CB Radio, what do you really need. (1 Viewer)

[sbman]

I have the Uniden 520XL mounted in my dash. It fits well, but you do have to get agressive with cutting stuff that's in the way to make it fit. I made it such a tight fit that it just slides (shoves) into place. It never comes loose even with heavy off road use.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/search/re...e=xm2&linkId=87c1c88425df0b0c370cd20e47535ee2

Now I also have a dual band HAM installed, but you asked about CB.

The fun part is the antenna. The radio is pretty cheap like $40. Where and how to put the antenna?

This is what I did.

To do what I did you need these parts:

I used a right angle adapter on the back of the Uniden ($10 for two, maybe you can find a single)
Amazon.com: B00NQNTQSK

A firestick tuneable FL3-B antenna ($18):
Amazon.com: FireStik FL3-B Three Foot FireFly Antenna With Tuneable Tip (Black): Home Audio & Theater

A firestick antenna spring ($10):
Amazon.com: B00042LC9M

Mounting bracket ($10):
Amazon.com: Firestik SS-174 Stainless Steel Hood/Trunk Channel Mount: Sports & Outdoors

To clear the fender with this mount you need a 'FireRing' cable ($19):
Amazon.com: B01D09WIL6

You'll need to find or create a hole big enough for the connector to go through.

So it does add up, $40 for the radio, and $60-$70 for the installation gear. About $100 all up.

Or you could do what I did and order lots of different parts that wouldn't fit until I found the above combination by trial and error!

You will also need an SWR meter to tune the antenna with, if you can borrow one, that's nicer because you really only need it once. Be aware that the plastic cover on the top of the antenna has a huge effect on SWR, so you take it off, tune it, put it on, step away and take a reading. Repeat until you get a good SWR.

 

[DirtScaresMe]

Regarding the love fest for 2m, I work on a search and rescue team and we use ~130-170MHz which includes the 2m spectrum. In fact we'll politely take over some 2m repeaters sometimes. It's not that good, especially in mountains and especially with the dinky handhelds. We use a spread of frequencies because different agencies use different frequencies and different repeaters are on different frequencies.

VHF, unless you want to get into unicorns and rainbows, is line of sight. As often as a signal will bounce off a granite slab it will get blocked by the same. I used marine SSB on the water and with ~50 foot antennas with no other vessels around you could get 200 miles regularly, 800 if you knew what you were doing, and 2,000+ on magic nights with ionosphere bounces.

To quote an analogy above, if CB (~30 MHz) is tin cans and strings than VHF/2m is extremely awesome string with acoustically optimized cans with ear muffs. But compared to something like ~2MHz (Marine SSB), they're identical.

 

[Blondie]

I run the Midland 75-822, it's a combo unit so it allowed me to move it between my 4runner and 80, both have firesticks permanently installed that I plug it into.

Honestly though, for trail coms a set of gmrs handhelds is the way to go. You can get multi packs and hand them out to everyone in the group. Ham has its place and I reccomend that as well. I only use CB cause of the other folks on the trail who use it.

Midland 75-822 40-Channel 2-in-1 CB Radio with Weather 75822 B&H

 

[sbman]

Regarding the love fest for 2m, I work on a search and rescue team and we use ~130-170MHz which includes the 2m spectrum. In fact we'll politely take over some 2m repeaters sometimes. It's not that good, especially in mountains and especially with the dinky handhelds. We use a spread of frequencies because different agencies use different frequencies and different repeaters are on different frequencies.

VHF, unless you want to get into unicorns and rainbows, is line of sight. As often as a signal will bounce off a granite slab it will get blocked by the same. I used marine SSB on the water and with ~50 foot antennas with no other vessels around you could get 200 miles regularly, 800 if you knew what you were doing, and 2,000+ on magic nights with ionosphere bounces.

To quote an analogy above, if CB (~30 MHz) is tin cans and strings than VHF/2m is extremely awesome string with acoustically optimized cans with ear muffs. But compared to something like ~2MHz (Marine SSB), they're identical.

