What's a Tune & Align? - Leave it Stock?

Sparky's is a very good shop to deal with for starters. Basically what they do in a "Peak and Tune" is just go threw the radio before they ship it and make sure everything is properly tuned and the radio is doing 100% of what it should...Some shops charge extra for this...Sparky's don't.

And depending on how much you want to spend, they can do other things that can make the radio louder or also receive better. They can add what they call "Swing Kit's" or a "Top Gun Modulator" (which boosts the modulation) and "Receive Kit's" which helps bring in hard to hear stations better. (problem with the receive-kit's is most of the time they also bring in more static noise...I'm not to big on the receive kits)

I would let Sparkys do the P&T on it before you get it, and if you want more out of the radio (watts) ask them about their "Custom Radios"...

 

if your gonna use the coax and antenna that come stock with the truck then leave your radio stock. better yet having a stock radio with good coax and an antenna that is tuned will do just fine

 

THINK ABOUT THIS ......

If Sparky is free why do others have to charge you ?

EVERYONE knows I don't buy into this peak and tune stuff ..... Here we have 2,000 UHF radios we support they are at 12 TIMES the frequency that CB set is so they should be 12 TIMES the problem.

Last shipment on replacement ICOM F-43 Radios we got was 800 of them ... 2 had to go back because they had a problem thats .25%.
Industry standard for radios is 3% to 5% will not work at the door AKA DUDS or DOA's . Makes you wonder who tune it at the factory
Now I'm not saying a $39 CB radio is going to be this good and not that some CB radios are duds but anything past a quick check is nothing but a way for many shops to make more money off the buyer.

MODS on your radio ..... not all are bad or even illegal.

It is a known fact the 2sc1674 RF stage is junk in many cb sets replace it with a 2sc2999 and the receiver noise floor goes down 6 db ....
Many use cheap diodes in the NB and ANL and replacing them gives new life to killing noise.

Some transmiter mods do work but many are not good for the radio or the people who have to lissen to you on the air .....

Stay away from " WACK PACKS " or any mod that tells you your radio MUST have it ..... if this was true it would be a factory option ....

No company in it's right mind would ship radios badly miss tuned .... it's that simple ....

I run a grant LT as my CB station

 

Before I started getting tuned radios, I many problems with how off the shelf radios performed in the same truck. This is a problem that comes from mass production. Some radios do just fine while others off the same line will be junk. A peak and tune just means that the radio has been checked out and possibly adjusted internally to do what it is supposed to do and sound clean doing it. They are not heavily boosted in power.

 

If its free its for me ....... Sparky does it for free ....

I have bought over the last 47 years many CB radios and cant remember ever getting one badly out of tune.

With out some very good equiptment like my bench test station ( IFR-1200S ) at work or the Lamkin I have here in the shack I doubt many can really tell if a radio is tune or not ....

But again FREE is hard to beat ......

 

CB City also does it for FREE...But checking around and you'll see some shops doing the exact same check-up, but charge you anywhere from $20 to $40! But, the radio maybe $10 cheaper...GI Joe's usually has cheaper prices on their radios than the other guys, but charge extra for the P&T...

The way these things are mass produced now in places like China, IMO it's a good idea to have the shop your buying from to check it out first before it's shipped...Otherwise, you may as well take a chance and buy it off eBay.