New to CB's

As for antenna's, I suggest that you check out the CB forum for threads about antenna's. Boy are you opening up a can of worms. For a stock CB radio most people here suggest one of the Wilson antenna family. If you are looking for a more modestly priced antenna try Firestik or Francis among others. If you are driving a tractor trailer, I personally do not suggest any antenna shorter than 4 feet in length. If you do not have overhead clearance problems an inexpensive 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 foot antenna should work rather well.
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Before you go spending money, ask around at your company and find out just who are the guys that are really good with CB radios. Talk to them and get some advice. Maybe one of them will check your SWR reading for free or at least cheaply. Who knows, maybe you can try their antenna on your truck for a test and see which antenna you like best.
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Just a thought. Gotta get off the computer for a couple of days. Good luck.

 

Right...you don't need a 5k antenna...that's merely a gimmick. You do want the best antenna money can buy because the antenna will make or break any radio. However an antenna that claims to handle 5k watts of power doesn't make it the best. Me personally I like Wilson antennas.

Some CB shops can/will set the SWR for you but not all of them. Plus IMO you'd be better off to buy an SWR meter and learn how to do it yourself. It's not hard to do and it comes in handy if you ever have to remove the antenna or if you want to put your set up in another vehicle. My 2 cents I prefer the $50 Radio Shack SWR meters. However you can find the Radio Shack SWR meters for less than that on eBay.

 

The 25 has a Transmit Power meter, NOT an SWR meter. What you describe is thusly normal.

RadioShack has a decent external SWR meter.

 

Your radio does 4-5watts no antenna will change what the watts is on the radio. the watts on the antennas is just how much power that antenna can handle. Some people run illegal amps or sometimes called liners. Your distance is all about having a good antenna setup with the lowest swr ratio possible. Now most cb shops will test your swr for you for free. Once you have your swr low and your antenna system set up then you can look at the radio. But get your swr checked 1st. If it is high then you may have damaged your radio. Most times cheaper to buy a new radio then to get it fixed by a hack job cb shop. If you do decide to get a radio peaked and tuned don't take it to just anybody. Take it someplace good like to Randy at Big O's in INDY, or Al at Sparky's CB Shack in Westville,IL, or to Q5 in Madison,WI. Those are some of the best people I have found via searching though thousand of pages on these forums and others.

 

Because CB radios are AM, and AM picks up all sorts of noise generated from motors, fluorescent lamps, overhead power lines, lightning strikes, etc. You will notice one day you may have a ton of static and the next day hardly any at all.

The squelch more the less sets a threshold in what signals can get thru. However the less static you have, the farther you will be able to hear someone and vice versa.

And yes the higher you turn the squelch, the stronger a signal has to be to get thru to your radio. So in other words if there's another driver 5 miles away that is yakking away non stop and you only want to hear someone that's a mile away, you turn up the squelch.