Sparkys Cobra 29

Me personally I'd save your money on the Topgun Compressor, Topgun Modulator, and Skythummper vortex Digital Echo board and just get the radio with the rfx, throw on your astatic mic and be done with it. But to each their own.

 

Understandable here, but as soon as the FCC guys see a heat sink on the rear of the radio, they're going to know it's been modded and all bets will be off.

Your only other option is to install the whole radio so as to where only the face plate is shown and all else is hidden (i.e. a cubby hole) but then you will have to make extra darn sure you have adequate ventilation around the RFX's heat sinks (i.e. a fan to blow fresh air across) or it'll give up on ya in the middle of a winded convo.

 

My experience with the Galaxy exports I've had (old 33, 66, 93, 95 and 99) is that they incoming sound is more level than on the Cobras(29) and Uniden(Grant XL) that I've had. Way less fiddling with turning up the volume knob to pull in distant signals and back down when a close one keys up. Galaxy CB radios may be the same, but I don't know for sure, never owned one. As far as an actual compressor for the receive audio, there's not one that I know of, but you could probably rig something up with the external speaker jack and an external compressor. I'll also add that the big meter on the Galaxies is easier to glance at while driving.

Those radios with the RFX do not need any more modulation, they are already over modulated with a 12 watt deadkey and 100 watts of modulation. I would bet that Sparky would talk you out of putting the modulator on one of these radios. If you're serious about transmit voice compression, I'd look at an external one that you can control from the outside, there are purpose built units for this. I'm not knocking the Top Gun compressor, just know that there are other choices.

Who are you worried about seeing you with an export? I'm with Turbo-T, that heat sink on the back of that Cobra will stick out like a sore thumb to anyone who knows what they're looking at. The mosfet finals that everything comes with now will do about what the old dual 1969 final radios would do, which really is plenty for just about anything. Looking at Sparky's website, he has refurbished 48Ts on sale for less than what you'd be spending on that Cobra by the time you added the goodies, and you'd have a whole lot more radio. He also has plain Cobra 29s and Galaxy 949s for $90, then you could add a linear and still be at $300 or so.

If this isn't long-winded enough, I really like those Astatic linear load antennas. I found a couple of the 3k versions on the clearance rack at a Petro last week for $20, and I've been pretty impressed with them as I've run them this week. The receive is great, it seems to get out well, and it's really broad-banded. I put the second one on for my stereo antenna and had no problem listening to the Grand ole Opry on 650AM WSM out of Nashville last night as I was driving through Oklahoma.

 

The RFX install does work well on these radios for the most part. Decent filtering (low pass filter) and teflon coax is a nice feature. When I had mine done by Al I asked to lose a cap in the install to bring down the DK for driving an amp.
Picture of the rear of the RFX Install on the 29 I have.

 

Buy a good CB set buy a 200 watt amp and your set .....

 

I am here to tell you, don't waist your money on the Topgun mods and the echo board. Very seldom to people respond to radio users with echo. As for the top gun stuff. A waist of time because Sparkies Cobra is already a screaming machine to start with. The top gun stuff just causes it to over modulate which means turning things down so people can understand you.

Why do I say this, well because I spent the money on the top gun stuff and wish I hadn't.

Just get the RFX cobra 29 with the stealth mods and you will be good to go.

 

If you can't get out any further than the truck before or after you, I'd say you have other issues than the radio.

First and foremost, the antenna is the heart and soul of any CB radio. Buy a good one and you can talk quite a ways. But one of those 2 foot ones and you might as well yell out the window to the next driver.

Second, you must have a low SWR. Meaning you want your SWR to be at least 1.5:1 if at all possible. 2.0:1 is ok, just that you've lost 11% of your range as opposed to only 4% with a 1.5:1 SWR. If your SWR is 3.0:1 or anything more, stop transmitting on the radio or you will damage the final resistors.

I'm going to assume you don't know what an SWR meter is or how to do an SWR check. Get you one of these: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2036239 which is p/n 21-534 at Radio Shack. You'll also need a 2 foot jumper coax to go with it.

Read the instructions carefully on how to work the meter. Basically what you will have to do is hook this inline with your radio and antenna. Then you pull the truck away from all trees, buildings and especially anything metal. Turn on the radio and calibrate the meter to the vehicle (the book shows you how, easy as pie) then you key up the mic and don't speak into ti and once calibrated, see where the needle falls. Do this on channels 1, 20 and 40.

If the needle falls anywhere in the 3 or higher, look into bad grounding of the antenna, bad coax, maybe the antenna is too close to the truck causing too much reflect to go back down into the antenna (which not only keeps you from getting out but also goes back to your finals as heat and burns them up).

If your needle goes below the 3 (again a 1.5:1 SWR is idea, 2.0:1 is "ok") and you still can't get out, you need a better antenna.

Hopefully this helps you out some, but really check the antenna first....chances are you really don't need a hi powered radio or an amp, you just need to ensure you have a good antenna working at 100% efficiency.