Beginner's Setup

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john-o

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I have a cobra 29 WX NW ST that I'm using for a base, and I purchased a Solarcon A99 antenna, and 100' of RG8X 95-1440. In your opinion, is this a reasonable setup for a beginner to learn about amateur radio. I'm a retired truck driver who took my CB out of rig and set it up as a base station.

Thank you in advance.
 
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mikewazowski

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John, I've moved your thread to the Amateur Radio Getting Your Licence/New Operators forum for now although I'm not quite sure it's the place for it.
 

K7MEM

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I have a cobra 29 WX NW ST that I'm using for a base, and I purchased a Solarcon A99 antenna, and 100' of RG8X 95-1440. In your opinion, is this a reasonable setup for a beginner to learn about amateur radio. I'm a retired truck driver who took my CB out of rig and set it up as a base station.

Well it's a reasonable setup for learning about Citizen Band operation, but not Amateur Radio. Your transceiver doesn't operate on any of the Amateur bands.

Do you have a Amateur Radio license? What exactly are you trying to learn?

Most people start out with the license. The license is good for 10 years, and is renewable, which gives you lots of time to pick out your equipment and get on the air. You can get a good idea of what the license test is like by visiting QRZ.com. Under "Resources" there is a link to the practice exams. Morse Code testing is not done any more, but as a licensed ham you can still use Morse Code, if you choose to.

The initial license, Technician, will get you VHF/UHF privileges plus some HF privileges. The next class, General, will get you more HF privileges and the Extra class license will get you all HF privileges. If your intent is to operate SSB on say, 20 Meters (14 MHz), you will need either a General or Extra.

There is a certain amount of knowledge you need to get your Amateur Radio license, but once you get a license, the learning really starts.

If you are going to run 100' of coax to an antenna, I would recommend a better coax than RG-8x. RG-8x is nice for short jumpers in the shack, because of it's flexibility. I use it that way all the time. But it has a fairly high loss for long runs. With 100' of RG8x, only about 60% of your signal will make it to the antenna. You should be using something like a RG-8 or LMR-400. Overall, loss figures are fairly low in the HF region, but they go up dramatically for VHF/UHF operation.

Note that cable 75 Ohm TV coax (RG-6, RG-11) is usable for lengthy antenna runs. That may cause a small SWR feeding the antenna, but the extra loss due to the SWR would be small. RG-6 and RG-11 have about the same loss as RG-8, at 144 MHz. You can usually get some RG-6 from a local cable installer for free.

Martin - K7MEM
 

PrimeNumber

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John, Moderator Mike's right about this question being a rough fit for this particular forum, but I'll give it a try.

Like K7MEM said, CB is not amateur radio. It can be a reasonable introduction to it though. Do you have a group of locals you talk with on CB? Is it fun? If so, then there you go, this is the right answer for you.

That Cobra is a fine CB, even though it's AM-only. Some people do single sideband CB as a sort of "ham lite" and have a great deal of fun making contacts ~1200 miles away at the first skip distance. And it is fun, essentially like the 10 meter ham band, without all the licensing but with a good deal more nonsense going on.

The A99 is a fine antenna. Yes, there are better out there, but not at the price, and usually it's a very easy plug-and-play unit. It does a great job for "working skip," or more properly, sending and receiving at the right angles for skywave propagation. It's not always the best for local work, but it will reach out 15 miles or more. Maybe more importantly, if you do step up to ham, hang onto it because it works well on the 17, 15, 12, 10, and 6 meter ham bands. That's a big plus if and when you get your ham license.

^^^^ What K7MEM said about the coax you mentioned.

Finally, I'm going to recommend the book "Ham Radio for Dummies." If you don't know the "For Dummies" series, they're actually books for smart people who are just getting into a new field. Anyway, when I was thinking about getting into ham, this book was a great help with figuring out the lay of land, so to speak.

OK, that's all I've got this morning and it's time for work. Good luck, ask if you have any more questions.
 

BrettL

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With your current set up you can talk 10-20 miles and even further on a clear night with good ground waves. You will receive much more than you can make contacts with. The higher your antenna the farther it will talk. With your coax at 100 ft you will not get that many watts out of it from your radio . The loss is high. Just Google coax calculator and play around with it and you will see. If you do have internet access you can get Good deals on LMR 400 coax. Sometimes as cheap as 50 cents a foot. I truly believe in a quality antenna and coax. Most of your watts will go out your antenna.

Your radio is fine. If it's boNE stock then you will have issues because on the standard cb people are blazing load with audio and watts. You may let a cb tech make it loud for you. If you want to talk far away then you will need a beam antenna and a linear. A beam will multiply your watts and with a linear it will multiply even more. A simple 4 element beam using 25 watts will be like you running 100 watts. You get the picture. You will be talking all over the U.S. with the right skip conditions. Maybe even out of the U.S.

Want to have even more fun on cb then get you a radio with ssb. Get on Ch.38, 39, 40. You can talk some really good skip there with a barefoot radio. If you get a linear make sure it has ssb switch or delay switch.

Make you a copy of the Q codes because they use them on ssb just like ( ham ) amature radio operators do. Never skimp on your antenna. Make it your number one priority. The guy who has the better antenna will talk farther not the most watts.

I had a 8 element beam. A m108. I would take a 1 pill modulator doing about 70 watts and would make skip contacts all over. My friend had a antron 99 and a 1000 watts. He never could make the contacts I did. Reason was the antenna. That's like 70 watts turning into 1000 watts.

The antenna figures I'm using as an example are not exact!

If you want to become a ham a mature radio operator then these guys will guide you and help you. If you just want to talk local to friends on the cb band in the mornings and nights then get you a linear. You will do just fine.
 
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robertmac

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Amplifiers are not legal on CB. They are legal on ham. Not sure of max power in the US. In Canada Basic + are limited to 200 watts. Higher if one is an Advanced.
 
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