Bells cb and why...

That all depends on if another fine tune radio is listening as well as terrain and conditions in between as well as the listening antenna there's lots of variables. The radios that are going to hear me the furthest with all other variables eliminated are going to be tuned by the same guy that did mine.
I'm not trying to tell people to go get work done by him I'm simply telling people that the next best thing is going to be a stock radio right out of the box. And just because I can quite often hear a Cobra 29 from 30 miles away doesn't mean that Cobra 29 is going to hear me from that same distance or hear another Cobra 29 from a distance greater than 10 miles. Naturally the receive sucks on them things right out of the box but it's as good as you're going to get without spending a fortune, and they sound great right out of the box.

As good as you're going to get without spending a fortune. Quite often less is more.

 

So if the only REAL benefit that comes from a Fine Tune radio, is when it's being used with another Fine Tune radio, then what's the point of spending 7x as much money for the Fine Tune over a stock Cobra 29? Especially considering that 99.9% of the drivers on the road dont have a Fine Tuned radio, and they can only get 3-5 miles to begin with? Am I missing something?

 

It means that when you bump into another one of his customers you'll be able to hear him and he'll be able to hear you from a freakish distance but it doesn't mean anyone else is going to hear you from any crazy distance in fact most people are going to lose you after 10 miles. Keep in mind there's lots of drivers that don't know how to use a radio and a crank the squelch all the way up to get rid of all that nasty noise and they're lucky to hear somebody a mile or two away, but when you bump into somebody that actually knows how to operate a radio it's actually kind of fun.

 

I get that. I've been driving for quite awhile now, and I've never heard any of his radios on the air other than SSB (or YouTube). So that is a REALLY small chance that your going to ever connect with another one of his radios while driving.
So basically, if your a driver, save the money and get a stock radio, but if you play on SSB then spend the big money and get one of his radios?

 

I guess what I'm asking is, if 99.9% of the drivers on the road are going to lose me after 10 miles, than what's the benefit of paying 7x as much to only speak to .00000001% of the people on the radio/road, and even then, it's only when the conditions are right, I'm on SSB, etc, etc, etc

 

So a better option would be a stock Cobra 29 ($125) running into a 300 watt amp ($150) to get 20 miles for 1/3 the price of the FineTune and still get the same distance?

 

It also depends on how you plan on using the radio. If you plan on using it in a tractor trailer you're going to not achieve certain potential when it comes to the receiver which makes the costs almost not worth it but if you put it in a car or use it in a base station application you'll be in a much better position to utilize the receiver potential. You're always going to get more noise in a tractor trailer which negates any extra sensitivity you might have in your receiver, rendering all that extra money wasted potentially. For a tractor trailer the best bang-for-the-buck is a stock radio. I'm not sure if you noticed how quiet my receiver is but if I install my radio in a tractor trailer I'll lose a lot of that benefit. You can take two identical radios and put one in a tractor-trailer and put the other one in a car or SUV and the one that's in the car or SUV will be able to hear the one in the tractor trailer even after the tractor trailer loses contact with the car or SUV.

Personally I don't recommend amps at all unless it was all set up by a specific individual and short of that I'll hear the Barefoot Cobra 29 long after I've lost contact with the Cobra 29 connected to an amplifier matched by an unknown individual. Amplifiers are completely useless if they're not set up by a competent technician. There's plenty of technicians that think they are competent that seem to be clueless and blame the amplifier for producing harmonics when in actuality it was the transmitter that produced the harmonics and the amplifier was simply doing its job and amplifying what was put into it. There's been plenty of times I had a two-way conversation with a driver on a Barefoot radio and he was running side-by-side with another driver with a big amplifier and I couldn't even hear the guy with the amplifier until he got within 8 or 10 miles of me but I could hear the guy with the stock radio 20 or 30 miles out even though both of those guys were right next to each other. There's no such thing as plug-and-play when it comes to amplifiers.

 

I agree with what your saying. And your advice is spot on I believe. TBH, I'm not sure it's worth the extra money for the FT radio if it's going into a big truck. My radio is a tool for my job. If I was one of those guys that are really into CBs and used one in my personal vehicle or something than it would prob be worth it. But for a big truck, I dont think it is.
IDK if I finally just got lucky or what, but I'm running a stock Galaxy 929 into a Palomar 400 and have had numerous convos with guys 20+ miles. It's never been "matched". Just pulled it out of the box, lowered the DK, and let it run. It doesnt splatter (I had a friend listen on ch 18 & 20) and people have told me it sounds good and clean. Hopefully I just got lucky....for once. Lol. Could it be better if it was "matched"?......maybe, maybe not.....and that would mean I would bring the "tech" back into the equation.
My goal was to find a "plug-n-play" set up that would work 15-20 miles and eliminate any "technician" involvement since 99.99999999999999999999999% of them dont know the difference between their ### and a hole in the wall. Lol.
I guess the first thing to do would be to define your definition of "plug-n-play" results. My definition of those results is to have a setup that is capable of transmitting and receiving (another capable radio) up to 20 miles. My setup accomplishes that. So by my definition.....it is a plug-and-play setup. Your definition my vary.

Thanks for the input Rabbi.

 

You mean he is quite busy making a bunch of videos that basically say the same thing. You know, pay attention. Not sure when he has time to work on a radio.