Cobra 29 LTD BT

I bought one when they first came out & have NEVER been happy with the way the phone works through it....great concept, poorly executed.

If the mic was "noise cancelling" in phone mode, it would be better...but I can set the mic down in the center of the dash and be outside of the truck fueling up and the mic still picks me up, so you can imagine all of the "background" noise the other end has to listen to. I'm waiting for Astatic or Road King to come out with an aftermarket noise canceling mic for the thing....but it ain't happened yet that I'm aware of. Too much noise leads to the phone breaking up...which are the 2 most common complaints I get from people I'm trying to talk to.

You also do not have to key up the mic to talk on the phone...which when coupled with a sensitive mic, leads to the person you are talking to hearing themselves echoed back to them through the phone. It would work a lot better if, like the old land line phones used to have a "mute" button, the mic were muted whenever you didn't have it keyed up....and you'd just key up to turn the mute off so you could talk.

One more thing I don't really like about it is that if you push & hold the BT button on the mic, it will redial the last number you called. If someone called you, and then the call was dropped, you can't call them back with a simple push of that button. You either have to dial your phone or wait for them to call you back again.

Like I said....it was a great idea....just wasn't put together very well.

 

Out of the box, it'll work like any other unmolested Cobra 29 CB radio.

 

Personally... as to the blue tooth there is NO substitute for the Blue parrot 250 headset. 2nd, the Uniden 880 is light years ahead of the cobra 29 unless you simply want the older *classic* style. I would not recommend the 29BT

 

I ran across these the other day:

http://customcbradios.com/Astatic-636L-Bluetooth-Microphone-for-Cobra-29-BT-Radio-P643980.aspx

http://customcbradios.com/-SkyThumper-Bluetooth-ST-65DX-Noise-Cancelling-Microphone-P2035064.aspx

They aren't made direct from the manufacturer and I don't know anything about the shop, but I guess the tech there builds them.

Dear Mods, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post links like this, so please forgive me if it is forbidden.

 

yeah, I've seen those before....but I'm not looking for a mic that has been altered with a cheap, ugly button that looks out of place. Now that I have no choice but to use it for any incoming calls I need to take while I'm driving, there may come a time when I decide to go with the altered mic...but I'd like to see what these aftermarket companies can come up with....IF they even bother with it.

 

Key phrase my friend

 

Yup. It all boils down to profitability. They aren't going to be very motivated to invest the time & money developing a better mic for a single radio model which is in very limited use....there's just no market for it, and therefore no profit. The flip side to that is that as long as the radio is such a pathetic execution of a pretty good idea, not very many people are going to buy the radio...

Until other radios incorporate the BT idea....hopefully with the needed improvements....and more importantly, pin the mic cord the same....it might be a while.