWR meter for $40 with a short coaxial jumper cable. One Firestick II for $18 with a tunable tip makes the SWR tuning on your antenna easy because all you have to do is turn the screw on the tip to lengthen or shorten the antenna (which changes the resonant frequency of your antenna up or down.) If you use a whip antenna, a hack saw cutting at 1/8" intervals does the same job.