Another Cobra 29 Thread

A stock Cobra out of the box with a stock mic and stock tune sounds bad out of the box to me. The only way you are hearing truck drivers 30 miles away is if they aren’t using factory antennas and coax on these trucks nowadays. I will take this Radioactive General Lee any day over a stock anything, it gets great results.

 

Stock radios and stock antennas on volvo trucks often reach my modified receiver 30 miles away. Naturally, since their stock receive is like yours, it would often require an amplifier to speak to them at that distance. Stock radios rarely sound muffled unless the microphone is defective.

 

My receive was adjusted by my tech friend back in 2007, and I don't remember exactly what he did. I think it works pretty well in this 2017 Cascadia, and according to 618 in Dayton Ohio, 729 in the Great Lakes, 318 in Va, Dirty White Boy and 29 in North Carolina, 611 in Illinois, 357 magnum in North Carolina, some stations in Maryland, Texas and Florida I can't recall right now say it sounded good. (All this week)

50-70 mile contacts with base stations consistently, so it must not do too bad.

 

All those DX contacts don't even count since the incoming signal is probably equivalent to someone being 2 miles away. I've never had a conversation with a stock Cobra 29 from 50 to 70 miles away and I think the farthest I ever heard 4 watt radio was probably about 40 miles at the most. There was a guy giving a bear report at mile marker 281 off Interstate 40 in New Mexico and I was at mile marker 221 but I was unable to reach him since he probably had his squelch knob cranked up so I was unable to find out what he was talking on.

 

Yawn ....

 

You might want to wake up. Drink some coffee, traffic in Michigan in the mornings can get hectic I hear.

 

While that's a respectable accomplishment, it wouldn't happen in Mississippi. You are talking in a state that is a majority desert, with an elevation of 5700 feet above sea level.

The average elevation in Mississippi is 300 feet, and every highway is lined with 50-70 foot tall pine, oak, etc. Forestry is one of our biggest industries (62% forest land). I can say confidently your radio would be lucky to hear mobile to mobile 10 miles here on a normal day.

 

Had a coffee, on to a Gibraltar (that's what these places are calling a Macchiato). Traffic wasn't bad today, BUT I will be posting another old timer advice thread soon. As I age, I am less tolerant of "professional" drivers driving like idiots.

 

Precisely why I don't make constant reference towards that 60 mile contact especially since it was a one-time event, only a one way contact, and I always point to the 30 mile contacts which happen everyday mobile to mobile with mountains in between the vehicles.
I don't think elevation has much to do with anything so much as the terrain between stations. Flat ground at 10000 feet and flat ground at 300 ft should result in the same distance between stations. The moisture content of the ground has a drastic effect on performance as well though.

 

But Rabbi, CB signals don't go through two mountains. Maybe a Low Frequency signal might make it, but not High Frequency. I have to believe that when you're talking 30 miles with two mountains in between, there is some unique RF path(s) that allows such amazing performance. What could it be? Maybe line-of-sight?

I find the vagaries of such long-distance communications interesting. The problem is, without knowing them, reading about how one person's radio set-up gets 10 times the distance of another's can not only lead to an interesting hobby, but also to a frustrated disappointment. Knowing all the circumstances about why the performance differences occur is important in determining what category one falls into: happy hobbyist or disappointed failure.