What cb radio

Spend your money on the antenna... cheap radios usually work pretty well if hooked to a good antenna... expensive radios hooked to cheap antennas are usually a disappointment... at least that's been my experience.
 
Firestik, Wilson, Cobra are good names. If you are going to put this on a trail rig I would highly recommend a top-loaded fiberglass antenna. I'm sure there are some others on the board that can add to this.
 
I've got a cobra 40 channel with weather and just put a new coax on it and I have a used fire stick and it currently works terrible. Weather seems to be the Only thing that works worth a damn.
 
48" Firefly on my rig. Make sure you get the antenna tuned. If not it will perform like crap and possibly damage the radio.


:cool:
 
I have a Midland from Northern Tool, part # 24854, $49. Works OK for trail use. Definitely get a good antenna. Have it installed next time I see you and I'll tune it for you :driver:
 
Aside from what most here and on other offroad forums think, the Firestick is actually a terrible Antenna. Even properly grounded with low SWR, it will not tx or rx like a good Wilson 1000 or 2000. I hooked up the Firestick that came with my CJ to my Galaxy 959 and had my buddy drive my other truck a few miles away for a test. I had him on recieve at only 3s units and he only had me at 2s units transmit. Upon switching to my Wilson 1000 with the same radio on the same CJ, he then had me at a 8s and 9s respectively.

Not saying Firesticks dont work, but they can easily be outperformed. A Wilson 1000 or 2000 mounted as high and center as possible works much better, as does the good ol 8' Whip.

As far as CB's, smaller units like the Uniden 520/Cobra 19 are great when space is an issue and produce good audio when tuned properly. However if you have the space, a Cobra 29 or Galaxy 959 will have much louder audio and better receive.
 
Yeah, but where are you going to mount a Wilson on a Jeep?

All else being equal, a top-loaded antenna will outperform a base-loaded antenna, just by virtue of getting the bulk of the antenna higher above the ground plane.
 
Flexibility in the brush and tree limbs is the problem with a top-loaded fiberglass whip. They splinter, crack, and performance suffers. A steel whip will radiate better and the bottom-load section of a wilson isn't that big and work with any of these mounts on a heep:
fender mount.jpg
hood mount.jpg

rear quarter.jpg
 
The problem I've always had with whips is that tree branches whack them right above the base and either shear the whip in half or break the base. Lost several that way mounted on the hood or fenders.
 
There are plenty of ways to mount a Wilson on a Jeep. You can use a Wilson 2000 mounted right up to a Firestick stud.

You will have a hard time convincing me that a Firestick will outperform (all else being equal) a bottom loaded Wilson. It simply has not been my experience.

You take most Jeepers that use a box stock crappy Radio Shack or un-tuned Uniden 510/520, hook it up to a 3' Firestick on the rear corner of a Jeep, and its a wonder that anyone can communicate via CB.

A simple tuned Uniden 510/520 or Cobra 25/29, and a PROPERLY grounded/tuned/setup antenna you will blow the socks off any setup you are likely to come across on the trail. Not only is it easier to talk back and forth, its nice to have that extra transmit range for those "just in case" circumstances. You simply wont get that with a Uniden 510 and a Firestick improperly setup.
 
ShowroomShine said:
You take most Jeepers that use a box stock crappy Radio Shack or un-tuned Uniden 510/520, hook it up to a 3' Firestick on the rear corner of a Jeep, and its a wonder that anyone can communicate via CB.
Click to expand...

I have a midland un-tuned with a 4', can't remember brand name antenna(got it from bills truck stop) just bolted on to the side of my zj and I don't have any problems talking to anyone. Whether I'm on the trails or on the highway. I also take that same unit, swap it over to my wife's Durango hooked up to a magnetic antenna on the roof and do just fine. Never had any problems.

Only problem I have ever had was a hand set go out on me.


Sent from my microwave using a teleportation device.
 
ShowroomShine said:
You will have a hard time convincing me that a Firestick will outperform (all else being equal) a bottom loaded Wilson. It simply has not been my experience
Click to expand...

