Best place and model for mounting a CB

[Sitting Bull]

To be completely honest, I'm not planning on using my CB all that often, and getting a super high dollar one that will reach for 2 miles just doesn't make economical sense in my case. It will be used to talk to the guy right in front of me, behind me, or stuck in traffic.

So...what I'm looking for is a small unit that will fit in the ashtray or clock slot of a 70's model dashboard. Fitting tight and looking good is important to me on the interior.

Anybody have one setup like this? And if so do you have a pic of it?

[badaboom]

Sitting bull
You may want to look into a personal handheld radio like motorla 6200. Usually under 75.00.
I use them when hunting work well especially for
your useage description, "will be used to talk to the guy right in front of me, behind me, or stuck in traffic". Good Luck

[Sitting Bull]

How does the antenna work with the handheld units?

[badaboom]

Sitting bull
The handheld units have a built in antenna. They are good for 2-5 miles dependent on terrian and are a point to point type handheld radio. I have used these radios during traveling and talking vehicle to vehicle and they work well. But be aware that the person you want to communicate to also needs to have a handheld personal radio.
check site
http://commerce.motorola.com/consumer/QWhtml/2way_cat.html
handheld radios
Nice thing is that they are portable.

[ December 02, 2003, 03:21 PM: Message edited by: badaboom ]

[Sitting Bull]

Hmmm...don't know if that will work then. I'm definitely looking for a CB, so I don't have to carry a spare ones for everyone I want to talk to.

[Zac]

they sell hand held cbs. for pretty cheap.

[Sitting Bull]

Aside from handheld models, has anyone mounted one in the ashtray spot?

[FSJ Thing]

YES I HAVE! I don't remember the model number but it was made by Uniden and I got it at Wally World for $80.00. It fit right in the ashtray slot of my GMC Jimmy 7 yrs ago. Uniden is one of the best CB makers out their and they got big because they made CBs designed to fit in ash tray slots. I don't have a pic, but if you head to wally world and look in the auto elecronics section, you'll probably see what I'm talking about. don't bother with Radioshack, ironically, they are out of the automotive electronics business. I usta love them for stuff like this. I'm sure another thread will be along shortly to discuss antennas and tuning.

[seabee]

goto some cb shops and ask them I bought a small cobra for 20 bucks paid ten for a tune up and it jams nice.........most cb shops near me are in truck stops

[Tahnka]

So by wally world do you mean; Wallmart? Hopefully not wallyworld.com ;)

[FSJ Thing]

Nono, I mean Wal*Mart. Not that place the Grizwolds went on vacation. :D tongue.gif

[Kimbrough]

Brad - I have a Cobra CB that you hide under the dash. The unit itself is hand-held and has a quick-release cord so i can lock it in my glove box. Model number Cobra 75 WX ST. I don't use it a lot so its perfect for me. I can get weather from it and use it in the infamous ATL traffic - the truckers know the best ways to get around it and can tell you if there is a wreck up ahead of you.

[Sitting Bull]

Kimbrough, so does that mean you completely hide the unit inside the dash, and then just hook-up the mike when you want to use it? Does the mike have the channel/volume controls on it?

[Sitting Bull]

ahh...I think I found one...like this?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3060878743&category=40055

[gwinn]

In most cases, the hand-held radios are worthless! Talk to someone who has actually used one 4-wheelin'!
My Uniden Pro538W is center-mounted to the inside roof(ceiling or whatever you call it in an auto) just a couple inches from the windshield. The only problem I have is that when wheelin' get rough, the the microphone comes off of it's hanger dohinkey and thunks my passenger in the temple. :D

[Kimbrough]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Sitting Bull:
[QB]ahh...I think I found one...like this?

Dat's the one! tongue.gif

[Rande]

Be VERY wary of the modern Cobras. They are now being made in China and quality has been hit or miss with them.

The older Cobras were made by Uniden (the chrome faced ones) or Maxon (the brushed aluminum ones with the flat, square buttons) and were much better in quality.

Uniden's are good. President's are made by Uniden. Midlands seem to be good (according to the buzz on some CB web sites).

The Older Radio Shack radios were made by Uniden and Maxon and were very good radios.

Stick with Uniden and you really can't go wrong. Be careful about letting a CB shop "peak" the radio. It pushes the transmitter circuits to the limit (or beyond) of their design and components and the little bit of extra power you get is usually not worth it. Also don't let them make any mods to modulation control circuit. It usually involves disabling the AMC (automatic modulation control) circuit and cranking up the modulation to overdrive the microphone amplifying circuit for a couple extra watts. This creates distortion that interferes with the adjacent channels. "peak and tweak" usually causes more distortion and interference than output watts. Just buy a radio and have a good CB shop check for proper output and make sure its on frequency. Factory settings are not always as good as they could be.

