New to the cb thing

Got an 880 myself using mostly Peelot points, put on Firestix and seems to be goodenuff

 

What kind of attenna did the other driver put on, I assuming he drives the same truck, if it works good for him it should work for you. If you want to spend alot buy a Wilson 2000 or any other attenna with coil and steel whip, if you want to spend a little a Frances will work good, or somewhere in between a Firestick fiberglass or something similar will do.

 

Important factor to consider when buying an attenna is ease of adjusting for achieving a goid SWR reading. The coil and whip attennas adjust pretty easy by lowering or raising whip, and the Firestick has an adjustable screw on the top. The Frances is not adjustable but they tune pretty good right out of the package, in most cases.

 

Radio was delivered on Saturday as promised and I have it hooked up in my F-150 barefoot with a Wilson 1000 magnet mount antenna. Using a Dosy TC 4001 meter, the carrier is 4 watts and pep swing is 20 watts, modulation is around 85%. On air talked to a local around 10 miles away and he said it was clear with good modulation, however not as loud as my Cobra 29 NW LTD Classic, and that is using a SRA 198 mic on both radios. The receive is excellent and just based on my own observation, better than the Cobra 29. So obviously these are just my rough measurements taken with radio inline, it has not been on a bench with test equipment, but I thought I would share this information in case anyone might be interested in the PC 78 LTD. When I get back into my Big Truck and hit the road again , I will give it a try then.

 

I use a Uniden PC76xl, partly because you can literally make the radio have the same ears as whatever antenna set you attach to it. It's hard to explain. Basically make the static go away most of the time and keep the hellos and how are yas. I forget what they cost, but I won a hand of poker for it down in Calhoun AL off the 101 shop along 20 back in the day for it.

 

Thats a great radio radio you have there, I have a older Cobra 29 LTD that performs very similar, they probably have the same board and internals. These new line of Unidens, 687,787,680,880,980,68Ltd and 78LTD are all Surface Mount Technology boards and different animals from the older, and great models. I was ,quite frankly, surprised by the RF numbers OTB, because the 880 and 980s were at first kinda anemic stock.

 

Modulation is 100% on that particular radio when the Peaks are four times the carrier.
That means you're at 100% modulation at 16 Watts so I'm not quite sure how you came up with 85% modulation at 4 Watts Beyond 100%

 

Maybe the meter isnt accurate, its old, like I said these were rough measurements taken with radio inline, not on a bench with quality test equipment, maybe if I get a chance I will have a qualified tech check it on his bench, really doesnt matter though Im not going to have anything done to it.

 

Just make sure you have the Mic gain nob turned up as far as it will go.

 

Rechecked the PC78LTD on a friends meter and the carrier was 4 watts swinging 10 watts so that would explain the 85% modulation I was reading, I must of read the peak reading wrong ( getting old almost 58 ). Probably shouldnt of messed with it ( since its SMT and tuning pots are so small ) but I turned up the AMC a little and now have 4 watts swinging 16 to 18 watts. Have the radio hooked up in my cascadia now and overall am satisfied, TX and RX are good and everyone says its loud and clear, only thing is needle slams to the right when I talk, there is a pot labeled S/RF and that is probably for adjusting the needle but Im not going to mess with it and screw something up.