Questions from a Dummy

I know all of the loggers back home in Northern Cali run their CB’s and then they all run another one like it but it’s a different frequency and they get out further to each other. I’m not sure what the technical name is though.

 

Well I'll try to answer your questions.

1. You are correct, 10 meters is a ham band and 11 meters is the CB band. You will need to put the band selector on D for the CB band. You will need to move a small jumper inside the radio from pins 1-2, to pins 2-3 in order to talk on the CB channels. It's a jumper towards the front of the radio on the main board.

2. AM can be used on the CB frequencies or on the 10 meter ham frequencies. It depends on which letter the mode switch is on.

3. If your standard antennas are CB antennas, then yes it will work with the ARES II radio on the CB frequencies only. You can listen on the 10 meter band but not transmit without having high SWR.

4. If your radio only puts out 15 watts on AM, then the 10 amp fuse will be fine. If the sideband mode puts out 35 to 45 watts or so, then I would recommend running the power cables to the batteries, just to be safe.

I did see a video (I think from CB radio magazine) that showed that you can monitor the VHF frequency. If that's true then that's a pretty cool feature. You should be able to at least monitor the business band radios, if they are VHF radios.

 

Your welcome.

 

If this is a VHF radio antenna, you can't use it.

That is VHF and no CBs can't be programmed to work on it.

 

Your problem seems to be that with your current CB radio you can't talk to vehicles within a 2 mile radius. That is well within the capabilities of just about any CB radio setup at a modest cost. Here is what I would do.
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. First have the CB tested for output. Call a competent CB repair shop or better yet a Ham radio repair shop. Specify it is a CB radio, make and model. Ask if they can test for output and how much it would cost.
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. Then come back here to this topic in this CB forum and tell us the results. We need to know the make and model of CB. The make and size of antenna and type of coax.
. Before you spend money on a costly high output replacement radio, you should absolutely learn how to check you truck's RF (radio frequency) grounding.
NOTE: If your RF grounding is insufficient that can cause your CB radio to be damaged which might be the root cause of all your problems

 

Just about any CB Radio will talk 5 to 10 miles right out of the box...Your problem sounds like the antenna your using and where you have it placed...Properly tuned antenna on the roof will make a huge difference in how far you can talk...(and I'm not talking about antennas shorter than 6'...anything shorter than 6" is a waist of money)