[ December 03, 2003, 07:40 PM: Message edited by: Rande ]

[Jeep Jeep]

Great topic SB. I've been wondering myself. I've been looking at the same one Kimbrough mention. Just need to figure out where to mount the anttena. I don't feel like drilling hole right now. I'm thinking about mounting the antenna on the rear bumper that I'm making.

[Rande]

The higher, the better. Mounting on the rear bumper is just about the worst spot as far as the signal is concerned. Problem with bumper mounting is lack of height and all that body getting in the way of the signal. If you are talking to someone in front of you, most of your signal is being blocked by the truck.

Best place is in the centerline of the roof, as close to the middle of the truck as possible. If you have the roof rack on your truck, mount it just in front of the rack. If you have a pickup, near the rear of the roof is best. The signal uses the metal of the body as a ground plane to reflect the signal. Like placing a light in the middle of a mirror. The mirror will reflect the light. The metal body of the vehicle, reflects the radio signal. So, the higher the antenna, and the more body around it, the better the signal and the more uniform the signal pattern will be.

Mount the antenna where you can, but remember, higher, and in the center of the vehicle is better. As close as you can come to that ideal, the better.

Use quality coax, quality connectors, quality antenna. A $200 radio with a $10 antenna system, talks like a $10 radio.

If you use a mag-mount antenna, don't let the door pinch the coax flat. Find a way tp route the coax out of truck without pinching the coax. You can route it through a door opening, just be sure there's enough gap so the coax doesn't get pinched.

[ December 03, 2003, 10:03 PM: Message edited by: Rande ]

[Tad]

Brad,
I'll get some pic's up this weekend of my setup.
Nothing fancy and I don't know squat about CB's.
I built it into a box on the tranny hump that houses the CD player and CB radio.

[viscacha]

I have the cobra 75 wx st all in one handset cb. I mounted the small box for it under the seat and have the coiled cable coming out from under the seat. The kit comes with a dash-mounted connector you just plug the cable into, too. With the all in one handset I can hold it up to my trifocals and actually see the display and you can use it easily while bouncing around.

I bought the cheapest shortest antenna I could find and had it tuned for ten bucks. I made a very strong support mount for it so I can snap off antennas without doing sheet metal damage. Works great. :cool:

[flatbackdragon]

and keep an extra antenna with you unless you have a spring on it, you cant find one in Silverton when you break one...BTDT

[country boy]

Originally posted by Rande:
Be careful about letting a CB shop "peak" the radio. It pushes the transmitter circuits to the limit (or beyond) of their design and components and the little bit of extra power you get is usually not worth it. Also don't let them make any mods to modulation control circuit. It usually involves disabling the AMC (automatic modulation control) circuit and cranking up the modulation to overdrive the microphone amplifying circuit for a couple extra watts. This creates distortion that interferes with the adjacent channels. "peak and tweak" usually causes more distortion and interference than output watts. Just buy a radio and have a good CB shop check for proper output and make sure its on frequency. Factory settings are not always as good as they could be.Your right on about that I took an old Radio Shack in for repair and the "peaked it out" for me and made a good radio worthless. Folks can hear me way off but they aint got a clue what I said , and it picks up people from I dont know how far off nobody else can pick them up. With that radio I can hardly ever find a chanel I cant hear someone on. I can sit in the yard and hear them on that radio and cant pick them up on my other radio that has been tuned.

[Rande]

Country Boy, what model radio is it? If has a switch marked: AM-LSB-USB, you may be switched into one of the sidebands (LSB/USB). In that case, your speech would be very garbled to anyone listening with a standard AM CB. AM and SSB (single sideband) are incompatible on the same channel. To talk to a regular CB (they use AM only), your radio must be set to: AM.

A sideband radio can listen to an AM radio because AM uses both sidebands at the same time. But, because when a sideband radio transmits in sideband, it's only transmitting one sideband and no carrier, an AM radio can't decipher the sideband signal and all they hear is a lot of garbled noise.

Sideband is great once you learn what it does and how to use it. It just about triples your power, the background noise is usually much less and you can use, say, channel 40 Upper Sideband or chjannel 40 Lower sideband. Kinda turns one channel into two seperate channels. There would also be a knob labeled: Fine Tune, or Clarifier. You must use that to tune in a sideband signal. That takes a bit of practice but once you get it, its easy. Sideband is just great once you get used to it. I won't buy a CB without Sideband.