That's true, all true but with the additional power and much better signal processing in a good quality 2M unit, you can easily do 30+ miles line of sight where CB sometimes struggles to get more than a couple of miles, mainly due to the poor quality of the equipment.

 

[hammerheadfistpunch]

That's true, all true but with the additional power and much better signal processing in a good quality 2M unit, you can easily do 30+ miles line of sight where CB sometimes struggles to get more than a couple of miles, mainly due to the poor quality of the equipment.

Would that be the typical "you get what you pay for" caveat though? I mean a nice SSB CB is probably going to cary nearly as far in that situation.

I'll be getting my license soon because I liked learned about it and I would like access to the repeater network for safety, but in terms of cheap trail comms its sure hard to beat a CB. Yeah the FRS/GMRS radios are better technically, but i hate...HATE...using them in my truck. For some reason I don't mind a CB mic where a handheld radio drives me crazy. Probably because I can't ever hear them when they aren't in my hand and I don't like holding them in my hand. Thats neither here nor there though.

 

[SmokingRocks]

Try using that 2mhz Ssb in the mountains......... with a 50 ft mast as well

I've regularly made contact with people 100+ miles away on 2meter national call freq. on 5 watts and further on 50 or 75 watts.

Now if you are in the trough of a slot canyon nothing is going to really do you any good. A high powered 10 or 11meter (cb) rig may get your distress signal to bounce off the ionosphere and come back to a shack in Kentucky or Mexico. But does that really help you much?

There are reasons why your unit uses vhf and not 11merers or 2mhz

 

[RFB]

If you're looking to do a double-stack, you'll want a CB that's a single DIN mount. The Cobra 18WXSTii is single din, enclosed, and has a front-facing speaker. It fits quite nicely.
Yes I will need the whole set up and Id like to install it clean. Its going to be for trail comms, BUT I do tend to roam and am in MOAB or smokies or the everglades at any given time. so as powerful and compact as possible is the goal

If you're looking for a complete setup, you'll need a transciever, coax cable, antenna, and a mount.

 

[RFB]

CB? Capable? non-sequitur ...

There's a dedicated Comm subforum ->

Communication & Navigation

Antenna is usually more important than the rig.

Many folk/clubs have moved to 2m amateur radio (VHF), simple test, one time license fee (cheap), mucho superior results.

cheers,
george.

Grazi

 

[RFB]

I have the Cobra 18WXSTii . The only thing I don't like about having it in the lower socket under my new stereo head is that the mic cable is a bit close to the shifting knob, at least with my size hands on a 1994.

I wired it the same time I did my replacement subwoofer and when I got my slee rear bumper. There's some pictures of the whip antenna and spring mount thing here: slee cb antenna mount - fixing the swr problems

I have it because most other 4wd folks do and in most 4x4 clubs it's required. It's not the best, but it's the most common. Barring edge cases, you need to have an FCC license to use 2m, and for CB you don't. So while 2m is "better", it doesn't and possibly will never have the footprint of CB because of the license requirement and the sheer number of CB units installed already.

Ive got the 4xlabs rear and it has a mount on either side, so I should be good to go.

 

[baldilocks]

 

[sbman]

If you have a mount bracket already on your bumper, you'll only need a stud mount, antenna, spring, a cable and the CB itself. I really like the Firestik antenna I linked, it has a tune-able coil at it's end that allows you to tune it really easily. If you don't tune for best SWR you won't have good results no matter which rig you buy.

Stud mount: Amazon.com: FIRESTIK K-4A CB RADIO ANTENNA HEAVY DUTY SO-239 STUD MOUNT (BULK): Sports & Outdoors

18' Cable: Amazon.com: USA Made PL-259 Improved Double Shielded RG-58u for FireStik Antenna K-8A 18-Foot Single CB/Ham Coax Cable: Home Audio & Theater

CB is limited in power to 4 Watts if you want to be operating legally, so its range will always be more limited. Your typical 2M install does 50 watts but costs 3-5X more and requires a license. Good antennas and good tuning make more impact on performance than power.

