R.I.P.-Galaxy 949... Ordered a General Lee to replace it

Last week my Galaxy 949 gave up. It still works, but when I transmit it has a lot of static and then fades. I also started noticing static when someone is talking to me, and they're not very far away, like less than a mile. We thought it was the mic, an Astatic 636L, only 6 mos old, but proved not to be. The radio has the RFX-75 added on. I purchased it about a year ago from Bells CB shop in FL. I'm not saying anything bad about him or his work. I honestly think that the Galaxy just doesn't hold up to the vibration and shaking my big truck dished out.

So today I ordered a General Lee from Dubs CB shop, IL-IN state line. Getting a big radio from him came from a few of our other driver's recommendations. I thought it would have been nice to get one of the real big radios, but can't see spending $400 or more. So I settled on the General Lee, since Dub has it on sale for $205. I contemplated getting a Connex, but the General Lee and the Connex 3300HP are basically the same radio, both made by Ranger.

I don't know if it would be worthwhile to send the old Galaxy to a shop, to see what could be done. I already have a little over $300 invested in it, and I know it's certainly not worth that now.

 

Problem I have is getting to any good, honest radio techs. There's really not any in Kansas, and I'm not OTR, just a regional driver. I would like to hold on to my Galaxy, mainly because I spent tooo much on it.

That said, I'm really liking this General Lee. I finally managed to get my antennas, dual Wilson Trucker 2k. Chan#1 is 1.2, Chan#40 is 1.7. I can live with that, especially since I drive a company truck.

I also checked the power using my little Radio Shack, SWR/Power meter. On both the 200 and 20 watt scales, for average it read 80 watts. Not sure how accurate that is, but would be nice if it was. However I know I can talk a lot farther with it.

While taking my 10, I sat and ran through all the FM bands/channels, and never heard anything. Where would I go (tune) to hear talking on any of these? A,B,C,E,F? I'm going to do some internet searching to see if there's some agencies in Kansas that use any of these.

 

So the ham ops would use any of those except the "D" band (which is setup for CB) ?

I also discovered that this made in Malaysia radio does not have the +10khz switch. It's been replaced with the bright/dim switch. I wish it was an on/off switch. The blue lighting for the channel and meter are way too bright for night time driving, for me anyway.

 

Just an update on my General Lee;

The other day I was talking to another one of our drivers, as we met, going opposite directions. He also uses an export. We were able to talk for 10 miles, and was not optimum conditions. Never had that happen with a stock, barefoot CB. Yep, starting to really like this one.

I've been using my Astatic 636L mic, but I've read where it might be better to use the Ranger mic that was included. I think I'll try it and see if there's much difference.