Here's another oldbie newbie question. I ran for 10 years with some $60 piece of crap from Wal-Mart. For most of the last several years, I never turned the stupid thing on, except to find out why we were stopping, or to catch the weather report.

Now I have to run a CB in my job, on the one hand, and on the other, after maybe seven years of straight NPR, I'm ready for something different.

I thought I'd buy me a big radio like all the real supertruckers have, but I never have learned jack diddly about CBs. Couldn't care less, really.

So what's the best way to go for the driver who doesn't want to become a radio engineer? This truck I'm in already has what looks like really good coax, and a good antenna. The radio in it is some crappy bargain Cobra that's NOISY. The constant static is driving me nuts, and I miss the noise cancellation on my crappy old Wal-Mart Maxon radio.

If I took the dead Maxon to a CB shop, I'm sure they would laugh me out of town, so I guess I need to waste some money on a big radio.

What's the way to go so I have a radio like a real truck driver, whoop whoop, but I don't go to prison for not being able to pay a $500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.00 fine to the FCC?

Should I buy online, or from one of the many radio shops that always advertise on the radio, or from a truckstop, or Wal-Mart, or what?

Inquiring supertruckers want to know the skinny, but don't want to learn anything about SWRs or dingleflatchies or hoosafloozas.

 

You can actually get a decent Cobra 29 for just over $100. Mine works for at least 8 miles crystal clear and it's still factory settings. If you want to spend the money though, the supertruckers buy the $300 and up models and then go to a CB shop to have them jack the power up.

 

Go and find yourself a Cobra 25 or 29 without the soundtracker feature or a Uniden 68 or 78. Put a good noise canceling mic on it like a roadking 56 or an Astatic.

If you want to boost the power to the max the stock radio has to offer take it to a radio shop and have it peaked and tuned.

When you install the radio check your SWR. Anything under 2 is OK, Under 1.5 is very good. The higher the SWR the more you rob your radios ability to transmit and receive properly and could damage the radio while transmitting if high enough. If you get a reading of 3 or more do not use your radio until you get the problem fixed.

 

I bought a Uniden 78 a few months ago at Pilot for about $109. It is a good radio and will get out far enough to do the job, plus it has several weather channels. Cobra 29 is also a good radio, but with the same features is more expensive. You can find a Cobra 148 for about $150 or so at Pilot. I have found that you can get about as good a deal on a radio at Pilot as anywhere else. If you fuel there, you can use your points to lower the out of pocket costs. Unless you are really into radio's, I would not spend much more than $100 for a radio. I have seen a Cobra 29 at Pilot for about $80 on sale. It is a stripped down model, but will do the job. You can spend $300 or more on a radio, but if you just want to use it for directions and basic traffic information, then I would not spend that much on a radio.

 

For your run of the mill "super trucker" the only thing that makes a radio "big" is features like echo and talk back. Most of the time the guys who think they are running a big radio are sadly mistaken, so don't fall into that trap.

The link below is for a Galaxy 33HML Radio, it has all the bells and whistles that the $300+ radios have but only costs 189.99, that is plenty "big" for what you will want it for. But if for some reason you want to go bigger a good radio tech can make that 33HML very powerful.

http://www.bobscb.com/10_Meter/galaxy/33hml.htm

Hope that helps a little bit.

 

I have a Cobra 29, with a Connex board. There have been times that I have been able to talk to someone 10 miles out, with a Frances Hot Rod antenna.

 

[Deleted the contents of this post that unintentionally offended.]

 

I ran a Cobra 29LTD; worked great. I could talk to my home from over six miles away.

After I had it for about six months, my home started talking back to me!!!

Then, my wife demanded that I make an appointment for me to go see a good psychiatrist.

 

I have ran the Uniden pc78 with a road king mic for a long time and have had alot of compliments on it. I run the Connex 4300hp now but that is just because I couldn't pass up the deal on it my buddy had. I got the Connex 4300hp, Wilson 2000 ant, Road King 56 mic, External speaker and the gear hanger thing that the mic hangs on for 200 bucks. I just couldn't pass up the deal.

If i wouldn't of gotten a deal like that then I would still be running my Uniden. I still have it for a spare just in case I need it. So for the price you can't go wrong with the Uniden pc 78 or the 68 my other buddy runs the 68 and loves it and I think it is a little cheaper.

 

It's late and I'm very tired so I may have misinterpreted your post, but I was only trying to help you out with buying a "big" radio. I run a general lee that pushes lots power but unlike some of the morons out there I know how to adjust those knobs on the front so it sounds crystal clear 15+ miles away.

If that isn't your cup of tea that's fine but no need to put down people who enjoy amature radio as a hobby.