• Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and Register for our forum. Even if you don't want to post, you can still 'Like' and react to posts.

grandpa's old 80w and 200w CB amp's,what do you think?


yeah,more people with 4x4's and less trails makes for a bad scene in most places.thats why i like to go hunting and wheelin on private land most of the time when the chance comes.none of that "my stereo is louder and tires bigger" bull,or drunk idiots.i've loaded my truck up a few times with losers trash and dumped it back in the responsible parties driveways.once the county found out , the assholes had to provide dump slips and have inspections.i pick up a lot less trash now.
i'm not dead set on running an amp if its going to interfere with the other guys on the trail,but i might buy a new cb with 7 watts or so because my antenna is aready tall enough to get really banged around.i will have to see if the cb will work with the amp inline but turned off so that i can use it when i want(like when you are a couple miles away).
its like you said junkie i need to look up some sites and see how much affect the different amp ratings have.
 
Install the amp and use it when you need it (see if he has a modulator? V-Plus?) and get rid of the fire stick!! I run wilson and have run 1200 watts and never had issues

point of fact my base will dead key .25 watt and swing 320 or so i use it when i need it ( more if i light the amp/s ( I have a tube amp and a texas Star 32Kw with 16 fans on it and have lit up and made buddys all over this hemispher as well as over seas) my work truck dead key .25 wat and swing 1200 all day long and i could talk to wisconsin from centril Illinois as well as Jackson KY to Nebraska to my hunt buddys ) ( and I can piss off that idiot your talking about for about 300+ miles ( or 5-6 hrs if i needed to )

so with the right power and modulation
you can and will talk 500+ no prob ( just dont be a dick or your gona find a guy like me that can and will " put fire in da wire" and shut ya down ( Play nice) NO RODGER BEEPS or VOICE SH(T!!

just put ther amp in and use good coax and a good ant ( no Fiberglass)
as ya brake them everythim ya hit a tree limb I use a bottom loaded stainless ( Wilson 1000)


also if you realy want to talk skip A galaxy radio or some ham that can get to 11 meters will do a hell of a job bearfoot,

Run the amp!
just turn it off when your buddys are close


Sparkz
"In the Bluegrass and were on the side"
 
For a short amount of time I ran a 500 watt amp. Basically it was useless. Yeah, I could walk all over people, but that has no use. I was too distorted for anyone even remotely close by to understand me. I'd just stick with a peaked and tuned CB and you'll never have problems.
 
HAM is much more appropriate for distance.

Solar flares MATTER. They push the earth's magnetic field into the atmosphere. It's like a big mirror at 50-100 miles altitude at CERTAIN frequencies. When the field lines get low enough into the atmosphere, they constrain high-altitude charged particles very much like north-south oriented wires. It's not too unusual for HAMs to get signals to other continents, especially north-south. And if you listen very carefully to the background noises at an appropriate frequency, you can hear characteristic "chirping" sounds. These are lightning strikes on the other side of the world.

This effect exists, but isn't very strong at the CB frequencies around 27 MHz. That's why they suck. It's much stronger in the shortwave.
 
Install the amp and use it when you need it (see if he has a modulator? V-Plus?) and get rid of the fire stick!! I run wilson

just put ther amp in and use good coax and a good ant ( no Fiberglass)
as ya brake them everythim ya hit a tree limb I use a bottom loaded stainless ( Wilson 1000)



Run the amp!
just turn it off when your buddys are close


Sparkz
"In the Bluegrass and were on the side"
hey! i was kind of waitin' for a trucker to give their opinion on this.i had a magnetic base wilson 1000 for a year until the cable got abraded.it kept falling over and i diden't secure it better(shame really,it was my grandpa's).i've heard from a few people that wilson is a good brand.my firestik was free and with a spring base it hasen't killed itself yet.i got a couple questions for you if you don't mind-
1.)is the modulator so you can run the antenna with an amp and be able to turn the amp off and still talk?
2.)would you run the 80w or 200w if you just wanted a little boost without the FCC,or other people giving you hell?also 32kw-thats 32,000w right?might be able to follow your truck at night by the antenna glow.:D

i plan on seeing what the interference is on other cb's up close and i'll go from there.selectable power might be best.i'm not really looking to talk to other states just make it easier to talk 2-5 miles away,maybe the 80w?
 
