Higher quality CB radios?

Are there some cbs that are higher quality than others? I really want one and some are on Amazon for like $50, not sure what makes some better than others, any suggestions ?

 

all depends on what you want. small, vs full size vs mobile. pick a name brand and you cant go wrong.

 

What do you want your CB for? Most of my CB use is very short range, maybe half a mile. I would say that your antenna install is probably where you want to focus your attention. CB is limited to... I think it's 4 watts maybe 5 watts broadcast power, which is not a great challenge for manufacturers. As Paranoid56 says, any name brand will have the quality control you'll need.

Cobra 75wxst is a compact set, with all the controls on the handset. I run the Firestik no ground plane antenna and it works very well even though I have not tuned it very well.

 

Sure you need a decent radio, but more important you need a decent Antenna setup. Do some research on different types of antenna and choose the right one for your application, are you mag mounting on the roof, bed rail, 1/4 wave, 5/8 wave? After you figure that out you need to obtain an SWR meter and tune your antenna - some of the higher end radios have one built in. FCC allows 4 watts AM and 12 watts SSB (I think) so you want to make sure you can radiate as much of that power as possible and that it isn't getting eaten up by a poorly tuned antenna. with an SWR of 3:1 you are down to 3 watts AM. You may also have to tune for the part of the band you use the most as it can be tricky to get and SWR of 1.2:1 across the whole band. A lil' will mag mount on the center of the roof properly tuned works great. If all you are interested in is listening then a properly tuned antenna isn't as important.

 

What are CB's good for these days? Do truckers still use them? I know folks use them when they off road or caravan but for general driving around is there anything worth listening to on them? Are there models that scan around so you can generally ease drop?

Back in the day when I was coming up and my older brother has just started driving (I was too young), CB's were the thing. This was pre cell phone, or before they became common anyway, and having a long ass k-40 whip antennae was the mutts nuts. I graduated HS in 96 so I wanna say this would have been late 80's or early 90's. Anyway it kinda brings back memories of rolling with my bro and hearing all the goofy handles and chatter around town.

 

Back when i was a kid in the early 70's the favorite pass time was cussing out truckers on the cb radio, i had a black face tube type johnson with a black tube and a base antenna up 30' thanks to an old ham operator that lived close by, he had me hooked up, then i finally got my ham ticket a few years later.

 

whats your guys' take on the baofengs on Amazon? the handhelds?

 

I have no experience with them. The features look great and the price is compelling. I have heard that the quality control is a concern and it is not unusual to find a set that produces interference outside legal parameters for North America. If you can afford to get a handful of them and get them tested you will probably find one that is within specs and still come out ahead on price vs other HAM radios.

 

i have 4 of them and they are great. but remember they are ham, so you need a license to use them.

 

Around here, you can use it to let the log truck drivers know where you are on the forest service roads - calling out mile markers as you pass them. This can prevent gnarly log truck/ automobile accidents.

 

Thanks for the info. Rugged radios makes a nice handheld on sale now for $65 and it’s not a Ham that I’ve been looking into also

 

I have a cobra 75 wxst that I've never mounted and a 3' Wilson antenna that's mounted with no radio attached. I've been too lazy. My 30+ year old CB with a magnetic roof top antenna works great for the few times a year that I hook it up and use it.

 

Not to nit pick but you need a license to transmit, you can listen all you want. Sometimes listening on HF is all you need to loose faith in humanity.

 

CB is fine if you have friends using them. Otherwise honestly I’d just use a set of FRS radios or have my group get some Midland GMRS micromobile radios.

CB is a pain in the ass when it comes to setting up the antenna and getting a good SWR.

My Cobra handheld just gets used as a weather radio at this point. Don’t even need the antenna set up for that function.

 

I had one in my old truck and when I was outside of the big cities on the interstates channel 19 was better than a radar detector. I am not sure if that is still true today. If I ever find a good way to mount an antenna I will put it in my truck. Have a tonneau cover and don't want a roof mount, bumper mount, or the one that mounts by the tail light.

 

President makes some good CB radios that also have side band. The Cobra 29 is highly recommended as well. I'd stay away from those cheaper Cobra and Uniden units though, as you get what you pay for. Get a good antenna and make sure it is tuned properly or it won't matter what radio you buy.

Depending on the distance you need and what you are using it for, you might also consider getting a technician license from the ARRL and going HAM.

 

I had to look up "side bands" so I get the basic idea. They are sort of channels in between the 40 channels, right? Each channel has some wiggle room between them, and you can use that wiggle room with tree right radio.

But how do you actually make use of that? If you want an unused/open channel you arrange with the other person, who also needs to have a side band radio, to switch over to that side band? With the CB bands so dead these days, is it hard to find an open channel in the regular 40? Or am I missing the reason and point for side bands?

Thanks!

 

Each individual must have a radio capable of using sideband. There is an upper and lower sideband between each of the 40 standard channels. Normal channels are regulated to 4 watts maximum transmit power. With sideband you triple that, also increasing your range significantly. The audio is also clearer.

 

Ahhhh, that makes sense... Sort of. I don't understand why the FCC limits your TX on the channels but not in the sidebands between them, but whatever that's their business I guess they have a reason. I wonder if they opened up the TX/RX power a little more if CB would make a comeback. Nobody seems to use am anymore anyway for anything else so I'm not sure what it would damage... But then I obviously don't know a lot about radio.

CB seems a fun thing to mess with so I wonder why it's hardly used anymore.

 

Sidebands are not really in between channels. Normal CB is full carrier AM (like AM broadcast stations). The signal consists of a carrier plus an upper and lower sideband. In single sideband the carrier and one sideband are removed, leaving just the upper or lower sideband. This reduces the bandwidth and eliminates the power wasted on transmitting the carrier. The reciever also needs to be SSB capable for voices to be understandable. The allowable power for AM CB is 4 Watts Carrier power, for SSB it's 12 Watts Peak-envelope-power. Without getting too technical, they are not really allowing you more transmit power.