ELI5 for CB radios

I've never built antennas specifically for the Cascadia but I always start things out with a tape measure to figure how far off the ground the mounting location will be and then I subtract that distance from 13 ft 6 in height restriction and that tells me how long to make the antenna. Then I tune the coil to match the physical length and then I'm done.

 

With the same truck and antenna, that 510 will talk just as well as the 25, 29, 880.

 

Yes it is, I have one but the stock mic is the one to use..I stuck an astatic noise cancelling mic on it and it seemed like it didn't like it.

 

That one does sound good with a stock mic. Lots of shippers and receivers use them to talk to the truck drivers because they are cheap, so I've heard a bunch of them on the receiving end.

You have to practically be eating an Astatic to get it to sound right. If you're even an inch or two away, it will sound muffled. The 19DX probably doesn't have enough gain to feed that mic.

 

About all I use nowadays are the little compacts, including the Midland 1001z, Uniden 520XL and Cobra 19 DX IV. I like 'em because they're so handy, and they work the legal 4-Watt power range about as good as bigger radios with lots more knobs and adjustments. I like my little "slip-seat friendly" compacts.