A little info needed please, you CB gurus

[AzFrank aka Desertson]

Hey guys, I just aquired a Layfette 625 23 band CB, on the back it has the stamped lettering that says "priva - com" and right below it looks like an old tube thats been broken off, only the base w/ 11 prongs still plugged in. Whats that for? will it need the tube to work? Its has a nice power mike behind it.
I also have a Realistic "Navaho" home base radi.How big (tall)of an antenna do I need do I need and how far will it reach,(mile radius)
Thanks

[Rande]

The tube plug is probably a connector to hook the radio to an amp, a seperate reciever or a power supply (most likely). The old tube-style radios many times came with seperate transmitters and recievers. The two units had to be connected together to work as a transciever. There would be one line for frequency control, one line to mute the reciever when the transmitter was on etc. Some came with seperate power supplies that had several lines running to the radio, one line would supply power, one line would turn the supply on from the radio, another line would connect to a speaker built into the power supply cabinet. You should be able to find more info on that specific radio on some of the CB websites.

About that Navaho radio. What model is it? If you want to use it for a base station, you will need a base antenna for a CB. There are a few out there. The Antron99, the Solarcon ISO2000 etc. Be careful which model you buy. These companies also sell versions of those same antennas for the 10 meter ham band which is just above the CB fequencies. If you get one of those models, you may never get it properly adjusted for the CB channels. If you buy a base antenna for that Navaho radio, you will need to adjust the antenna for a propwer match to the radio. That will require the use of a SWR meter.

[ December 15, 2003, 10:22 AM: Message edited by: Rande ]

[JeepFreak]

This is where I go to ask CB questions although Rande seems pretty darn knowledgeable.

http://www.cbradioforum.com/

[Don S]

..
AzFrank aka Desertson
Good to see you back with us, 'the infected'
... You can use a car antenna as a base antenna.
… One time I needed to talk to a friend in Canyon Tx (about 360 miles) and didn't have a 75meter antenna on the house. I hooked up a 75m center load to the fold-over whip antenna on the wagon and ran a coax from the radio in the house (about 50 feet) to the wagon. That particular antenna (mounted in the center on top of the wagon) was about 14 feet to top from the ground and was putting out 110 watts. We had a nice chat on the Santa Fe employee ham-net.
http://groups.msn.com/isapi/fetch.dll?action=MyPhotos_GetPubPhoto&PhotoID=nIgAAAI4JqH2Ksz*nK5VJBwdYFUSEpR9kgKNYAbNSM xIpFdfjx98wr79lCDjSYm5!E0yuchGUqNs
Good Luck.. http://www.datsunnissandrivers.com/forum/images/smiles/069.gif and CUL.. Don S..

[Rande]

Do not just take a car CB antenna and hang off a window and use it. It must have a ground plane to work properly and has to be adjusted for proper match to the radio. Just sticking a mag-mount on your window air conditioner is usually not emough. If you can get the SWRs down to a good match then the mag-mount window A/C antenna will work (but not very good). If you have enough coax, you can run the extra coax out to the car and use it like Don says. I've done that before. Had an apt that wouldn't let me put an antenna on the roof. Used my old Pontiac with its CB antenna for several months. Worked fine. Just didn't have the range a roof mounted antenna would have had.

Best bet is to go ahead and purchase a base antenna and mount it properly and adjust the SWRs for a good match and talk around the world.