Adding a 520 Mosfet to a Cobra 29 - How much more powerful does it make your radio?

Well this has allot more to do with who is doing this mod. If you have a seasoned tech that really does know what mosfets are about you can actually get upwards of 10 to 12 watts of true RMS power and on allot of meters but it requires the knowledge needed to modify the entire final section. I used to do this mod for 25 years or more before most even knew it could be done. I can tell that most shops don't do much more than install the mosfet and although it's possible to see some power increase I'm not sure the cost of doing at most shops it worth it because they put the mosfet in and that is all they do. I can't tell that I know any shops that do this upgrade justice..

 

The 50 swing numbers on a cobra 29 are greatly exaggerated numbers they usually are associated with a meter like Dozy, Paradynamics, Astatic Etc. Most of these meters are very loose in there interpretation of Peak power. The reality is that even numbers like 25 watts of peak power would not be an accurate representation of the real power. The science behind Peak readings should be about twice the RMS power witch on a Cobra 29 would hardly ever be more than 10 watts depending on what was done to the radio inside.. So reality would put the peak numbers around 20 watts but none of that matters as long as you are happy with the range and modulation reports you get from everyone you talk to. As far as the new one is concerned it should perform as well or better than the one you have.... But again I can't vouch for anything I can't compare on the bench with equipment that gives true readings..

 

Ny super I have a 29 lx 50th anniversary cobra I bought new and I've built the crap out of it, I use the stock talkback but I put a connex board in it, a swing kit, and schottky receive diode, an rfx75 kicker and a road king telex 56 chrome mic on it and it swings 107 watts on a scope ( most accurate way to judge output ). I couldn't be happier with it. The most important thing with a powerful radio is the coax and antenna though. Need to make sure you have an swr below 1.5, if you're not sure how to do that have a cb shop check it. If you put too much power on a cheap stock coax or a poorly tuned antenna it won't last you any time before it burns the finals out in the radio. Get that stuff checked and ready before you concern yourself with a high power radio aight? Let us know your progress on it, I'll keep an eye out for ya, for the record, I recommend a Belden 18 ft coax and a Francis antenna