Radio Shop

Theres Snake Radio in Arizona. If you want the best its on the web

What I always wanted was the Browning Golden Eagle 'Chirp'
Anyone that's been around it from the late 60's knows it's unmistakable.

cbshoestring wrote:


Just don't get one of those annoying fart sounds, climaxing girl, idiot beeps, or other aggravating "effect" installed.

'

Or that annoying "echo" which make it nearly impossible to understand anything said.

Gdetrailer wrote:

Bumpyroad wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:

But in reality, CB is pretty much a dead means of communication .

CB is alive and well in my vehicles. how else can you easily find out which route to take thru the city that you are coming to? I get on my CB and ask oncoming truckers which way is best at that time.

bumpy

You are fooling yourself and others thinking that you will get "more info".. In the real world CBs distance due to band changes, interference is pretty darn short..
:B

I guess I will just have to disregard any information I get on my CB then.
bumpy :s

Bumpyroad wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:

But in reality, CB is pretty much a dead means of communication .

CB is alive and well in my vehicles. how else can you easily find out which route to take thru the city that you are coming to? I get on my CB and ask oncoming truckers which way is best at that time.

bumpy

The last vehicle I had a CB in was my 97 truck, pulled the CB when trading it in for a 2003 truck.

That CB got stuck in a cabinet in my sticks and bricks basement..

I don't miss it at all.

I have a hundred mile daily commute to work and back, takes two hrs.. Been doing that since 1998.. Half of the commute is on Interstate..

NEVER, NOT ONCE have I ever been able to get any road condition/traffic reports from ANY truckers during that commute..

All I ever got was a bunch of foul mouthed kilowatt charleys tramping all over the band that apparently didn't work and had nothing else to do than to constantly harass anyone over the air that was within range..

That CB literally had in excess of 400,000 miles of being on the road from 1980 until 2003 since it was transplanted from one vehicle to the next.. But yet due to potty mouths and footwarmers it's "on time" was very little..

You are fooling yourself and others thinking that you will get "more info".. In the real world CBs distance due to band changes, interference is pretty darn short..

On a "good" day perhaps 4-5 miles, on a bad day you are down to a few feet..

If you and the trucker are travelling at 55 mph and away from each other you have only 1 to 2 minutes to "exchange" info.. That is a very short window of time.. Not to mention you are now distracting said trucker AND yourself causing a potential safety hazard.

The last straw was me and the misses were driving separate vehicles one day, only about four car lengths between us, and the noise on the CB was so bad that if we yelled out the window we would have a better chance of being to understand what we were saying..

That was when we got our Ham "tickets" and never looked back at CB..

Even now days many Ham bands are not very busy, replaced by cell phones and texting.. But at least we no longer listen to potty mouths :B

Gdetrailer wrote:

But in reality, CB is pretty much a dead means of communication .

CB is alive and well in my vehicles. how else can you easily find out which route to take thru the city that you are coming to? I get on my CB and ask oncoming truckers which way is best at that time.

bumpy

I worked for a manufacturer for awhile and you wouldn't believe what people do to those radios thinking they can "boost" them.

Maybe you would..

cbshoestring wrote:
Truth be told....I have no clue.

The guy I bought the radio from had a receipt for the peak/tune install of a connex. ME, I just tried to keep the echo/reverb set at a level where I sounded clean without being in a tin can or echoing like a bad football announcer.

As for the wattage...I had the SWR meter fixed, and the CB GUY scoped it and said it was putting out 37ish. Whether or not he knew how to read the scope?????????? At least he fixed my meter light!!!

I just know I got a lot of comment on how clear my BIG RADIO sounded. Running a telex roadking mic, and having a voice like Jim Reeves probably didn't hurt.

Meter light, easy fix.

37ish, absolutely no way..

Perhaps he meant 3.7 ish (THREE POINT SEVEN)watts which WOULD be "correct" LEGAL output with no voice modulation..

The STOCK output RF transistor in the final is only good for 5W INPUT, output is ALWAYS LESS than the INPUT wattage.. Note, FCC rules may state 5W but that is 5W of power used by the final output transistor and there IS a loss in HEAT of 1W..

Now if you are talking about a SSB (Single Side Band) CB that is allowed up to 12W PEP (Peak Envelope Power) at full modulation ON SSB, on non SSB the final is limited to 4W OUTPUT.. There are some OLDER late 70's early 80's models of SSB CBs in which it WAS possible to "open it up" to about 10W on AM.. But not a real smart thing to do..

But in reality, CB is pretty much a dead means of communication and therefore NEW CBs can often be bought for as low as $40 and are A THROW AWAY ITEM since for a LEGIT RF RADIO repair shop to even crack open the case they WILL be charging at least $60 min just to break even for their time. Many of those "shops" are taking peoples money and TELLING them they have "peaked" it and giving us legit techs a bad name..

Back when I was in Tech school CB repair was one part of our hands on lab.. Got to play with lots of test equipment.. Had to trouble shoot CBs that were intentionally sabotaged..

Truth be told....I have no clue.

The guy I bought the radio from had a receipt for the peak/tune install of a connex. ME, I just tried to keep the echo/reverb set at a level where I sounded clean without being in a tin can or echoing like a bad football announcer.

As for the wattage...I had the SWR meter fixed, and the CB GUY scoped it and said it was putting out 37ish. Whether or not he knew how to read the scope?????????? At least he fixed my meter light!!!

I just know I got a lot of comment on how clear my BIG RADIO sounded. Running a telex roadking mic, and having a voice like Jim Reeves probably didn't hurt.

cbshoestring wrote:

Jack_Diane_Freedom wrote:
I would think with the price of CB radios these days it would be just cheaper to replace.

REPLACE :h how dare you. I still have an original Cobra 29 classic w/ mic on side.

Besdies, a good CB shop can do more than FIX a radio.

Both my radios have been Peaked and tuned. Meaning...tuned specifically for max performance on channel 19 (they come set to cover the spectrum of all 40 equally) peaked meaning....the resister that limits power has been removed. I think the law says 7 watts, I believe my one does 37, the other only 35. Both radios also have a conex board installed. Ok, one a conex, one some other similar echo/reverb board.

The radios should also be "MATCHED" to the antenna for maximum performance...not to mention you can burn out the finales if it is not.

Just don't get one of those annoying fart sounds, climaxing girl, idiot beeps, or other aggravating "effect" installed.

Unless you are running converted amateur gear there is no way that removing a resistor anywhere is going to get you anywhere close to a 35 watt dead carrier. Even changing finals the chassis wont handle it. Theres not enough heatsink nor drive. 12-15 is about all you can really do within the radio.

My favorite radio was a Cobra-132. It ran in the 12-15 watt class and drove a modified PAL 250W Linear in the trunk. Made about 650-700W on a good SSB peak

Guess what I used to do in a previous life... :)