New to the CB area

Loudest-99Ranger · Apr 28, 2010

Hey everyone. just another newbie here.... well i have some questions. ive been wanting a CB for awhile now and now that i finished getting the things i needed for my truck im saving up some money for a CB set-up..

im just wanting some info on a decent CB set up like from the CB radio all the way to the antenna... looking to be cheap but effective as is everyone else here im assuming. i got bout $150 so far but will have more by next payday.

What are some good setup's? wanting to get maybe a decent ranger of 3-5 miles out. thanks

BTW.. i live in Lawton, OK and its no lie just flat land. with some hills

James

P.S. need whole system and max itll be on money. on a budget :icon_cheers:

02RangerXLT · Apr 29, 2010

A Cobra 18 or 19, Uniden 510/520 series, or Midland 1001Z will work good for you. No reason to go up to a Cobra 29 unless you can find a used one for cheap!

Wilson antennas should give you good results. Check out the "lil wil", its a 36" magnetic mount antenna, otherwise the 1000 will work too. The 1000 also comes in a magnetic mount but it has a 62" antenna. The 1000 also comes in a non-magnetic mount.

www.walcottcb.com

www.rightchannelradios.com

purecountry · Apr 29, 2010

for the best bang for your buck, i would go with a radio shack 102'' whip. its the best antenna i have found for the money. $20 verse $60-80 for wilson witch isnt as tall. for a radio i would go the radio shack trc-447. thats the route i have gone, i have 2 of these setups. i can get a new one for 25 bucks. comes with just as many bells and whistles as the cobra 29, just $100 cheaper and made by cobra. here is the pic of the radio that i have.

then with it peaked and tuned with led kit. i paid @35 for this to be done.

nacy369 · Apr 29, 2010

Definitely a Cobra radio like a 29ltd or a 148GTL. They sell on ebay right now really cheap. just picked up a 29ltd nightwatch like new for 50.00. for a antenna a wilson or a k40 would be your best bet, and try to go ground plane free if you can. Magnetic antennas in my opinion are the best. And if you need some help with your radio like if you want to go out farther shoot me a email.

02RangerXLT · Apr 29, 2010

Don't bother with a 102" whip unless you want the damn thing flopping around in the wind, hell, my 4ft firestick movies quite a bit in the wind. Plus you will run into trouble going under most bridges...

Don't cheap out on the antenna, its the most important part of the CB setup (for the most part).

purecountry · Apr 29, 2010

i am running a 102'' with a 6'' heavy duty spring. i havent hit any overpasses yet.

strvger · Apr 29, 2010

like has been said, inexpensive radio for sure. bells and whistles don't get you any more range. the cheap one's at Wally World do just fine if you can't find a better deal on Craig's List or ebay. and you'll always be transmitting further than you can receive as that is just the nature of the beast.
most of your money should go to the antenna and then getting it tuned. the more centrally mounted, the better range in all directions. if you mount the antenna on a corner of your truck, most of your range, both receiving and transmitting, will be toward the opposite corner. x2 on the magnetic mount, right in the center of your roof. 4ft or so length should be fine really mounted there.
you'll find body plugs under your carpet between the sill plate and the seat tracks on both sides of your cab for running the antenna cable into the cab if you don't want it just coming through the door jam.
and getting power to it directly from the battery (fused of course), will cut down on the interference (static) created by your truck. don't forget to ground everything really well to the frame if possible.
no way you should be spending even $100 for your set up. good deals are plentiful on cb's.
good luck and have fun!!

Loudest-99Ranger · Apr 29, 2010

thanks for the info everybody. ill be getting that trc-447... looks like a pretty cool CB... ill spend the most money on the antenna, sense i see that most people are saying that's main part of equipment for the CB rigs... thanks

Loudest-99Ranger · Apr 29, 2010

http://lawton.craigslist.org/ele/1709325676.html

Found this on craiglist. so is this a decent one?

purecountry · Apr 30, 2010

http://cgi.ebay.com/RADIO-SHAK-TRC-447-40-CHANNEL-MOBILE-CB-WEATHER-RADIO-/220597782256?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item335ca706f0

make a offer of $25 and she will take it.

gcfishguy · Apr 30, 2010

Loudest-99Ranger said:
http://lawton.craigslist.org/ele/1709325676.html

Found this on craiglist. so is this a decent one?

That's one of the common cheap radios.
Had that one in my jeep, it worked like a champ and dealt with lots of bashing around and moisture and crap. (Wheeled every weekend for 2 years with it).

As was said, an expensive radio doesn't necessarily work better than a cheap radio...more bells and whistles.

2 small complaints with that radio:

1- When switching channels, one click of the knob wasn't always one channel. Sometimes would click like three times but only go up one channel. Did that right out of the box, brand new. My club always ran on channel 4, so I didn't change the channel for months at a time, so not a biggie.

2- When you cut battery power to it, it defaults to channel 9 when you re-apply power. That sucked because I wanted to run it on a relay, only hot in ACC and ON, so I wouldn't forget it on and run my battery down. Can't do that, because each time power is re-applied it would default back to channel 9. Well, you can do it, you just have to adjust the channel every time you shut it off...and our club had a lot of cleaning runs (lots of guys with newer JKs, etc) and you're in and out quite a bit, cutting and stuff, so it would have been a real pain.

Other than those two things, it's a good little radio. But, you can likely get it new for very close to $40 if you look around.
Pretty sure they sold it at the truck stop up the highway for $50, and this is Canada, ehh?

02RangerXLT · Apr 30, 2010

With that midland 1001Z, a better deal can be found on www.buy.com... i got mine for $35... new.

purecountry · Apr 30, 2010

that midland is junk.

Scotty J. · Apr 30, 2010

Here's what my Truck Driver step son suggested. I'm going to go with the firestick instead of the Wilson 2k just because it comes in black. I don't know about the Roadking Mic either, but we'll see.

Also, you'll want to have someone properly tune it. Most people don't know that you actually tune the system for optimum performance.

Cobra 29
Wilson 2000 Antenna
Roadking Mic
18' Coax

Oh, and watch out for those tanks there in Lawton ;-) I used to take the puddle jumpers out of Dallas to Lawton quite a bit back in the 90's.

Loudest-99Ranger · May 1, 2010

ya.... my buddy has a cb in his f150 he is 40's and a lift. we sometimes intercept a channel from ft.sill and one time the soldiers got a kick listening to us talk then they started talking with us. we were like wtf but it was funny. we all had good time.

James

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