/r/cbradio
A place to talk about CB radio: how to use them, how to install them, and how to get them working their best. Drop in to rag chew or just come check the mail. Either way drop by and say hi. That's a big 10-4, good buddy!!!
The CB Radio Reddit
For everything CB and Public Radio whatever the band may be!
We have an IRC channel where you can arrange skeds and nets or have a chat, details are :
irc.freenode.net #redditcb
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Related Subs
/r/AmateurRadio - Everything HAM.
/r/Jeep - For all your Jeep needs.
/r/GMRS - Info on the GMRS radio service
/r/VEDC - For talking about the things we keep in our vehicles. From first aid kits to firearms.
/r/Truckers - A sub for the asphalt cowboys.
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CB Radio F.A.Q.
Check out your local CB Shop for new items, as well as garage sales. Of course Amazon and Ebay can be very helpful.
Make sure that your antenna is fully plugged in and that your radio is receiving power. If you just installed your radio, you will want to make sure that your antenna is tuned properly to the location that it is installed in. This helps reduce the standing wave ratio (SWR) to proper levels.
An SWR of 1:1 is perfect and almost impossible to achieve outside of a lab.
1.1-1.5:1 is considered perfect under real world conditions.
1.6-2.0:1 is Average with room for improvement.
2.1-2.9:1 means you need to tune your antenna some more.
3.0:1 and above is dangerous for your radio and could lead to damaging the radios internals.
You can use one of two methods to check your SWR: an antenna analyzer or a stand alone SWR meter.
Both are acceptable, but the antenna analyzer is the best method, giving more accurate results. Any good CB shop will have one.
/r/cbradio
Chicken dude.. all day. Squelch him out and I swear, he turns up the power. Absolutely pathetic. I picture some 80 year old, toothless hillbilly, playing chicken noises while he jams a cucumber in his @$$
Here is 1AT027 from Northern Italy on 27.580 MHz USB. Received from the Pacific Northwest, USA at 10:30 AM PDT, using a AirSpy HF+ Discovery, SDR#, and an end fed random wire antenna, 65 feet long, 45 feet from the ground, using a 33 foot counterpoise. Conditions are excellent this morning on 11 meters. Distance is 5,355 miles.
Who’s playing with the damn squeaky toy on 19. Comes in on skip. I hear it everywhere
Who’s playing with the damn squeaky toy on 19. Comes in on skip. I hear it everywhere
I have a couple that I don’t use anymore I retired from trucking. Here they are I’m open to fair offers. They both werk as they should.
Are there any YouTube videos showing these radios and the equipment they are using?
I have been looking. Does anyone know what the mic pinout of this radio is?
The places I have been looking doesn’t show it!
Thanks
With my Bill 2 and and KL300P I'm running one watt into the amp. My Bill 2 actually runs warmer than my amp.I have two fans to mount on top of amp so I was thinking about running it up to two watts.....well you understand.Wanted to get the max out of my mobile setup.What is the max I can put into the amp safely? Thanks Bounty Hunter upstate South Carolina
What would the best way to go about "hi-fi" audio in the CB world? I've been researching a lot and it gets almost overwhelming. Should i go for a "wideband" radio from someone like panic attack or Drail? Asymod? Or should i experiment with a cobra 29 and some mods? I do a lot of local talking so sound is important to me more so than watts, I'm willing to experiment if that's easy enough to achieve with an iron and some capacitor changes.
I acquired a Kiwa mw loop air core antenna and I have no idea how to set it up. There's very little info on the net. Anyone have any experience with this antenna ?
I found a TYT MD 2017 radio at a pawn shop today for $75. They are not available on any local website or Amazon. Are these just cheap Chinese radios ? Are they any good ? Review seem okay.
Thanks in advance for any help.
I'm looking for plans to build a linear capable of 1kw. I have been having trouble finding any. If anyone knows of any can you please link them below. I want to build a one just for the challenge.
Here's you 80 channels worth. He wasn't keying down long enough to really scan the bands and I barely got him on 80 from switching bands, 40 channels down then 40 above channel 6 on one video. Apparently he was taking a breath when I dropped 40 channels but you can hear him the last couple of seconds before switching back up. But his carrier of 2 s units of extra noise was still there dispite not screaming into the mic.
This isn't the worst I've seen by no means. There was a couple a few weeks ago that would put a 7 on the meter 20 channels below 1 and you could hear every word as clear as they were on the channel but lower volume. It's not my radio because it does the same on my 2 other radios.
I know this is going to be unpopular, but with all the skip going on right now your 100 or 1,000 watt radio/amplifier makes a channel unusable for 100s to 1,000's of miles from you. I can talk skip at 12w SSB if ya'll quit with the overpowered illegal setups. It seems that many channels including 9 (emergency) and 19 (highway) are all cluttered up in the same fashion. I can turn down my RF gain to 1 and hit the squelch and these setups are still coming through clean. I'd like to be able to enjoy CB as well with friends and family, and it's completely ignorant to expect us all to just be ok with it. Let's be considerate of others.
Hello.
Me and my friend both have the same CB radio setup and only get like 1 mile of range between the two of us.
We each have Cobra 19 minis and Wilson Lil Wil mag mount antennas. Each of our Antennas are mounted on the passenger side of the trunk (within 6in from the edge of car).
Both of our antennas are SWR tuned and have less than 1.25 SWR on channel 20.
Is there anything we can do to troubleshoot or extend the range? I was thinking of moving the antennas to center of the trunk. Will this change SWR? Thanks for help, new to Cbs and am very informed. <3
Edit: SWR correction
Driving the amp at 2-4 watts when it's turned on, but is it safe to turn the power back up on the radio say to 20 watts dead key when it is off? Does it just pass through at that point, thinking so because I hear a relay when transmitting. Thx!
Been trying to find a CB radio antenna that can get me some good range. I’ve spent maybe 2 hours on here looking through answers that give me no information. What’s the best brand and model to get for a car set up?
Anyone know where I can find mod for 10-12 meter band channels for the Uniden 880FM or similar radio that has the same board where ham band worked for them? Or should I just get a digicom wired on it for other frequencies ?
Hi all, appreciate any help with a newbie question. A few parents in my neighborhood would like to get handheld radios so the ~8 year olds can talk, but we don't have to get them cell phones yet. The neighborhood is single family homes, pretty close together. We're looking for a half mile of range total, and ideally they can talk on a relatively un-chattery channel.
Is a CB handheld a good candidate for this use case? We could also do base stations in bedrooms, which is cute but seems more expensive.
Thanks!
Edit to add: The radios need to work when kiddos are in their bedrooms, so indoor-to-indoor at a half mile.
It’s that time of the week. Hoping to one day have a rig dialed in enough to make contact. But for now just enjoying the broadcast and listening for local. Now get your old tube unit out and get on 11 and see who’s out there.
New install
200 from a buddy at work, tuned to 60 watts from Boba in PA last yea