The company I work for slip seats trucks and I'm getting tired of plugging my 29lx up and taking it home with me everyday, I've been looking at the handheld do any of you have experience with them?
I used a Midland handheld for a while. The stubby antenna provided isn't optimal, and mine only got out maybe half a mile. I ended up using an external antenna and rigging coax anyway, which negates the appeal of a portable for me. I'm planning on building a box and going back to my Cobra 29.
Try looking up slip seat box, on google. A lot of slip seaters use these. It maybe something you would want to try. Usually those handheld radios don't work so well. Just a thought.
The handhelds do work OK, but don't expect much from them. If you need to monitor a channel while sitting in a waiting lot, or wondering which lane is open in a backup, it'll work fine. For talking to your buddy a couple miles down the road, you'll need a better antenna. At that point, you might as well go with a regular mobile unit on a lighter plug.
A slip seat box is fine but you still have to install an antenna. I can do the whole thing (radio and antenna) in about 15 minutes on our trucks (Cascadia). The new KW 680s are a little quicker because I've just been using the factory antennas. I had to switch to a Cobra 25 to fit in the hole overhead though.
Main reason why hand helds dont work all that well is because they run short antennas. However something you CAN do....on some hand helds they have an aux jack on them that looks like an RCA jack. It;ll say "ant" on it. They make a connector that looks like an RCA phono plug but on the other end has the female CB antenna jack type plug. I've hooked one of these to a full size antenna using standard coax, with good results.
