2001Millrunner

What's a good unit and how much would it cost me for the whole setup with antenna? and what are you all using?

jacksonpt

Depends on what you want... handheld, portable, in-dash, stand-alone.

It's not hard to find a decent CB for $50-$75, and an antenna kit for $25-$50. It all depends on what you want.

AznSky

Not to steal the thread or anything, but I plan on installing a radio shack CB in my dash underneath my stereo. Now will I be able to hear it? And would that be hard? I heard some ppl that install it in the dash have to get external speakers? Thanks. And are those radio shack cb's any good?

sublime_4runner

i have a radio shack cb under my stereo. you can hear it fine, you just have to make sure that when you mount it the speakers are free. i had to cut the plastic with mine. its loud. the only problem is if it has a compass on it, the compass doesnt work very well seeing as how the radio is stuffed into the dash.

i have a radio shack cb in my other truck and that one works great, so i think radio shack cbs arent bad. but the one in my 4runner sounds like crap. even though its loud, when youre driving and its on, all you can hear is the engine. i think i just need a better ground but i havent been able to find one yet.

Cebby

I just ordered a Cobra CB and Firestik antenna (yes everyone, I finally ordered it - for real!). Can't wait for it to get here. I got the Cobra with the front firing speaker with a "tune up". I got the new lightweight firestik. We'll see how it works out.

SteveS

I've been using a $30 Radio Shack CB for the last 8+ years. It had work great up till the last few trips. So I think it was money well spent. When I got my Taco, I put a $100 Cobra WX75?? real small, but I never really liked it, so I made room and installed the old RS unit. Now I may just use the Cobra, but most people I explore with use 2 Meter, so I'm not going to spend any more $$ on a CB.

Any radio you use is only as good as the input power set-up (wired from battery-$25), and the output power setup (coax, antenna, mounting, etc. -$60)

IMO spending max $$ on a CB, and plugging it into the cig ligther, and some discount mag mount ant. is a waste. All CB have a legal max output of 4 watts, so any basic radio is all the same. If you are looking for good and cheap use RS. If you will need sideband, a tweeked unit, lots of bells, etc. then you need to spend some bucks, and RS may not be the best deal.

All prices are a WAG, based on what I remember from doing my Taco in 01. If you add up my prices you see I spent almost $100 to use a $30 radio, maybe not that wise Oh, if you do the install yourself you need to buy/borrow am SWR meter ($30) to adjust your antenna, or pay a CB shop ($?) to adjust it for ya.

Hope this helped.

4RUNR

I thought CBs went out like a decade ago

What is it FRS and GMRS the new citizen's band allocated in the 460mhz range? Seems like 2 watts @ 460mhz sure beats 4 watts @ 30mhz for the car to car application. Plus all the fancy stuff built into them, tone squelch and security codes.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

For 4wheeling in the mountains, the little hand held FSR radios are not good.
They are only good for line of sight, and working closely with rigs close by.

CBs still rule in the off road world, as most of us run big antennas (3 to 4') and can get out over 5 miles with a good tuned radio and antenna setup.

It's important to have a good tuned setup when in the mountains to get around curves, trees, elevations, ect.

SteveS

I think it's more like 3 decades ago

But us wheelers and truckers are a little slow

In the last 10 years amateur radio (FCC License needed) in the 2 meter range is becoming what alot of people use.

But this is getting way-off 2001Mr's posting.

alanh

I can't really comment on what units are good and which are bad. Find a model or two that look like what you're after and search the web - you might find some decent review information (but you might not too). Unfortunately, most of the CB stuff I've run across seems to be a bunch of wackos ranting at each other or endless stuff on modifications for more power, how to add extra channels in illegal freq. bands, etc, etc.

After getting a radio with lots of bells and whistles that I don't use, I'd say just get a basic unit. I've got a Midland 79-290 with weather channels, single-sideband (SSB), and assorted other features. So far, the SSB has been of no use since not everyone has a SSB radio. The weather channels might be more useful if I had the radio installed all the time, but I don't. Since they're UHF (I think) frequencies, you don't get weather in the mtns either. Most of the other features like instant channel 9, etc. haven't been of any real use either. If you've got to have that stuff though, its about the only small radio with it. On top of it, my unit isn't so great for getting rid of ignition noise and rejection of signals from channels next to the one you're tuned to.

Alan

Yoter

This is the first ive seen of you in quite a while. Are you hiding from us? Email me!

rwmorrisonjr

I've got an older (10+ years) RS TRC-465 that I mounted in my overhead console with a bit of modification and it works great. I do get some engine buzz on rare occasions but it's not too bad. With my K40 on the roof I get great reception and very little channel bleed. As for SSB, I have but have never used it. I get my weather from my scanner or from the regular radio stations wherever I'm at so it's always local and mostly accurate. Here's a pic of my install. Hope this helps.

[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\My Pictures\truck Pics\Interior\CB & Mirror 2.jpg[/IMG]

rwmorrisonjr

That didn't work too well. The pic can be found in the thread titled "CB Radio mounting Ideas".

midiwall

I ended up with a Cobra 75WX (the radio is in the handset) and a magnetic mount antenna. Total cost was about $130.

The handset on the Cobra is a bit large and heavy because of the display and electronics, but I didn't want to have something permantently mounted in the truck. I looked at a couple of handhelds, but by the time I added a power adapter to run from the truck it was actually more and didn't have weather channels or Cobra's clarity circuitry.


Mark

Tacoma Dude

I JUST installed my Cobra 18WX ST II CB with the Firestik stuff. I haven't tuned it all that great and am considering moving the antenna as the majority of the time I'm only getting 3 out of 5 reception bars.

I've got my Firestik antenna mounted on my grille guard and the radio in my glove compartment.

Not a bad setup and not quite permanent (had to drill a hole in the compartment). All in all a clean install I think

dbullock15

I think we wanna see some pics

JSB

I've got the Cobra 18WX ST II CB also. It's mounted in the dash, with a 4 foot FirestickII. I had it tuned, and that made a huge difference. Only $12 bucks to have it tuned. I think several people on the board have the Cobra 18WX ST II CB. It's a pretty nice radio, plus it's spekaer is forward firing. I picked it up for $40 bucks on ebay.

sublime_4runner

sorry ben, been workin too much


have to work now ill be back this evening

Ducky

I hope your all using a SWR meter to tune... even if you move the antenna after you tuned it, you have to tune it again, but Im assuming you all know this basic stuff =)

transalper

I like my current cobra 75 WXST set up with 4' Firestick (total cost around $140). Very clean set-up. In other rigs I've used Radio Shack's, Midlands, and old Cobras with a variety of antennas (costs ranging from free to $120). All worked fine once I figured out where to mount the antenna and finally bought a SWR meter.