CB radio

looking at getting some Cb's between us here in the lannys, am after someone who can tell me exatcly what is needed to get one set up, aint touched then for a few years and as far as i am aware i need........
the unit, mic, power lead, aerial cable, aerial and a way of tuning the aeiral into the set, the sets seem to be cheap on fle bay, say 20 quid of an aerial, what else do i need to do??
thanks in advance chaps!
p.s wouldnt mins being able to listen into local police on it just incase am off roading somwhere i shouldnt be, so i can move on without confrontation of course and 30 quid better off

RAZ8550TDI said:

looking at getting some Cb's between us here in the lannys, am after someone who can tell me exatcly what is needed to get one set up, aint touched then for a few years and as far as i am aware i need........
the unit, mic, power lead, aerial cable, aerial and a way of tuning the aeiral into the set,

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would that be an SWR meter?

think its swr yer, that to tune it into the set? would this be a disposable item once i have done it? or does it stay plugged in or what? like i said i need basiacally a step through step guide and a price range, also how far will these cover?

try this
THUNDERPOLE - Choosing your C.B. Antenna

been there, chose it, came to the conclusion i would get a cheap one! lmao! ill go have another look.

theres to start up packages there, on for 79.99 and one for 99.99 but they dont tell me the difference between the 2 sets?

both those rigs are basicly the same, just depends on the look your after.
as for your SWR meter, you'd use it once on setup, then perodicly just to check everythings fine.

Antennas, well the thunderpole orbiter they offer with the pack will be good for vehicle-vehicle at relitivly close range, its nice and short too plus springie so it will bounce under trees etc.. But if your looking for any decent kinda range ie 1-10 miles over bad terain then it wont me up to the job. you'd probably want a center loaded antenna.

Mount. What are you driving and whets the roof made out of? Mag mounts are good because smack bang in the middle of your roof is where u want it. none of this off the wing, front bumper or wingmirror ****, thats seriously bad practice. A mag mount will only attace to magnetic services, so if yoiu have an aluminum roof it aint gonna work. if you dont mind popping a hole through the roof you could get a watertight bolt through option.

so if i bought the cheaper set and spent the difference on up grading the aerial??? mag mount on roof? and is there anyway of finding out if these sets havea built in swr??? heard some do? cheers for this by the way lads.

these ones wont has a SWR meter inside, it was really the homebase and old school rigs that did. a SWR meter was only 15 quid 10 years ago, so probably peanuts nowadays, look on flebay. may be listed as "standing wave ratio meter" if the seller is oldschool. just get one between your mates.

what charctistics of an antenna are you after. the springiny ones are nearly indestructable, but better performance is gained by having the coil higher up the antena, but these may get caught on trees etc. i used to have 2, as they only unscrew. one springing one for off road, and and dam good one for onroad, as this is where you may need the extra range.

Cuz of the ali roof of a LR, on me old III I had the ariel bolted thru' the centre on me roof wiv a large circle of thinnish (can't remember eggsackly, 2mm I think, yeah, musta bin ) steel plate bolted to it inside as a ground plane. Painted it 'roof' coloured & you barely noticed it. Made a huge difference too. Not that it mattered, weren't any bugger to speak to unless I was laning wiv me mates anyways!

So yu volunteering to help set mine up then Grippa?

yu gorra SWR?

Yip, course I got one. Cun't do the ground plane thing tho', onna count of the Dibnah not having a roof!

true, ali roofs have to be bolted through. althoug the roof should have been a good enough groundplane, but i can see how the steel would have helped. how low did you get your swr?

fort I wud mount it on the back panel, behind the Tilt.?

Ooo bugger, **** remember now, it wuz a good couple of years ago. Remember it made a big difference tho', could broadcast a fair bit further.

The Mad Hat Man said:

fort I wud mount it on the back panel, behind the Tilt.?

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Wot on the back step? Not ideal, but we only ever use them at pretty short range. Thru the middle of yer truck cab would be better, blurry noisy thru trees mind!

nope - not on the step - but on the rear panel, by the lights, using a body mount

yer can set them without a swr meter but i'll be fooked if i remember how we used to do it

well, acording to physics the less standing waves being reflected back into the set is good, ie lover SWR on the meter.
the lower your SWR the more power is actually being transmitted (les resistance for outgoing signals)

so, on the old sets with a needle, if your cable was a multible of 11ft, ie 11, 22, 33 etc then you could put your rig on lower power 0.4watts and ajust your antenna untill the needle went the furthest when transmitting.

the only trouble with that is not every situation will alow the antenna to SWR in.

say you have a wing mount, or wing mirror mount. on a meter it ranges from 1- infinity. the actual meter will only be marked usually 1-3. now 1.5 or below is recomeneded, as not to damage your rig. but sometime you cant get that low.

the two mounts above are always bastards to get rite. so maybe the lowest yoiu'd get is 2.5 on the meter. now, you can tell that is bad even if it is the best you can get, therfore you would choose another location.

but if you were just using the rig on low power to set your SWR then as far as you were concerned, you had it as low as you could get, but actually it was not good at all.

understand?

The Mad Hat Man said:

nope - not on the step - but on the rear panel, by the lights, using a body mount

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Fink I might have one o' them..............I'll have a look.