what to do to a cobra 29 classic for more power.

There's really not that much to hooking up a Amp...There's just two wires, one to the battery and one to ground.

Then all you would need is a jumper coax to run from the radio to the input side of the Amp, and another coax from the output of the Amp to the antenna...Thats it.

Trick is, you want to have your antenna tuned the best you can get it, and on most of the smaller Amps you want to have your DK on the radio set low, like around 2 watts...The Amp will do the rest....

Prices vary on Amps. But you can pick up a Amp that will do 200-400 watts starting under $200...When It comes to amplifiers, it depends on how deep your pockets are, as to how many watts you can expect to see!

With a small Amp you shouldn't have to do any up-grading to your electrical system, but once you start trying to run more than 400w's, then you may need to look into things like a larger alternator, or multiple alternators, and possibly more battery's.... Bigger you go, the more headaches you run into...

 

You can probably tell what your DK is by just keying the Mic and looking at the meter on your radio...Whatever the needle is pointing at when you just key the Mic (not talking) that would be your DK (dead key) Most New radios key at about 3 to 3 1/2 watts.

As for as upgrading to a radio that does 200w's ( Like a Galaxy 98VHP) you should be fine with your battery and alternator you have now...They don't pull a whole lot of amps...Only problem with running a big radio like that, is if later on you decide you want to add a Amp to your set-up, your kinda limited to what kind of Amp to run...

In other words, with something like a Galaxy 98VHP, you couldn't run a Amp that had a built in driver stage (like a 2x6 or 2x8) and the smallest Amp you could run would be a 6 pill or 8 pill....You might be able to get away with running a straight 4 pill, but it might be pushing it...

 

yes by all means get that ham ticket
that way you can fit right in with the other guys
on this link
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?action=wp&feedId=4746

 

Is that a good thing or a bad thing???????? (no ham ticket here......)

 

depends if you like playing russian roulette with $10,000.

I can think of better things to do with it than risk it all for an illegal radio.

Again with the incomplete quoting

 

If you've been on here very long, you know what I think about these scare tactics! Could you get in trouble? Yes, but the chances are slim to about none! Unless you are interfering with something you shouldn't. However, if you scare off the rookies until they know better, it's probably not a bad thing. Too many out there have more radio than they have knowledge on how to use it properly.

 

It's a real possibility.

And if you simply tell em to put in a 100w linear and suddenly they get nailed, they go to Joe Fed and tell him well super-trucker told me it was ok.

That's no defense.

Call it whatever the hell you want to call it. It is reality.

 

ON CB not much chance however many just can't resist going into 10 meters 28.085 is a common one ...

It is like running FM it's not legal ( everyone knows how stupid I think that is ) as long as you stay on CB on AM/SSB I'll go with what Mike said SLIM .....

 

I think I have decided that posts like that (MNdriver) are probably more useful than I first perceived them. Guys that have been in the game very long know he is just blowing smoke, and newbies probably will be better served starting out with a legal CB until they get it all figured out! (I apologize to you, Bruce, for not coming to that conclusion sooner!!)