CB Radios

[SBR Sarge]

I’ve not done much with CBs for a few decades. More highway travel is in my near future and I’d like a CB radio again. Especially when traveling alone at night like I like to do, it is nice company.

There are lots of great radios and antennae out there to choose from so I know I can get a good unit. Hell, the Cobra 29 series is still chugging along!

But my question is about features.
-Do folks use SSB much?
-How about a built-in SWR meter?
-Powered mics?
-Any other features I should have or don’t need?


Thanks
SBR

 

[logem]

In my opinion, the Cobra 29 is a good choice. I have a Galaxy SSB though.

CB is not used anywhere as much as in the past. A lot of truckers are even doing without them these days.. Often the chatter is garbage on the main channels with lots of cussing and playing around. Sometimes you'll hear decent conversation, and it's nice to get advance notice of upcoming road hazards, traffic, and accidents.

CB's are really nice when traveling with one or more vehicles that also have CB, although not as handy now that mobile phones and texting have taken over.

I've played with the SSB features, and don't find it of much value unless you're an enthusiast and want to try to converse with people far away, using skip.

Built in SWR meters are nice, but not as accurate as a stand-alone meter. It's a quick way to verify your antenna tuning.

A powered mic is nice to have too, and not terribly expensive.

If you do purchase a CB, I highly recommend that you get it peaked and tuned to increase the output wattage.

 

[TheLoamRanger]

You could also check out GMRS radios.
While not compatible with CB, they are higher power (upto 50W vs like 4W for CB) and can connect to repeaters for a large broadcast range.

There is a big public GMRS repeater near me that must broadcast a 50 mile radius. One can hear a lot of interesting discussions on it!

I should note, legally you need an inexpensive FCC license for GMRS, and there are some very basic rules you agree to.

 

[SBR Sarge]

Thanks to both of you.

I’m on the fence about the SSB. It is in the ‘might be nice but probably not used much’ category.

And I am not familiar with the GMRS, so I’ll do some research into it.

Thanks again!

 

[taskswap]

I'm another advocate of the GMRS route. I got my license for it, it was SUPER easy to do and I can't remember exactly but I think the fee was $25. Once you have it, it covers you AND your family which is nice.

I have both Midland and Baofeng radios and they both work fine for their purpose. The Midland is arguably higher quality but the Baofeng has some nice features like a wider range of channels it can pick up (the two I use most are my town's emergency response channel which I was glued to when a large wildfire moved through the area a few years ago, and the weather station).

As others noted above, CBs are fun and have the nostalgia behind them, but you're just not going to pull in much useful "value" out of them these days. The Bandit isn't blocking for anyone out there anymore...

 

[Bearlodge10]

If you are still looking for CB-specific info, check out https://www.rightchannelradios.com/ and give Pat (owner) a call. He can answer all of your questions and steer you in the right direction.

 

[SBR Sarge]

You could also check out GMRS radios.
While not compatible with CB, they are higher power (upto 50W vs like 4W for CB) and can connect to repeaters for a large broadcast range.

There is a big public GMRS repeater near me that must broadcast a 50 mile radius. One can hear a lot of interesting discussions on it!

I should note, legally you need an inexpensive FCC license for GMRS, and there are some very basic rules you agree to.

Is GMRS used much for highways, or just off-road and base stations?

 

[TheLoamRanger]

Is GMRS used much for highways, or just off-road and base stations?

It is definitely popular with offroaders . And there are definitely people who run GMRS base stations just like Ham.

I haven't heard much for highway chatter on the regular channels. Almost everything I've heard has been through the repeaters. I'm not sure if that's the norm or just my area (Seattle area, and I've only had radios for ~1yr now).

You could look up public repeaters in your area to see what's available and how far they broadcast (not all repeaters are public, some require permission). A Baofeng GMRS handset would be a cheap (~$35) way to get in and test it out. Midland handsets won't be able to ping the repeaters, but can listen in.

Since not all handsets can ping the repeaters, you'll want to check capabilities before buying.

It's all much more simple in practice than it sounds by reading into it.

 

[Wrench]

If you drive in logging country a 40 channel radio can eliminate surprises by monitoring truck traffic. I have some rigs with ssb and funny channels, linear, speech processors....yada yada. I find a simple 510 or president bill fits my needs and looks like less to steal. The bill is a great little radio with instant weather.

 

[Shawn Hultquist]

Still using my cobra 29. It’s been around 35-40 years


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SBR Sarge]

Thanks everyone.

Think. I’ll grab a decent am/fm/ssb CB and a top tier antenna and call it good.

I’ll likely never need the SSB, but it might be nice.

 

[.204smokechaser]

The pc tel antennas are what I run on my POV. All my work rigs and buddies are running them as well.

 

[SBR Sarge]

If you are still looking for CB-specific info, check out https://www.rightchannelradios.com/ and give Pat (owner) a call. He can answer all of your questions and steer you in the right direction.

Thanks for the tip.

I didn’t speak with Pat, but there as a wealth of info on their site.

I just ordered a President McKinley II with a K40.

Their prices were competitive, and the shop with lower prices made up for it with higher shipping. So RCRended up being ess than others.

Cheers!