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cobra hand held 38WXST radios

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savage308

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I just baught 2 of them,these radios suck they cant even reach a block distance, plus i cant even get the marine channel that is transmitted here from belleville , 25 years ago i had a tr-217 hand held from radio shack & a noise canceling power mike , it had great range, i thaught since technology has changed for the better ?? why not get a new radio boy was it a mistake the little rubber antenna is so small no wounder it has no distance , the hand mike i got , is so cheaply made they do not have any other mikes that will work a noise cancelling powered one would help dramatically thumbs down for cobra
 
Oldme

Oldme

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" plus i cant even get the marine channel that is transmitted here"
You won't get the Marine Channel on a CB radio.

Short antenna, and you surroundings make a difference.

Are you trying to transmit form inside a vehicle?
If so, then you need an automotive type outside antenna.
It is designed to put out the 4 legal watts of all US CBs.

If you are talking weather channel, be sure to check what is
now on your coverage area. This may help.
Noaa Weather Radio
 
gewecke

gewecke

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Oldme said:
" plus i cant even get the marine channel that is transmitted here"
You won't get the Marine Channel on a CB radio.

Short antenna, and you surroundings make a difference.

Are you trying to transmit form inside a vehicle?
If so, then you need an automotive type outside antenna.
It is designed to put out the 4 legal watts of all US CBs.

If you are talking weather channel, be sure to check what is
now on your coverage area. This may help.
Noaa Weather Radio
Click to expand...
. Oldme, that's not completely true. A company called Handic produced a cb mobile which had marine ch.16 in it and was popular back in the 70's. Some cb mobiles and handhelds have a NOAA weather reciever built in to them. How well they work depends on your antenna and how far from the tx site you are. 73, n9zas
 
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savage308

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gewecke thankyou, it says in the manual recieves 10 NOAA weather channels, you would think if a company is going to make a radio give it some performance so it can receive and transmit a decent distance, my old realistic tr-217 with a noise canceling power mike could reach from downtown here in belleville and reach to almost glen miller on the 401 highway and yes it had a fishing pole for a antenna was a bit cumbersome but it worked
 
Oldme

Oldme

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I see a couple of problems with what the OP is
trying to do.

I did not realize he was in Canada and needing Canadian WX.
If " manual recieves 10 NOAA weather channels" I would read that
as the American Weather channels, being NOAA. So he may not get them.

Cobra has been very responsive to my e-mail customer support questions
in the past. Am e-mail should clear that up.

The Cobra does not have special channels like the marine channel 16
or other channels. It is a standard CB.

It looks like it is the wrong radio for what the OP wants to accomplish.

It is still legal American 4 watts so obstacles like a steel car roof will
kill the hand held signal. He definitely needs an external antenna.
A mag mount should work well.

I am not familiar Canadian CB.
Do they use the American frequencies or the British
CB Bands which have been recently expanded far beyond the American?

Did a little search:
Weatheradio Canada is operated by Environment Canada's Meteorological Service
and broadcasts weather and environmental information 24 hours a day in both official
languages on 7 dedicated frequencies within the VHF public service band.

Get your weather - Weatheradio - Weather and Meteorology - Environment Canada
 
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LoyalServant

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Oldme said:
I am not familiar Canadian CB.
Do they use the American frequencies or the British
CB Bands which have been recently expanded far beyond the American?
Click to expand...

GRS (their CB) uses the same 40 channels and frequencies as the states.

Britain uses FM and starts around 27.600 or something like that IIRC.
 
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KNY2ADQ

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LoyalServant said:
GRS (their CB) uses the same 40 channels and frequencies as the states.

Britain uses FM and starts around 27.600 or something like that IIRC.
Click to expand...

The UK has 2 CB band with one corresponding with the USA CB band. AM and SSB was legalized on that band in July of this year.
 
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LoyalServant

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KNY2ADQ said:
The UK has 2 CB band with one corresponding with the USA CB band. AM and SSB was legalized on that band in July of this year.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Thanks for the info... I had no idea they were even considering that.
It kind of makes sense to have the same frequencies and modulation methods for CB across the world.. this way it all just works.
 
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RC286

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mostly its the antenna, they are stuffing the electrical length of 1/4wave or 5/8wave of 11m wavelength into an antenna round 10" While it will match its basically near using a dummy load as an antenna. Very low gain, in fact probably more attenuation than gain.
Those are good for short comms not long distance. We use handheld CBs on the boat at the lake to keep in contact with base at the cabin (cell reception is shotty and we have CBs in our vehicles so it makes for a fairly reliable communications method) it works out there as there is significantly less noise so a weak signal can be pulled in easily.

You want better range out of a handheld, you need one of these.
https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5155/7071433909_134200166f_z.jpg
The antenna telescopes out over 3' long with a loading coil in the center. More gain and better signal radiation.
I have the older TRC-215 6 channel crystal controlled version of that radio
The antenna on my 2m/70cm handheld is physically longer than most of the wet noodle rubber duck antenna on CB handhelds.
 
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SCPD

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The Cobra 38 does SUCK ! I bought one and had one as a gift. I dropped one and the hard plastic ened up all over the place. Dealing with a number of different handheld, I was disappointed in this in my opinion apparent flop in the cobra line... (Just like the Cobra 18)

The better alternate is a basic midland 75-785.. It ain't much better but its simple and definitely does have a better receiver and works well with an external antenna. Range with the 6 incher about 700 to 1000 ft average mobile to about 1500 ft -2000ft to a good base. Covers a small to medium truck stop well !!

All these CBs look so impressive and cool on the outside but they don't do anything....
 
sloop

sloop

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Savage308 I agree with you. The quality of the 'new' CB's is far inferior to those of a decade ago. Some of it has to do with the antenna...the rubber duck antenna is little more than a 'cool looking' dummy load and the quality of the current CB's (e.g. Cobra) that are made in China is lacking. Even the Cobra 148, the corner stone of CB's, has drift problems on SSB. This never occurred 10 years ago.
 
prcguy

prcguy

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Well, sort of but in some cases not. I had a CB/10m handheld that did 4w AM and 6w SSB and made a contact on 10m amateur from California to Ireland using a stock 4ft telescopic whip on the radio. I could regularly get 50 to 70mi range from a local 500ft hill on SSB using the same antenna.
prcguy

W8RMH said:
CB is low band and really requires a ground plane like an auto body or the radials on a base antenna. Portable CBs just don't get it and they never have.
Click to expand...
 
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SCPD

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I had a TRC-208 6 channel crystal walkie talkie back in the day. During an emergency at a boat landing with the telescoping whip was able to communicate to a base station with a 60ft big stick 11 miles away on flat terrain !

Those were the days !!!
 
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