10 meter radio in a truck - legal question.

The same way on any ant. Just take it to a Cb shop and ask to get the swr checked most do it for free. might charge you to tune it.

 

While that is true, you and I live in a border state which in many places like in the eastern part of the UP and the south east part have border patrol people running around assisting the locals with arrests and inspections for drugs and such, they can enforce federal law. So an MSP CE officer pulls a truck over, spots the nice rig on the dash and he calls one of those border patrol guts who asks for the license, no license, they take the radio.

I've already been asked to see my Amateur Radio license at the border for my 10m rig.

Just because the thing isn't made for CB use.

 

I have no idea!

 

It works better than a" cobra" cobras have been scrap ever since they went to china! 12-15 years ago.

 

Ok some tidbits of info....

First, yes your Mirage will work on CB. It's marketed as a ham radio to skirt around the 4 watt 40 channel rule the FCC imposed. Besides your Mirage doesn't do SSB so it's not much use on ham bands even though it'll go there.

There's a possibility that it's built like crap thus might fail early as some exports seem to have this issue. Galaxy radios come to mind - they're notorious for cold solder joints and not able to sustain the rigors a semi can put them thru. That might be why Ridgeline suggested a Cobra.

Now....you see that band switch? Here's my advice to you....have a tech find out what band is CB.....and then NEVER touch that switch. Doing so might land you on the ham frequencies. Long short is they'll track you down (even while you're rolling) and turn you in. Also because transmitting out of band, unless you know how to tune your antenna for it, can damage the radio, in addition to the hefty FCC fines.

You asked about tuning an antenna. It's super easy. Get you an SWR meter from Radioshack, park the truck in an open area away from other obstacles to include other metal objects, follow the directions and set the antenna so the meter reads 1.5:1 or close on channels 1-40. Again make sure you're on the CB band. Otherwise on the ham bands (unless you're tuned for it) you will get a high SWR.

 

No one is going to track you down unless you and someone else wind up on ham frequencies and blab away for hours. Even then the chances are about 100k to one on anyone ever "catching"you. Hams like to think they are enforcing the law by busting someone a couple of times a yr. And with a million plus 10 meter illegal radios out there that is pretty weak. That said you need to stay on D or what ever setting your radio transmits CB on. Stay off other bands. They sound empty to most of us, but there are lots of communications going on that aren't verbal. Not a radio expert but have a couple of ham buddies. You could be interrupting actual business or other important transmissions and these folks might take the time to chase you down. Some companies like Roadway, FedEx others have been warned or fined for their drivers straying off CB and making the wrong folks mad.

 

We don't seem to chase anyone down but we are pretty much a self-policing group if we find someone using the frequencies that are allocated to us to use, we complain. If there is enough abuse, the feds do get involved, they have targeted companies before, they seem not to make a distinction between owner operators and company drivers.

However technically speaking the radio, for that matter all export radios are junk. They are cobbled together circuits that are put in a CB form that was used since 1975, they are truly archaic in this form when compared to commercial and ham radios out on the market for the last 15 years. It is done this way because most CB techs can't handle surface mount components nor understand how to read a schematic so it is a selling point to be able to "modify" the radio.

I said the 29 is a good radio and it is, it is a proven design that Uniden came up with and it is dependable. I have had several, the best is the one I bought new in the 70's and yes it is modified for better audio and a good solid narrow receive, it compares well to my Radio shack 452, which is really modified. I have several export radios I have bought and 'gotten' that were either not working or just cheap (I've paid a buck for one and three bucks for another - that's dollars, not 100 dollars) so I can say for sure by opening them up and looking at them they are junk.

ALL radios unless they are made here are made in a factory in a third world or China but the catch isn't where they are made but what quality controls are put in place by the company who is importing them. I've imported things from China (tooling like slug drills) and I had to make sure that the quality was to a specific standard and had to test every one out of 50 to make sure, this is more important in electronics where people think that it is alright to check one out of 500 or 1000 units.

To the OP, keep it simple, the radio you have is ok but if you want performance, then getting something that has echo and other things seems to be an overkill when you need to speak in a clear voice so people can understand you.

 

It will be a cold day in you know where when they will "take" my radio. It is NOT illegal to have and listen to any radio HAM or not. You just can't transmit.