how much......

Believe it or not, your Cobra 29 can talk 3 states away too. You just have to have very good skywave propagation conditions (aka "skip"), a low SWR of about 1.5:1 and a good antenna. I personally have talked from Missouri to West Virginia and Pennsylvania on a 4 watt Cobra 21 (predecessor to the Cobra 25) and a Wilson 1000 magnet mount on top of my pick up truck. Another time I talked from Missouri to Florida using nothing but a Uniden PC68LTW, again 4 watts, and a 102 whip antenna in the bed of my pick up truck.

Now as for your question of how much does the booming operators have...is a loaded question....sort of like asking how much hp does it take to make a car go 200 mph. Those booming operators could have as little as $1k in their set up....or they could have $10k. It really all depends on who you're hearing and what they're using to transmit with.

HTH

 

The sun is very active and its charging up the ionosphere...Get off of 19 and go to a quieter channel and see if you can shoot some skip....

 

He could be a base station on a hill with a beam antenna....and maybe a small box....or he could be one of the types you hear on channel 6 who have a Suburban with 2 big antennas and 6 alternators to power the massive 20 kW boxes in the back sending all that RF out.

Heck FWIW I could get on 38 LSB, holler out my numbers, and get a pile up going of everyone trying to come back to me. And all I had was a Magnum 257HP, a TNT HD 600 4 pill amp and a 108 whip from MFJ. LOL most would consider my set up as a mud duck set up.

 

Praise ye that old simple piece of 108 grand inches of steel and sometimes that steel spring
And ye can do wonders on 11meters (cb); As for cost, koncrete cowboy, take a look at my
post "Just got my H & Y and Copper Electronics catalog" referencing the out of production
but still available SSB radios. . . . . . . . Do not 4get 2 ground that vehicle well!
Aim High, ur gun, ur ambitions or ur antenna