CB radio or police scanner?

Breadtrk nailed it. Any yah-hoo who can afford to hang a banner sign on a camp trailer at a truck stop, and who owns a set of jeweler's screwdrivers, can sometimes not break all the transformer cores or set a transmitter into self-oscillation with nothing more than a light bulb dummy load and a pair of flushcut wire cutters and give the impression of having turned your previously OK radio into something that can pull that rare station in East BF Egypt or Pitcairn Island, and enough other yay-hoos on the air will tell you your station sounds awesome, even with just a two-foot Barjunk whip dangling off a piece of duct tape under your chassis.

The antenna system (to include connectors, coax, mount, etc.) is the single most significant factor you can easily modify that will benefit both your transmitted AND received signals. Most CBs come stock out of the box aligned to nominally OK specs, even if they may err to the side of caution (by not having the FCC breathe down their necks). The radios in my van and the LIttle Woman's car got only a slight boost in modulation (but still under the allowable limit) before installation, but we didn't scrimp on antennas.

HTH
73

 

Your chances of being able to hear further are about 2 out of 300. Those aren't very good odds unless you choose the right technician.

 

go on the tune in radio app on your iphone or whatever and pretty much listen to anything under the sun

 

remington, indiana CB SHOP at the PETRO has a cobra 29 base station for $100 . maybe you can ask to get it peaked and tuned so it will do 30 watts and recieve a extra mile or two , also look for a linear that has a pre amp in it to boost your recieve signal , sometimes during a rain storm you can talk across country

 

My Cobra 19 Ultra III quit working under warranty in December. I sent it in under the one-year warranty, and they sent me a new Cobra 19 DX IV in the return mail.

These little compact units have full legal power from the factory but have fewer knobs and features to fine-tune things. Since I use my CB only for gathering and giving information while driving, I don't need or want conversations beyond a few miles from my rig. For that, they are great for such things as accident reports and which lane to get in, road hazards, weather, etc. I'm in it to get and give information about things that are useful for safe driving.

I use two antennas with my little CBs. One is a Wilson 1000 with about a 60-inch whip on my truck, and the other is a K30 with a 35 inch whip on my car. Both are magnetic antennas and work well just stuck in the middle of the roof on my truck or on the trunk of my car.

So in answer to the original question, that's about all you need to listen and talk right out of the box.

I'd encourage you to dip your toe in the water and have a little fun with the CB you're thinking about getting. For less than a hundred bucks for the radio and antenna, you're in the game.

 

There is a police scanner app you can download on your smartphone he able to choose quite a few different

 

Scanner with a decent antenna.
Lot more to listen to than just CBs which is all BS anyway.
Any Scanner will be able to pickup CB Traffic.
What you are wiling to spend will determine what else you can listen to.


Few states do have laws against it, but I wouldn't worry about it.
http://www.fireline.org/scanlaws/scanner5.html
Not like they can detect it.
If you get pulled over put it up. Problem solved.
How often does one get pulled over anyway.
Pretty sure I've been in every states were Scanners are illegal.
Guess how many times I've been bothered about it.

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Those Apps are no more legal than carrying an actual SCANNER in most places.
If that's what one is worried about..
And you can only listen to what's available.
Not what you want too/how you want too listen.

What is this App? Never heard of it.
Like to know how you're supposed to be able to listen to CBs at your Location?

If it's anything like a Scanner App...someone has to be broadcasting a signal they're picking up from THEIR Location.

Of course if you ever wanted to talk, Scanner isn't going to work for that.