Well that does narrow the type of radio down. I would look at getting a radio like a Uniden pc76 or pc 78, a cobra 29 (lt, classic, etc) the smaller ones like the Cobra 19 DX, and silmilar radios in size you wouldn't like, for there capabilities are very low.

As for the antenna, obviously a Wilson. I can specify better if I know how you want to mount it, i.e. on the roof, in the bed, from the hood, off a mirror, and if you want magnetic or hard mounted etc... Depending on the vehicle accessories, some applications will not work.

On the average, you could get one of these set ups above for around $160-$180. This would not include some mounts for the antenna (depending on mount style) and coax for the radio. Some additional 14 or 16 guage wire could also be needed to wire in the radio, All of this is fairly in expensive though. i.e. coax, $10 or $15 bucks.

I can also help you tune the radio you get for maximum DX/RX.

 

I will look into those models you listed. For the antenna, I'd either want a magnet mount or if I hard mounted it I'd probably do it to whatever headache rack I get. I really don't want to hard mount anything to the truck itself. The coax won't be a problem, I can get that for nothing.

 

For the antenna you want to run, remember the most important thing will be to make sure the center load is above the highest point of your vehicle. If you do go with the magnetic mount, do NOT put cloth under it to protect your paint. The magnet is how the antenna makes its ground. Usually they come with a protector on the bootom of the mount for that.

If this is still the way you want to go, I would purchase a Wilson 1000 magnetic mount. It will already come with the coaxial hooked up to it. It comes with 18' of it. Do not cut it. If you have excess, tuck it away somewhere. Use either big circles or zig zags. Any other way will effect the swr's. The first link below will take you directly to Wilson and tell you in more detail about the antenna.

Wilson

The next link takes you where you can buy one. Most sell around $65+ in stores. Here is one a little cheaper.

Wilson Roof Antenna

This third link is also at Kollman Radio. Like the first 8 items should be Cobra radios that would work good for you. If you have any ?'s about any of them let me know. If the link doesn't work, use the one above and on the left side of the screen click cb radios. The cobra's I'm talking about should pop up first.

Cobra Radios

 

Wow, I must say, this is more involved than I thought it would be. I figured a CB install would be similar to a cd deck. It doesn't sound impossible, just very tedious.

Thanks for the info thus far. As far as specific features are there certain things to look for? Or certain standards? I honestly don't really know what most of the abbreviations stand for.

 

If you're just looking to listen in to the local traffic, you can get away with a relatively inexpensive setup. Back when I was in high school I had a marine CB with a Radio Shack magnet mount antenna and my buddies had similar setups that worked fine for a game of CB tag. None of us knew anything about tuning the antenna and yet it still worked. I'm quite sure that if we had optimized our stuff it would have worked better, but we were still able to pick up traffic in foreign languages anyway. Right now I'm sort of searching for a bracket that will work well with the Dakota and not require a big hole to be cut into the sheet metal. I'm probably going to end up mounting it on my Yakima rack and figuring out what to do with the ground.

 

Mostlt, you want one that will work best for you, like if you drive a lot at night, you might want the one that lights up all the words at night, not just the channel and meter. It would be good to get one with an SWR meter built in to it. Unlees you want it for an option, don't get a wx model. The main difference with these is they have built in weather channels also. Unless you will really use them all they will do is take away from power capabilities.

Yes there is a bit more involved in cb's compaired to head unit, but similar with amps. You have to adjust them to your vehicle for them to work properly and prolonged life.

My fav out of the Cobra's is the Cobra 29LTD Classic. This radio works real well and is very dependable. Depending on how much you really get in to cb's, there are a lot of mods you can do with this radio. The Uniden PC76 or even 78 models would be the same. Cobra radio's are made by Uniden. A lot of people get that backwards.

 

The good old Radio Shack Specials as we know them. Yes radios can work without being tuned, but will not last as long performance wise at the least when not tuned properly. The foreign language you heard, is from what is called skip, when weather conditions are right, the wave of your signal changes and you can pick up and even talk with the right set up to other countries and continents. Even other people in other states. It all depends on how much of DXing you want to get into.

I've had radio setups in my vehicles that could blow up the speakers in drive throughs and bleed over televisions and anouncment speakers in banks and stores. Again, it all depends on how much of it you want to get into. My recommendations are for equipment that still is not too expensive, but leaves you the opportunity to do more if you really get the interest, without having to go out and buy all new equipment again to do so.

 

I see this as any other mod. I don't want to go too cheap, but I know that I will not be sinking any more money after the initial purchase (I do have a race car to waste money on!).

 

Yep, I'm somewhat familiar with radios as well, obviously not as much as you are though. I got a Cobra 19 DX III mounted up but I haven't wired it in yet since I don't have a mount picked out for the antenna yet. Got any suggestions for antenna solutions that mount on fiberglass?

 

Not too bad on your radio pick there horatio, but still a small radio. Not much to do aftermarket for it. That radio is usually easily noticed on the RXing end because it has a nice little almost quite squak when you unkey the mike.

As for mounting on fiberglass, are we talking about a tonnauo cover? It is possible to mount to fiberglass, but some extra wire may need run usually.

BTW, not really knocking your radio, I had one to start with myself. Small radios like that can't be tune as good as a little bigger radio can and they tend to get "stepped" on a lot because of it. "Stepped," is a cb term also. Doesn't litteraly mean step on radio. It means someone else just keyed up and talked right over the top of you.

Let me know more about that fiberglass and I'll let you know best way to mount.