[4x4n In A Cherokee In Colorado]

Rande is right on here. I drive a truck for a living. I have a Ranger 6900F-25 thats been tuned nicely it talks 15-20 miles. No Lie! It is an export amateur ham radio. It has all the features, talk back, echo, sliding tx/rx, ajustable output, and Frequency counter. It has about 600 channels I have talked around the world on this radio. People in cars never like following us big trucks much, but I have to drive 10-15 over the speed limit all day to just be able to finish my 450 daily run in 12 hours. I haul cement in a dry tank. I know where ALL the cops are 10 miles before I get to them. So following a big hot rod truck might not be so bad! LOL

A very good small radio is the Cobra 19 LTD it can be tuned to around 30 watts output reliably. I have a few buds with this setup and we talk 6-8 miles or more.

For any of you guys peaking your radios. To get it done right you will need to have your finals replaced......The stock finals put out 4-6 watts. A cheap way to peak you radio is to have the modulator clipped. If you have this done, it pretty much ruins the output sound of the radio. But this is still the most popular modification. It just makes you sound raspy. Have it done right...It will cost you a few $ for the real peaking, buts it worth it!

[country boy]

Rande, I'm not sure of the model # but it does not have the side bands. It has a rf gain,dimer,pa,wx,cb,swr(meter and knob),anl,sqelch,volume and chanel and a knob to change the wx freq.

[Rande]

I have to disagree about the peaking or even clipping the AMC (automatic modulation control). The transmitted audio will be distorted and will cause splatter interference on adjacent channels. The couple extra watts you get are not worth the money spent or the splatter created. Yes, it will make your radio a bit louder, but at the cost of signal clarity.

The difference between 4 watts of carrier and 8 watts of modulation compared to 6 watts carrier and 10-11 watts modulation just doesn't amount to much on the trail or on the highway. If you have the output transisters replaced, you can gain a significant amount of power but it costs a lot also. For a driver on the road for a living, that may be worth while. For a guy just wanting a CB for the trail and the highway drive out there, it's money poorly spent.

Just have the radio set for proper power output, proper modulation levels, have it set right on frequency and you'll be good to go.

Frequency expansions, clipped modulation controls, peaked power output, high power transisters, external power amps are all illegal anyway and can be costly for the casual user. A professional driver will have different needs than the casual user.

[bigun]

agreed and stay away from echo box dingers and other such Sh8t

[4x4n In A Cherokee In Colorado]

Yea Rande we all know they are not legal, but it sure is fun. And yea your right, a regular user doesnt need all that stuff.....but I tell ya, it still is alot of fun.. I have seen good radios clipped....it just ruins them as you said.

I got my RCI from Premier Electronics there in Minneapolis. I bought it online about a year ago. I paid them to convert it to CB frequency, make the echo adjustable,{which I hardly use much} still nice to have though. I also had them align it and peak it, it has dual finals. It puts out a 10 watt dead key, with a 45 watt pep, averaging between 30-40 watts talking on AM, On SSB it does way better.

I'm just saying how much fun they are. A big CB is something I'll always have pro driving or not.

[Rande]

Oh believe me, I've done a lot of that stuff myself. I've peaked 'em, clipped 'em, expanded 'em, power mics, echos, noise makers, amps...... ;)

I've been into Cbs since 1974. I got into it just before the big rush hit with the song "Convoy" and Smokey and the Bandit. You had to have a license back then, still had only 23 channels. I was KQY 4730. After things went nuts, they were issuing so many licenses, they had to go with 4 letters in the call sign and finally had to give up on it all. Thats how you spot an old timer in the hobby, if his old call sign had only 3 letters.

The RCI 2950 has the high power output transisters. Stock rating is something like 25 or 30 watts. All mine were expanded also. Last one had the super swing mod. Worked great. I just finally decided I wanted a good clean signal instead.

Its easy to spend a lot of money with these things isn't it?

[bigun]

first one was a 23 channel all it had was a squelch on/off and tuner

[4x4n In A Cherokee In Colorado]

Man it sure is Rande....Its just as addicting as these dang old jeeps....Take Care....Signing off.......... ROGER---BEEP!!!!!!!!

[myndcrym]

Originally posted by Kimbrough:
Brad - I have a Cobra CB that you hide under the dash. The unit itself is hand-held and has a quick-release cord so i can lock it in my glove box. Model number Cobra 75 WX ST. I don't use it a lot so its perfect for me. I can get weather from it and use it in the infamous ATL traffic - the truckers know the best ways to get around it and can tell you if there is a wreck up ahead of you.I've seen his !! Its nice and it works good too!!

[bigun]

I allways wanted one of them that all you saw was the mike every thing else was under the seat or inthe trunk

[Rande]

My first CB was a Pace 133. You can still find them on ebay every now and then. About the size of a pack of cigarettes and all it had was volume, squelch, channel knob. Not even a meter in that little thing.

