Newbie CB question....

KGB091
I have a cb but I will not use it to communicate with the shippers or recievers especially if i am trying to nap. I tell them i dont have a cb and give them my cell phone number and then they call me when its my turn. Yes the biggest difference in price for a cb is not just bells and whistles but radio strength more it cost the BIGGER the cb you have.

 

If all you want is to talk close range like at a shopper stick with your $40 dollar radio the echo is on purpose and yes it's cause some of us think its cool. As for cost difference cb radios are like your stereo you can go from cheep ones that work great to big expensive ones that will make everyone around you go crazy (echo that you can hear for 50mi down the road) it's all a matter of what you like

 

Some of them wally world CBs are litterally junk. Now I don't have a problem with a properly aligned and peaked Cobra 29 or 25 or possibly a Uniden 78 or 68. Want to save money then go with the regular model that does not have the nightwatch feature or the weather feature or the soundtracker or DSC. These functions are not worth a hill of beans anyway.

If you go with a cobra or uniden and want it tuned up to work the way it supposed to then make sure you find a reputable shop the does not clip anything during their tuning process. I have gotten mine from Sparkys CB shack and they get peaked and aligned at no additional cost before they are shipped out. If you want a little more umph then give him a call and talk to him. But google Sparkys CB shack and it will come up.

Stay away from anything called SuperWack Pack. It is just a hack job that is done to radios by a certain radio shop. Also I was looking and GIjoes radios also clips things in radios as part of their peak and tune. It says so right on their website. Stay away from this type of hack job.

 

Differences between cheap vs. expensive radios.

In my eyes, there aren't much acutal issues between your standard CBs. Remember, all legal CBs are power limited to 4 watts by the FCC. The cheaper radios are just a radio, and models with the weather channels, noise toys, a bunch of switches, and chrome faceplates are more expensive.

A standard 4 watt CB is good for shortrange comms- comms at the distribution centers, to nearby trucks, etc.

The "export" radios are radios built to use on the 10 meter band, not the CB band. They have higher power. A radio shop can modify these to make them work on the CB band easily, and these will have higher power and be more expensive. If you go this route, please make sure that you get the radio properly aligned and tune so it does not cause interference or problems outside of the CB band. Run a reasonable amount of power, stay off the noise toys and don't act like an idiot, and you should be OK and not draw attention to yourself.

It should be noted that "export" radios are illegal to use on the CB bands by anyone (they are not type-certified) and they run more power. You run the (admittedly low) risk of being caught, and it's a hefty fine (18K) if you do. There are several posts on this subject, be sure to read up and such.

 

it depends on how you define cheap . buying basement priced radios that dont last will add up . do you have to buy a 200 buck radio to get a good one ? HECK NO !!

if you just want am operation a properly setup uniden 68 or 78 is a great radio for the money . if SSB is desired a galaxy cb is great . the old grants and side-mic-jack 148's are the real deal as far as performance goes .

the antenna/coax/mount is the most important part though . whats your antenna setup ? id personally stere clear of e-bay .

 

I would buy a ham radio and convert it to work on CB.

This way you have the best of both worlds.

You have a reciever that you can listen to different stuff while riding around the country.

You can talk on the CB bands with ease with a bit extra power.

Google these radios ICOM 706 MKIIG - YAESU FT-857D - KENWOOD TS-480HX (200 WATTS!) - KENWOOD TS-50S

These are a few radios that will let you have fun with the more frequencies to listen to while driving.

 

As long as you remember that technically you'll need a licence to operate them outside that CB bands and that to use non-type approved radios in the CB bands is illegal as well. But I assume that in the Us it works similar to here:
as long as you stay inside the CB bands and don't cause any interference elsewhere (Radio, TV, police, rescue workers, military, ham radio, air trraffic, commercial services etc.), you'd be ignored by the law.
If you go for a ham radio, why don't go for a ham licence? Then you can use such a much more sophisticated radio and basically talk to the whole world.
I know several long distance truckers here in Germany, who have a ham radio on board additionally to a CB radio. Heck, I have the same setup in my Land Rover, a CB radio and a ham 2m radio.
When I go travelling I'll take my HF tranceiver with me, though I will not operate it while driving, because it is too distracting.

Back to the original question:
The main difference between the cheap CB sets and the more expensive ones is that they are built to betterquality and that the receivers are more sensitive and contain better filters to remove unwanted junk like static.

Jan

 

i personally think the export radios are highly over rated . they are NOT ham radios because they are NOT fcc approved . exports are not legal to use for any kind of RF TX in this country (RCI/Ranger may be an exception) . i dont know about elsewhere . many folks use them and like thim though . they are kind of like marijuana .

the big strapping key down guys that run tens of thousands of watts and some even hundreds of thousands of watts use cobra cb radios and some unidens . why ? because you just cant make a export talk on frequency like a CB and they want every edge they can when theyre on the line compeeting . in the real world most probally wont tell the difference , sometimes a lil difference makes alll the difference .

if you want to listen to other channels get a scanner or a short wave radio .

just the opinions of a fat man here .