What To Look For In A CB Radio?

Any if the main brands are good. Make sure you don't grab the cheapest one. Don't take it to some rip off and let then do anything like a "wack pack". Do not let them cut thr limiter! More important is your coax and cable. Grab a good top loaded 5/8 wave antenna, a d feed it with RG-8X coax. On a single antenna setup, length doesn't matter, contrary to what many would like you to believe. A properly matched setup will yield excellent swr regardless.

 

Ok first do to your question I suspect you do not have an FCC license. The FCC has very specific laws regarding radios. MODS are in fact Illegal, with that said I agree with ramkatral any major brands are good. Don't go to a random radio shop and get hack job mods done. you should study AM,FM,SSB(USB and LSB), SWR, modulation, talkback, echo, and what they are actually used for! for a new to radio person, cant go wrong with a cobra 29ltd power peaked and tuned, aligned, and rx tuned, good tuned antenna(stalker,predator,wilson,k40), no coil in coax, run your own power straight to batterys use ibnf30 noise filter, rk56 or 636l mic and you will have good performance. customcbradios and bellscb are good shops. I'm running DX98VHP 10meter 200+ pep on stalker 10k "PROPERLY" tuned, honestly nobody needs this much radio in a truck.

 

Misconception. You can, in fact, coil your coax to form an RF choke to prevent common mode currents radiating back down the line inside the cab. It doesn't hurt your output. In fact, it prevents CMC loss and improves output.

 

ramkatral do you have data on this? I have never tried it. Very interested.

 

Yup.

http://signalengineering.com/ultimate/coax_basics.html

Also personal experience. I put a linear on my cophased mobile system. I starts getting my voice bleeding into my truck radio when I turned it on and swr went nuts. I formed a choke right at the base of the antennas and my swr went back to normal and no more in cab radiation.

 

They also talk about the fact that coax length only matters in a proper cophased setup.

 

Thank you I was sitting here trying to figure it out. my brain wouldnt get off (longer do to coil=ohms) for some reason.

 

Agreed, most people think just throwing two antennas on is better then one properly set up. But your right "properly co-phased" is great. What linear do you have?

 

Just a KL203 behind a cobra. Saving up for even bigger punch. Working on getting more knowledgeable and getting my amateur license soon thanks to help and guidance of our resident HAMs here.

Yea, truly setting up cophased antennas is much more involved. You don't really get any gain out if it due to them being so close together either. At most it improves your radiation pattern.