Reaching the moon

You'd be surprised with mobile, back around the last sun peak I made contacts with Jamaica, somewhere in the South Pacific, Northern Alberta...all from southern New England parked in my Blazer. I would add P.R. but they're always blasting channel 9 & I'm not going to talk on there unless it's an emergency....even if no one is listening

That spot was good for long range but I couldn't talk to anyone in state, still is rather difficult. When I lived another 900' up in elevation, a bit easier.

Around a month ago I was getting confirmation from OK, SC & TX right before a thunderstorm. Great skip that day, then I realized my mobile turned base with a 102" was cooking at 5+ swr & had to stop. Got loud & clear reports regardless, that was a 200w radio.

Just think of watts like you would with your stereo, more watts means louder. You'll hurt some ears nearby & you'll be heard further away.

Personally I'd go with as much as you can afford. If I had the cash for what those guys around the LA swamps & AL are pushing (hear em on 6, 11 & 15 from dawn til dusk), that would be fun.

 

To me band conditions are most important for long distance communication, with the antenna system being second. What radio are you using? If your reaching out 40 miles to a base station, I would say your radio setup is about as good as it gets on the CB band. The formula for really increasing your range on the 11 meters band, is to get a ham license. Ha.

 

All depends on what the amp can take input wise. Pretty sure my amp can only take 10w max but puts out 500.

I've seen some nice strykers, as for the price point depends on what you have to burn. I went with a used dx55hp galaxy but it's still missing features that I want like ssb & channel scan, that with no built in swr meter or adjustment which is annoying.

If you're gonna go for a big boy, make a list of all the possible features which you'd want then narrow it down by those that have them all.

Sometimes it seems like an arm & a leg for one more option but looking up the corresponding external unit to add on instead, that's often twice the price.

Once you have the model squared away, then find an amp suited to what you want. You can either get one that will handle whatever the radio will throw at it or have the radio tuned to the amp.