Truckers Report Jobs

Find Trucking Jobs

Company Driver Company Driver Dry Van Dry Van Flatbed Flatbed Refrigerated Refrigerated Specialized Specialized Owner Operator Owner Operator
More Trucking Job Searches ⌄ Fewer Trucking Job Searches
⌃

Hello. New CB'er here

Discussion in 'CB Radio Forum' started by Stacker, Jan 18, 2012.

Page 1 of 3
  1. Jan 18, 2012 #1
    Stacker

    Stacker Bobtail Member

    8
    2
    Jan 18, 2012
    Near GTA, Ontario, Canada
    0
    Hi everyone. I'm not a trucker, just a new CB user. I have been doing a bunch of reading and found that this forum has a lot of the best input, so I thought I would join.

    I just bought a couple cheap CB's with some magnetic antennas. I mostly bought it for emergency roadside communication and for the purpose of being able to communicate with my wife if we're driving separate vehicles. I only have on tuned and installed now. I'm going to install the other one on Friday.

    My units are both Uniden Pro 520xl. Nice small units. Compact. Cheap. The hand mic is crappy, but it seems to Transmit/Recieve (TX/RX?) nicely within about 2 miles so far. Once I get the other one installed, my wife and I will play around and try to see what knid of range we get.

    Really, I have no idea what to expect from these radios for range, but we'll see. Anyways, I am here to learn. I may not post much, but I will read a lot and ask questions if I can't find the info I'm looking for.
     
    Stacker, Jan 18, 2012
    Stacker, Jan 18, 2012
    #1
  2. Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.

  3. Jan 18, 2012 #2
    seinb

    seinb Light Load Member

    102
    9
    Dec 19, 2011
    richfield id
    0
    welcome to the forum
     
    seinb, Jan 18, 2012
    seinb, Jan 18, 2012
    #2
  4. Jan 18, 2012 #3
    lowboyjay

    lowboyjay Bobtail Member

    40
    10
    Nov 26, 2011
    Bronx,New York
    0
    welcome i am new too and always reading on this forum,you will find plenty of helpful info and people here.i just got my radio and already looking to upgrade,lol
     
    lowboyjay, Jan 18, 2012
    lowboyjay, Jan 18, 2012
    #3
  5. Jan 18, 2012 #4
    Stacker

    Stacker Bobtail Member

    8
    2
    Jan 18, 2012
    Near GTA, Ontario, Canada
    0
    Haha, funny. Me too. I bought the uniden's I mentioned, but they are not SSB capable. Of course, I had never heard of SSB until I started reading around, but by then they already had arrived in the mail!
     
    Stacker, Jan 18, 2012
    Stacker, Jan 18, 2012
    #4
  7. Jan 18, 2012 #5
    Turbo-T

    Turbo-T Road Train Member

    1,953
    708
    May 31, 2009
    0
    Your range will depend on what kind of terrain you're in, the time of day, if skip is rolling (distant signals from other CB operators - really big right now), what type of antenna you're running, how high or low your SWR is, where on the car the antenna is mounted.....

    And so forth.

    Big thing to remember is your antenna is everything. Run the best one you possibly can. If you can tolerate a 9 ft antenna on your roof, a 102 whip will allow you to talk quite a ways. If that's too tall for your tastes, a Wilson 1000 is only 5 ft tall and is a good antenna. For best results run the antenna on the roof dead center of the car. And make sure your SWR's are 2.0:1 or lower. (I like 1.5:1)

    SSB is nice and lets you talk a bit further, provided the other party has a SSB radio and you don't mind having to dial them in.
     
    Turbo-T, Jan 18, 2012
    Turbo-T, Jan 18, 2012
    #5
    BOOTYMONSTER Thanks this.
  8. Jan 18, 2012 #6
    jessejamesdallas

    jessejamesdallas Road Train Member

    1,416
    855
    Oct 3, 2008
    Republic of Texas
    0
    Agree on the SSB...With a SSB radio and a decent antenna you can talk across the country without having to use high powered Amps.

    Just today I talked to guys in California from Dallas TX from my Magnum S 45 on 38 LSB from my work van...Hard to do that on the AM channels unless your also running a little power with the radio...
     
    jessejamesdallas, Jan 18, 2012
    jessejamesdallas, Jan 18, 2012
    #6
  9. Jan 18, 2012 #7
    cuzzin it

    cuzzin it Road Train Member

    3,638
    11,366
    Jan 19, 2008
    Berea, KY
    0
    I have a little Uniden (tuned/tweeked) that i used for 9 years. As it was said before antenna is everything ! And cable. But don't expect to get out very far.
     
    cuzzin it, Jan 18, 2012
    cuzzin it, Jan 18, 2012
    #7
  10. Jan 20, 2012 #8
    Big_m

    Big_m Heavy Load Member

    881
    265
    Oct 13, 2009
    Central Maryland
    0
    Also that little 520 is really a great talking radio if you have it peaked. And add a good antenna. You can look forward to seeing 7 or more miles range.
     
    Big_m, Jan 20, 2012
    Big_m, Jan 20, 2012
    #8
  11. Jan 22, 2012 #9
    Stacker

    Stacker Bobtail Member

    8
    2
    Jan 18, 2012
    Near GTA, Ontario, Canada
    0
    I have a Wilson 500 for one and a K30 on the other. Both are giving me about 2 or 3 kilometers so far. I have to get my wife to sit in and test the range with me at some point. I actually drove about 45 minutes to a Radio specialist store to have teh antennas tuned. Really nice guys.
    Durham radio is the name of the store.

    I was thinking about getting amplifiers for them and setting up a base station at home, so I could communicate with my family on the way home from work, but they are illegal and apparently easy to pinpoint so I am not going to bother.

    I've done a lot of reading on this since I bought them, and it all boild down to the antenna in the end.
     
    Stacker, Jan 22, 2012
    Stacker, Jan 22, 2012
    #9
  12. Jan 23, 2012 #10
    Macneil

    Macneil Heavy Load Member

    711
    426
    Dec 15, 2010
    Sudbury, ON., Canada
    0
    Next time I'm down south(Northern Ont boy here) I have to go visit that Durham radio store. Heard many good things from them!
     
    Macneil, Jan 23, 2012
    Macneil, Jan 23, 2012
    #10
  • Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.

    • Page 1 of 3