After reading some magazines and a couple tech books on CBs, I bought some testers and dove into it. Cranked up the power, cranked up the modulation, built an amp for the mic, built a slider for moving between channels...had a great time learning about that stuff. Built my own base antennas.

Those were the days. I quickly found out that there were actually only 3 major manufacturers. Uniden, Cybernet, and Maxon made about 80% of the CBs on the market. So many models used the same circuit boards you wouldn't believe it. Someone would brag that his Cobra was so much better than my Radio Shack but I knew they both had the same exact circuit boards and were made by the same company. I would just hold my tongue and let them talk.

I used to buy so many Radio Shack CBs because everybody thought they were cheapies. They weren't. They used the same boards as the Cobras, Midlands, Royces, Brownings, Presidents...etc.

I always used the best coax, the best antennas, tuned up my radios, used good mics (not always the same make as the radio). My friend's were always bummed that my radios sounded so much better than theirs and would do all these things theirs wouldn't.

Then I got into Ham radio! Oh boy!

[firechero]

i just got a uniden bearcat, i dont know jack about it so i just turn it to the weather channel smile.gif

[Rande]

Bearcat used to be an independant scanner manufacturer a few years back. Uniden bought them out and is now using the Bearcat name on a number of products.

[klank]

I have an rci 23 channel and I first started out in cb's with a 23 channel jcpenny sideband that I quite frequently talked to florida and NM too on sunday afternoons.

I still have both. boy there big.

[Tad]

Originally posted by tadsal:
Brad,
I'll get some pic's up this weekend of my setup.
Nothing fancy and I don't know squat about CB's.
I built it into a box on the tranny hump that houses the CD player and CB radio.OK, here it is, like I said, just a box on the tranny hump.
http://members.cox.net/tadsal/cbcdholder.JPG

Oops, got the link fixed I hope.

[ December 06, 2003, 02:21 PM: Message edited by: tadsal ]

[bigun]

if it works it's good

[flatbackdragon]

was issued license KAP 0879 back then

[bigun]

<----------never appilied for one figured there were so many out there how were they going find out

[flatbackdragon]

i did just to see how low lic # i'd get..

[badaboom]

I have my CB mounted on the drivers side of the trans hump near driver seat front right. I also use a magnetic anntenna with a long cable allowing for versatility.

[79_Limited]

My Wagoneer has the CB built into the radio. Oooohhh what a fancy option for back then.

Anyways I can't pick up hardly any signal at all. I assume the antenna is shared with the radio antenna bacause my antenna is a little longer than normal.

Is it possible to even tune those things?

[Rande]

Yes it is, if you mean tuning the radio. If you mean tuning the antenna, no. They do have a regular CB antenna connection though. If you want better CB operation, install a regular CB antenna on the truck, disconnect the CB coax from the combiner box under the dash and connect it to the regular CB antenna and have the antenna tuned. You will get much better operation from the CB section than before.

[Woodstock-Waggy]

Originally posted by gwinn:
My Uniden Pro538W is center-mounted to the inside roof(ceiling or whatever you call it in an auto) just a couple inches from the windshield. :D Do you have picks?? I am doing the same with mine and would like to see how others have done it.

[243]

Rande, what is your suggestion for a good all-aroun setup for the Jeep?

[Rande]

I would suggest a Uniden or Midland radio (both enjoy good reputations for quality), with ANL/NB (automatic noise limiting/ noise blanker. They work on two different kinds of noise), RF Gain (like a volume knob for antenna recieve). A Wilson or K40 antenna (properly installed and adjusted), external speaker mounted where you can hear the radio well, no power mic. With that equipment, you can't go wrong. Mount the antenna on the roof. Use a mag-mount if you like. That lets you move it around when roof loads demand. Be careful how you route the wire outside the truck. Doors can easily pinch the coax and when that happens, you can kiss your radio goodbye.

Try to mount the CB where you don't have to take your eyes off the road very far to operate it. That may not be the place you really would want it but its worth a bit more work and its worth having the radio in a place you can still see the road from.

What I did in my old J4000 was to remove the ashtray, the stock radio and the blank plate where the later trucks have their digital clock. I put the CB radio where the ashtray was (cutting to left as I needed) and moved the stock radio over (had to cut the dash there too). That put the CB right below the top of the dash so I could still see the road with my peripheral vision. That's more work but for saftey's sake, I say its worth it.

I also really like sideband. It takes a bit of getting used to but its really fun for hobby talking when you have the time and inclination. For highway and trail use, sideband is unneccessary expense.