CB's and Accessories

[Puppyman]

Just bought a Cobra 29 LTD and a Galaxy 949, why two? Well, When my tax check came in, I ran down to the Pilot a mile from home  ( Portersville, PA ) and was looking for a CB with SSB , they didn't have any in stock, so I bought the cobra.
I forgot my truck is in for repairs and the loaner truck I'm using had enough fuel to get my to Dubois, pa where I got the Galaxy (SSB). I'll be using the Cobra in my car.

I would like to get the best performance from the Galaxy, What helpful suggestions can you offer?

On the CB accessories, I've seen all shapes and sizes of antennas, one that looks good has coils around the center. Is this all eye candy, or do they really preform better?

[Del]

It's been many years since I owned a CB, but regardless if you use a CB, Ham Radio, Cell Phone etc, the antenna and feed line is probably the most important part of the system. Many of the CB antennas I've seen on vehicles are all eye candy. All the big coils and such really do nothing to help the radio work better.

Some keys when looking for an antenna and feed line.

1) Good Coax is a must. Many of the low end antennas have cheap coax. Cheap coax has a lot of signal loss. So if your transmitter is outputting the legal limit, you'll only get a couple of watts at the antenna.

2) The coax connector. The PL259 is also a very important part of the system. Stay away from or replace crimp on connectors. Make sure you use a good silver plated soldered PL259.

3) As for the antenna it self. Well antennas are very complex and many times when you read the specs on the antenna package they are misleading or meaningless. There are entire books (ARRL Antenna Handbook) written about antennas. So it's rather hard to say use this antenna and no others. Antennas are affected by many things, including mounting, feed line, surroundings etc. Probably the best advise is talk to as many people as you can that have a similar setup as you will and see what antennas they have tried, which ones they like, and work the best.

Hope this helps....

[Puppyman]

Thx for the info Del, I should have mentioned that I have a firestik with an adjustable tip.

One of these days I may run into you near mortons factory.

Paul

[Del]

How often do you come to Rittman?

[Puppyman]

It depends on if I'm in the area and if my company has or can get an order of salt for me.
In the last 6 months, I've been there 3 times.
I don't look forward going to the factory due to the fact its a 3-6 hour wait at times.
Do you work there?

[Del]

Wow a 3 to 6 hour wait... That's unreal.

No I've never worked there. I had an uncle who worked there for many years. He's been retired for 10 or so years. And my father use to work there in his younger years.

I work for Diebold (The ATM Company) and have worked there for nearly 33 years.

Are you ever in Rittman on the weekends?

[Grumpster]

I couldn't agree with Del more about the quality of your coax and connectors being very important to your setup. As for the antenna, I'm not a big fan of fiberglass whips. Most of the metal antennas you see, especially the ones with those big coils are just eye candy. They make a big deal about how it can handle 5 or 10 thousand watts. That's kinda like going grocery shopping with a 53 foot trailer. A bit over kill and it don't get you anything.

You can ask 50 people what the best antenna is and you'll get about 80 answers. Having said that, the antenna I use is the Wilson 2000. You can spend more money on the 5000, but your not going to get anything more out of it unless you intend out putting out a few thousand watts. The 2000 had done very well in the tests that I've read and was better than most. The best option is a 102" whip, but that's just not practical, so I use the Wilson 2000.

I wouldn't worry about getting your radio peaked and tweaked. Putting out a bunch of power isn't going to do you any good if you can't hear the person that's trying to answer you. All you'll end up doing is walking over people that you  can't hear your self. Worry more about reception and the transmission out put will follow.

[Del]

Grumpster brought up a good point about peaking and tweaking your radio.
Rule of thumb is in order to double your transmit distance you need to triple your power output. So if your being hear 2 miles away and your radio is putting out 5 watts, in order to talk 4 miles you need to put out 15 watts. Also like Grumpster said your don't want to talk further than you can hear.

[Puppyman]

Just hooked up the galaxy the other day to try it out. BOY!! what a dif!
Sounds a lot better than the Cobra.
I like the auto cal swr meter, no fuss.
The other feature I found, was it has the roger beep option, which I may not use.
The dual whips that are on the truck now are tuned to the cb, I won't mess with them.
Less then a 2 on the highest reading.

DEL

The next time I'm in rittman and it looks like a long wait, I'll head down to your Grandview park cache.

[truckdweller]

The dual whips that are on the truck now are tuned to the cb, I won't mess with them.

Just remember that these most likely go through a multiplexing box & run your am/fm & maybe even your TV besides the CB. It usually works best to put up a separate CB antenna.

[Grumpster]

I don't know about Peterbuilts or Kenworths, but Freightliners don't use a multiplexer.  There is a regular am/fm antenna on the side of the truck and the TV antenna is nothing more than a foil decal type of antenna mounted on the inside of the roof behind the header.  I believe other brands use a similar setup.