:rolleyes:

A 36" top loaded or continuously loaded vs a 49" base loaded antenna isn't an apples to apples comparison. Either way, I don't have to convince you. That's the job of broadcast engineers. And they say that top-loaded and center loaded antennas radiate better than bottom-loaded antennas because they get more of the antenna above the ground plane.

If you see somebody with a bottom-loaded antenna mounted on the mirror, bumper, or hood, the body of the vehicle is blocking most of the radiation pattern coming off the car, skewing it sharply in one direction.

The real secret is in the actual gain measurement for a particular antenna... but nobody publishes that stuff for 11m, because it's all a big stupid marketing game. Better to tell people there's some special voodoo about *their* piece of metal that the *other* pieces of metal don't have and let people share their own anecdotal evidence about how they think one unsubstantiated claim is better than another unsubstantiated claim, than publish the actual specs for your product .

The big draw to the bottom-loaded Wilsons is that you can put huge wattage to them. That's not an issue with CB, since you're capped at 5W.

If you want a real radio, get your license and buy a 2 meter. You'll be able to talk to Greensboro from Uwharrie on VHF. And that's just with a crappy $20 4ft whip.
 
shawn said:
If you want a real radio, get your license and buy a 2 meter. You'll be able to talk to Greensboro from Uwharrie on VHF. And that's just with a crappy $20 4ft whip.
Click to expand...

I have my license, got my crappy 5/8 gain antenna on the Jeep now. Problem is that not many people have their ticket so its pretty useless on the trail I am finding.
 
I need to buy a CB. I am thinking about the Cobra 75 WX remote mount CB with a tail light mounted wilson antena. Before i waist my money are there any thoughts on either the radio or antenna? I read all the top load vs bottom load and places to mount but I dont like the idea of a 8' whip poking out of the top of my rig I'd like it to be a subtle as possible. I dont wanna advertise that I am a redneck after all. :)
 
I need to follow some of this advice with
My radio. It's been tuned but I bought the wrong antennae and I can't talk to people that I can see
 
borkap said:
I need to buy a CB. I am thinking about the Cobra 75 WX remote mount CB with a tail light mounted wilson antena. Before i waist my money are there any thoughts on either the radio or antenna? I read all the top load vs bottom load and places to mount but I dont like the idea of a 8' whip poking out of the top of my rig I'd like it to be a subtle as possible. I dont wanna advertise that I am a redneck after all. :)
Click to expand...

I'd avoid the Cobra 75. It can not be tuned up like most radios, and generally does not perform very well. Stick to a Uniden 510/520 or even better a Cobra 25/29. Much better audio and performance.
 
Rather than create a new thread I thought I might try to reuse. I have narrowed down Midland 75-822 because of the optional portability or the uniden bearcat 880.
Once I get this figured out I will pickup the swr meter and a good firestick antenna. I wanted a small cb and enough folks said to avoid the Cobra 75.
 
Antenna & it's length, is the most important. No I don't care for the full whip, but I ran a 42" fiberglass, for a couple of years, with poor reception. Bought a 50? something" fiberglass [don't recall make], & have one of the best CBs, in the Club. I also run a spring, between the mount, & antenna. Got mine mounted on the spare tire swing stop, on the CJ.
 
Radio doesn't matter much... Just comes down to features. I have a cheap midland or something that I bought at a Walmart in Utah when the mic on the old one kicked the bucket.

I did just mount a 27mhz Larson antenna on the Jeep. Pretty happy with it so far. 4ft whip, unity gain, nmo Motorola mount, and got really low swr after cutting a few inches off of the whip.
 
Also worth mentioning that none of the cb antenna companies advertise the specs for their products. Its all marketing speak about how you'll get out farther, clearer, or how their antenna will take 5000 Watts. You've got to get into commercial products before people will advertise gain specs. Unity gain is the best I've been able to find in 27mhz.
 
I found that on my offroad vehicle out in front of the hood in the center. This way I could see it and I never broke one there. Also when leading a group it would catch the spider webs(important with no windshield). The hood made a good groundplane with it out in the open. No interference from top or roll bars.
 
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