Hello, I’m new to cb world and bought a cobra 25LTD. I’m familiar with the basic controls and what the radio can do but what does the meter readout mean? What does that tell me and is it Important to know? It goes from 1 3 5 7 9 then +30dB. Just wondering that this readout is telling me, can anyone clarify for me?
The meter is just a guide as to how strong a signal the radio is receiving. The bigger the number, the stronger the signal is. When the needle is around +30 db, it usually means that the person maybe really close to you, like if they are sitting in the same parking lot as you are. Or it means that they maybe running lots of power, and they could be 2 states away from you. The thing to remember is that these meters aren't very accurate, they are there to just give you a rough idea as far as signal strength goes.
Ahh okay gotcha, so the red part of the meters does NOT mean I’m in a “danger zone” where I could potentially be damaging the internals of the radio right? Its just a meter to tell me how much power I’m receiving/ putting out? One other question I had was I was talking to a guy and he was asking me what my modulation was reading, does that mean the numbers on the meter? Thank you
If the needle is in the red zone of the meter, it won't hurt anything. Unless someone is really close, and you see and hear the needle slamming to the right, then you should turn the RF gain knob down (counter clockwise). No idea why the other fella was asking about your modulation reading. Some radio meters have a modulation scale on the meter, but the cobra 25 doesn't. The only way to know would be to buy an external swr/power/modulation meter. Most new radios are set around 70 to 80 % modulation from the factory.
okay that makes more sense, I’m gonna go out and buy a swr meter and jumper today and tune in my antenna
Tuned it in. Was getting about 1.7 on channel 1 and just under 2 on channel 40. For just messing around with the cb is this SWR okay?
That won't hurt anything. Most guys like to get the swr around 1.5 and call it good. Others try to get it to 1.1, Which to me isn't necessary. I like to adjust the swr on channel 20, and let channel 1 and 40 be whatever they are.
