All that CB equipment can be bought cheaply from Pilot, Flying J and Love's truck stops. I used a Cobra 21 for several years when I drove OTR-no matter what antenna you use, you'll have maybe a mile and a half range. I got tired of being stepped on and went with a professionally built Cobra 29 and twin "coil in oil" 6' antennae. That setup let me easily reach out 5-8 miles depending on terrain.

 

I use a 102" on my truck. It's long but I got used t it after a while. It's nice t have a place to tuck it in for when you go under low clearance objects.

On a regular sized vehicle nothing will beat a 102". On bigger rigs you start to get in the realm of being able to use co-phased antennas to good effect. Regular sized cars and trucks are too tiny for a co-phase setup to actually do any good for performance though some people like the look.

5-10 miles is probably about it for a good mobile station running an omni on an average day with line of sight on flat ground. Special antennas, the right environmental conditions, boosted power etc can stretch that. Work it right and it's possible to communicate with others all around the globe when conditions permit.

Edit: I'm guessing you'd be able to get a couple miles with that shorty if you plant it ideally, ie right in the center of your car roof.

 

Yeah, there's a pilot about 45 minutes from me so i might go and check into some antennas there. I might look for a power mic too if i can find them cheap. But i would think 6 foot would still be too high on a truck unless you mount it somewhere on your bed rail.

Well, i'll just probably get some type of 4 foot antenna, but not one of those fiberglass ones, and mount it either on my bed rail or i might just get a bigger magnetic one and mount it on the cab. I wanted them firestiks, but after shipping and everything, the whole kit would be around 60+ bucks. I might just get some type of stainless steel one or something. I'll have to look around.

Well, i'm putting the cb in tonight so i'll let you guys know how that goes. And yeah, i'm mounting it in the center of the cab so hopefully it gives me a good few miles.

 

I still use an old Royce 23 channel I bought for my first truck back in 1978. It was retuned and maxed out back in the 80s and still works fine.
I'll have a 102 inch whip installed shortly which will make it work like it should.

 

Yeah i want one of those 102 inch whips. Where did you get yours? I'm going to look at the one truck stop next time i go. But i got mine in and i only got 1 channel and something on the cb isn't working. So i'm going to see if we can find any more cb radios laying around and try them out.

 

Radio Shack sells them. They also sell the mounts but the one they offer is a bit light duty for my tastes. I ordered a stainless HD mount off DX engineering.

http://www.dxengineering.com/Product...D=50&SecID=157

They have whips too but the freight is a bit pricey.

 

Alright thanks. I'll take a look in radioshack the next time i go in there.

 

I would stick to the cobra and just go to a local truck stop and buy a good mic, external speaker, a real antenna and a Mic mount.

You will be so happy with the setup, and nobody else will have the same thing because you just pieced it all together.

 

TAKE THEM TO A CB SHOP YOU MIGHT BE SUPRIZED THESE OLDERUNITS PUT OUT!MEGGA POWER MY DAD LEFT ME A OLD SEARS UNIT AND THE GUY AT THE SHOP TOLD ME IT WAS MORE power ful than my new cobra worked!

 

^^^ Agreed + out in the boonies where I am building my house there is very spotty(at best) cell coverage. And when you want to go seriously off road in the desert, there is NO cell coverage. Just because some people don't want or need something doesn't mean no one does. That is very obtuse thinking.