Help a newbie out

The Cobra 29 is a good simple user friendly radio, sounds like tour trainer had antenna or coax problems. The radio is only as strong as your antenna and coax

 

The number 1 thing everyone does wrong as soon as they hook up their first CB is to ground the antenna by placing the white plastic washer upside down in the mount. If the washer's turned the wrong way you can't hear a thing and won't transmit very far. The more you use your radio, the more damage you'll do to it by keying up with the antenna grounded.

Energy comes through the center of your antenna cable, through the mount and into the antenna. So the antenna should not touch the metal mount, the base should be insulated with the white plastic washer. The braided cable around the outside of the cable is the ground, the radio has to have a solid ground for the antenna to radiate properly. A lot of truck cabs don't ground so good.

When it's working well your CB should transmit 6 to 8 miles under good conditions.

 

Sounds like your training will be similar to the radio's performance
But lets hope not.
Your trainer is likely to be lazy and indifferent to his radio performance,its pretty simple stuff once you understand the basics and steer clear of the perfectionists you find on public forums.

ESPECIALLY those that are Ham Op's and those wishing to "one day be"

 

The three most important things I can tell you about cb radios are:
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1. Never, ever operate a cb radio unless it is connected to a real cb radio antenna or a dummy load. Use a real cb radio antenna and not the rabbit ears antenna for a TV or anything else.
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2. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS check the SWR reading using a separate stand alone SWR meter BEFORE you go using the cb radio. The SWR reading is the most vital information that tells you if your radio has a connection problem or it is safe to use the radio without causing damage to the radio.
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3. NEVER, NEVER, EVER operate a radio if the SWR reading is 3.0 or higher. With that high a SWR, you have a connection problem. Uncorrected, you will damage the power transistors and turn your radio into basically junk.
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If you want a basic not so expensive cb radio setup that gets out several miles, that is easy to do.
First get a good antenna. An inexpensive 4, 4 1/2 or 5 foot antenna will suffice. Forget the small 2 and 3 foot antennas on a tractor. If you can afford an antenna with a loading coil that would even be better.
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Next, if you require coax cable, I recommend 12 feet or less of RG 58 coax. It is inexpensive and if you are NOT using a high power amplifier, is adequate for your use. RG 8 is more expensive and is not cost effective for a basic cb setup.
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Finally, the radio. Clearly you have to have a cb radio. But you can keep the cost down by limiting the bells and whistles. The dirty little secret is that while all legal cb radios have an FCC legal limit of 4 watts of power, just about every legal cb radio that is factory stock has about 3 watts of power output. In factory stock condition, more money does not get you more power. Higher cost gets you more features (do you really need those features?) and a more prestiguous brand name. The Uniden PC 78 is equivalent to a Cobra 29. The Uniden PC 68 is equivalent to a Cobra 25.
You can save some money by purchasing a Cobra 25 instead of a Cobra 29. Or a Uniden PC 68 instead of a Uniden PC 78. Also keep in mind that cb radios come up on sale from time to time. For example: At Pilot and Petro truckstops, the Cobra 29 Ltd is $90 during July and August 2011 plus there is a $20 mail-in rebate.

 

We used to have a driver that had one of them black 30 dollar cheap,cheap CB radios. Can't remember if it was a uniden of a cobra or what it was. It was the cheapest thing you could buy out of the truck stop. I went through and fixed some of his antenna issues and he was easily comunicating over 7 miles.

So yes, go over the antenna setup in the truck before looking for a radio.
One of the biggest mistakes I see is people taking one of the antennas down or unhooking it while still using the factory cophased or dual antenna coax/cable. This is a no no. Dual antenna coax uses different coax then single antenna systems. Single antenna systems use 50 ohm coax while dual antenna systems use two 75 ohm coax of equal lengths per side.

Some trucks have antenna mounts that are easy to see and not tucked inside of a mirror. These are the ones that people usually screw up by takign them apart and installing the plastic washer improperly. The plastic washer goes ontop of the mount. It MUST be inplace. If it is missing or on the bottom of the mount then the antenna is shorted to ground.

There is a huge amount of information about antenna RF grounding, ground plane etc on the net. So much that I could probly find 100s of links to it.

Oh and you don't need expensive antennas to get the job done either. Don't waste a bunch of money on expensive kgillion watt antennas etc. I have seen and heard many great working radios using some of the more popular fiberglass antennas that don't cost an arm or a leg. Just don't get the short antennas less the 4 ft long unless you will have clearance issues. I like to run the longest possible antennas I can without worrying about taking out small planes and overpasses LOL.

 

We used to have a driver that had one of them black 30 dollar cheap,cheap CB radios

Midland I have 2 of them ....

 

Early Cobra 19's also worked real good

 

What he needs to do is learn that you know really nothing about radio with all of your very dumb post and comments. Just look at your dumb statement about his trainer being lazy. Because his CB doesn't have the range? A CB has nothing to do with his training. And Hams know more on the hows & whys then you will ever know. But you are right you're being pretty simple because you don't know the basics. Hams know more on the hows & whys then you will ever know. Lik everyone here has told you. You never add anything of any value just a lot of Hype! You need to learn what's truth and facts before you mislead again. It must really hurt inside when you can only post untruths.

 

YUP ....Question for you

How many years of electronics training do you have and what licenses to you hold