Last edited:
Well you got it. I run a 2500 watt Kicker through a 102 inch steel whip with 36 feet of mini 8 and I can skip to Alaska and catch the skip coming back. If you are going to run it make sure you can power down and never push more that 4 watts at a dead key or you will lose your radio when the state police catch you. you need to have the radio peaked and tuned by a CB shop (A good one) and use an SWR meter (not the one built into the radio) I never use the Kicker going down the road, only when parked and never use it on 19, 17, or 9. Those are the channels monitored by the state police. even with it powered down I can walk over people for 20 miles because of the impedance matching you get with the kicker wired in. never use it on the same channel as somebody else with 500 yards and you want a near perfect SWR. If you are looking to talk 2-5 miles then you need near perfect SWR, a tunible antenna, and a power filter to filter out back ground noise. In my Suburban I run a completely stock Cobra 29, with dual K-40 fiberglass whips mounted on top (to the luggage rack) with 36 feet of coax (18 to each stick) with a power filter. I have an SWR of 1.2:1 (near perfect) and can talk crystal clear and receive crystal clear for atleast 10 miles with out breaking any laws. You wont get that with a cheap radio even with a kicker, get the SWR down first go from there.
 
alright so i'll look into the back ground filter and maybe modulator here soon.
 
I run a 2500 watt Kicker through a 102 inch steel whip with 36 feet of mini 8

That's an awfully small cable to be pushing that kind of power through :eek:
 
You aren't even safe running 2500watts into the heavy duty RG8 Equivelent,
Belden 9913.

For 2500watts if it isn't made by Andrews it won't take it
and even then mere 1/2" hardline need not apply...

"Mini-8" or RG-8x is only good for ~200watts

AD
 
A stock raido is fine. An amp. is bad ass. But if your talking a mi. or 2. turn the damm thing off.You,ll blead all through all ch. Youll just piss people off.
 
More QRM, making the bands useless to everybody else. "I got mine, so F the rest of you".

Such good citizens.
 
If you're gonna stick with your firstik, I'd stick with the 80w amp, although it might still be too much for that antenna. Steel whip antenna's are the best to use with amps. Make sure you have everything tuned as one system before using or you could fry parts of if not your whole system. You can talk year round state to state with the right set-up. As for interfering with cable signal, yes they are and have always been illegal in all states for CB radios, but rules are made to be broken otherwise you wouldn't need rules. The new digital signal for cable now, I don't believe receives interference from cb amps anymore. Could be wrong, but never heard any of my neighbors complain as of late.


My set-up........
Galaxy 66 converted to 10 meter from 11 meter with a 1/4 watt dead key. 50w modulator, into a 450 high drive, into a sweet 16 before exiting my Wilson 5000 antenna.

Yes, I'm a truck driver too. But truck drivers don't know everything about cb's. Its the ones that have it as a hobby like I do.
 
Last edited:
Ok first things first, if your going to run a linear amp you'll want to take the radio to a CB shop. What you need to do is have them add a 2 or 3 way power switch so you can run it about .5 watt with the "kicker". I ran OTR for 4 yrs and had a Galaxy 44 (setup for 10 meter) and a bumble Bee 250. Galaxy does make a CB now, but I'm not familiar with them. On the power switch I had a 3way on my 44 and had it low .5, med around 2.5 and high setting as regular. A good antenna can make a crap radio seem "OK", but a crap antenna will make a great radio seem like crap LOL.
 
Last edited:
lets not go off the deep end guys we're talking about pretty small amps and trail use.cool info on that sun cycle stuff though.where the hell would you hear something like that?

well he does speak the truth on the sun and solar cycles, I used to be into CB in a big way many years ago, talked all over the world with a yagi beam and a 5/8 ground plane. with a cobra 135 unlocked clairifier and some extra channels.

amps or boot's as we called them work fine, and a firestick will handle a small one under 500 watts. there used to be, and more then likely are still around. Amps with reciever gain controls, so it help both ways.

There are some nice little 10 meter rigs around with 100 amp built right into them (ranger) is one brand. open the case move 2 jumpers and you can send and recieve from 26,100 thru 29.995. Still have a couple of them kicking around some were in a box.
 
hey all,whats your thoughts on running a "i'll talk when i want and you'll talk when you can" CB system?i only use a cb on the trail or very limited two lane use right now but i heard that i might be able to talk to my cousins in arkansas with the right antenna.i know about the legality but a lot of old boys around this logging country run amps.should i use the 80w or the 200w and melt my antenna? i have an swr meter and a bunch of literature on tuning,and had pretty good luck with the other systems i've set up.anyway what do you think(including all you CB cops out there)? thanks.

Do you have a single digit IQ? (a) They're illegal even to own, let alone use. (b) there are other legal means of communication (ham) that is far, far superior to CB. If Grandpa left you a pound of crack would you be asking for advice on how to smoke it?
 

Sponsored Ad


Sponsored Ad

TRS Events

Member & Vendor Upgrades

For a small yearly donation, you can support this forum and receive a 'Supporting Member' banner, or become a 'Supporting Vendor' and promote your products here. Click the banner to find out how.

Recently Featured

Want to see your truck here? Share your photos and details in the forum.

Ranger Adventure Video

TRS Merchandise

Follow TRS On Instagram

TRS Sponsors


Sponsored Ad


Sponsored Ad


Amazon Deals

Sponsored Ad

Back
Top