That said, many people don't operate legally and add power amplifiers. There are radios that will do both HAM and CB once you 'mod' them (which also isn't exactly legal) and they are pretty expensive and require either manual tuning of the antenna for each band, or another expensive box called a 'tuner'. You'd spend $1,000+ for a setup like that. My buddy has an iCom IC-7100 and it's tuner mounted in his truck and we hear truckers from all over the country when the atmospheric conditions are right. My Uniden doesn't even receive those signals because the receiver sensitivity isn't nearly the same as a HAM transceiver.

I ended up with both CB and HAM. My HAM setup (A Yaesu 8800R) can also do FRS (which probably isn't exactly legal), hit repeaters, etc... so it does a lot more. But with both I can talk to most anyone for trail comms.

 

[ChaseTruck]

The low-end Uniden CBs (515/520) have worked well for us; going to Firestik antennas helped, as well. Everyone I usually run with has a CB... and we're typically in a relatively close group; line of sight.

I hold a HAM license. In my mall truck, the Yaesu 1900 has done well with a mag-mount 1/4-wave antenna on the roof. That cheap Russian/Romanian/whatever SWR meter from Amazon (Amazon.com: Signstek Professional UV Dual Band Standing-Wave Meter Power Meter SWR Meter for Testing SWR Power: Home Audio & Theater) did a good job when tuning the antenna. But haven't gotten around to installing a 2m radio in my trail truck; the hand-held Baofeng radios work fine where I usually go. Biggest issue for me is that I can't make up my mind where to install the antenna; roof is out of the question - no antenna would last long up there. I can't count the number of CB mag-mount antennas I've scraped off the roof - good thing there's Walmart...

My wife drives her own truck on our outings. She can't be bothered to get a HAM license, so I now hold a GMRS license as well. The Baofengs work well on those frequencies, and still do under terrain conditions where the CB would not work.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

The entire extended group of friends I go with all went to Ham radios 10 or more years ago. It's better than CB in so many ways, that it isn't worth debating. I too have met friends and interesting contacts on 2m. 100 mile contacts are not uncommon, and you can hit repeaters as you pass through different areas on the way to wherever and chat with the locals. That's kind of interesting. There is a tremendous infrastructure of Ham repeaters and call frequencies everywhere, that it's practically a universal standard. And then there's linked repeaters like the Sinbad network in Utah and Carla in California that it makes Ham radio a really great thing. And that's not to mention the truck to truck simplex over 10 - 50 miles. It's so clearly better that no one I know who has gone to ham radio has gone back to CB. No one.

But the OP asked about CB.

When I had a CB, I had a Uniden 520. They are so good, cheap and universal, that the same model is still sold 10 years after I gave my last one away. They work fine, buy at WalMart. But if you want to communicate more than a few hundred yards on the trail, it isn't reliable. In the end, you need to look at who you go wheeling with. If they have adopted Ham radio or are headed that way, get a Ham radio. If they are more traditional types and unwilling to learn a new skill, then CB will serve and is far better than no coms.

Honestly, I think CB could be pretty good. But most CB users are not radio people. So even if you have taken the time to carefully install your radio, tune the antenna and have a robust system all around, most of the other users out there have not bothered. They do a poor install, have no clue about antennas, make up for bad radio practice with amplifiers and then it's no surprise you can't hear them on the radio when you can see their truck 3 trucks ahead.

 

[surfpig]

Honestly, I think CB could be pretty good. But most CB users are not radio people. So even if you have taken the time to carefully install your radio, tune the antenna and have a robust system all around, most of the other users out there have not bothered. They do a poor install, have no clue about antennas, make up for bad radio practice and then it's no surprise you can't hear them on the radio when you can see their truck 3 trucks ahead.

