Portable CB Radios

I slip trucks weekly, and many of the older ones have bad CB antennas. So I started using a handheld. I bought the cheap & dirty $45 Wal-mart couple of years back. It has the regular max legal specified 4 watt output, 40-Ch, etc.
It definitely has it's limitations: can usually hear everbody out there (esp. those w/linears), but braodcast range is limited inside the cab. I mainly use for dealing with custs & listening to weather/bear (CA!) reports. Nice to carry on person if waiting for cust notification and still want to 'move around.' The 12-volt input jack is worn out, and takes 9 of 1.5v AA batteris. If really important & want to use daily on the road, I'd say get an 'up-scale' handheld---stay with brand names that have good track records.

 

i wouldn't get a "hand-held" cb radio.

i would say to get a cheap radio shack cb, or maybe get a midland/uniden/cobra "mini" cb, usually under $60.00 and less on sale, or the internet. then, i would get the "vise-grip" antenna mount, a 2-or 3 foot Francis fiberglass antenna, and about 9 feet of coax.

now, you would have a "spare" set-up, and can attach the vise-grip mount to the mirror bracket, maybe use a bungie cord to hold down the cb to the dash, plug into the cigarette lighter, or use the dash mounted power studs....................

all can be had for under $100......................

then, when you get into your own rig, or move onto another company, you store this "Spare set-up" into a storage compartment in your rig, and buy a bigger cb radio. this way, you'll always have a "real" cb radio instead of a really useless hand-held unit...........