I only went to the trouble to do a CB because the PO had one installed. And it didn't work. Radio was messed up. I did the AM/FM antenna splitter mod, got a new CB, tuned everything in, nice signal and all, good FM radio reception, no annoying automatic antenna s*** not working, all good.

 

[surfpig]

I only went to the trouble to do a CB because the PO had one installed. And it didn't work. Radio was messed up. I did the AM/FM antenna splitter mod, got a new CB, tuned everything in, nice signal and all, good FM radio reception, no annoying automatic antenna s*** not working, all good.

All that said, the cheapo $35 Baofeng handheld with a decent antenna is so much better, it's not even funny (if you also have your friends transmitting on those frequencies).

 

[Kaninja]

I have the 520XL. Great unit. I have a 4' Firestik on a spring. I get about 3-4 miles max range in optimum conditions.

However, where I live it is dead silent on all channels 99% of the time. The ratio of HAM rigs on 4x4's to CB is about 9:1 here. I rarely ever see CB antennas but see NMO mounted HAM antennas all day long.

In fact, when I do hear someone on CB it is some trucker with a jacked rig transmitting from over 1000 miles away in the US.

When I do make contact with someone locally on CB we usually both get excited that we actually found someone on the CB lol.

I am glad I have my CB, but if I actually want to talk to people it will be on 2m. Depends on who uses what where YOU live.

Good luck.

 

[chap79]

For CB, I use an Uniden 520xl unit w/ a 30MHz antenna tuned to CB frequency. I also run a dual band Kenwood HAM unit. The club I wheel with uses HAM more than CB.

 

[tacosupreme]

The low-end Uniden CBs (515/520) have worked well for us; going to Firestik antennas helped, as well. Everyone I usually run with has a CB... and we're typically in a relatively close group; line of sight.

I hold a HAM license. In my mall truck, the Yaesu 1900 has done well with a mag-mount 1/4-wave antenna on the roof. That cheap Russian/Romanian/whatever SWR meter from Amazon (Amazon.com: Signstek Professional UV Dual Band Standing-Wave Meter Power Meter SWR Meter for Testing SWR Power: Home Audio & Theater) did a good job when tuning the antenna. But haven't gotten around to installing a 2m radio in my trail truck; the hand-held Baofeng radios work fine where I usually go. Biggest issue for me is that I can't make up my mind where to install the antenna; roof is out of the question - no antenna would last long up there. I can't count the number of CB mag-mount antennas I've scraped off the roof - good thing there's Walmart...

My wife drives her own truck on our outings. She can't be bothered to get a HAM license, so I now hold a GMRS license as well. The Baofengs work well on those frequencies, and still do under terrain conditions where the CB would not work.

That's what we do. I just pirate the GMRS freqs. I've found CB is about the same as hollering real loud as far as range and I haven't found an antenna that holds up for very long.

 

[Blade 80LC]

My CB experience is old. I was into it 20+ years ago. A cheap radio with a carefully tuned 7' Firestick gave good results for talking with other radio nerds. I could chat with other people 3-5 miles away consistently. On good nights I contacted people over 60 miles away.

Using a Boafeng handheld with the included antenna to reach another handheld Ham with cheap antenna, I'd start losing connection in one or two city blocks in San Francisco.

That's about as unfair a comparison as I can come up with. Good antenna on CB vs. cheap portable antenna on ham. In that scenario, CB won hands down. Add a decent antenna for the ham, and I expect the tables to turn. I'm new to ham, so I just have the cheap radio with portable antenna.

 

[sbman]

The Baofeng handheld that I have has poor range even with a properly tuned external antenna or the popular higher gain screw on antenna, I've tried both, and I've tested it talking to my installed HAM that has excellent range. The receiver sensitivity and selectivity isn't very good so it doesn't pick up signals that great. It's somewhat better than CB depending on what band you are using it on, it seems better on 2M than on 70 cm.