slowmover
Active Member
Why buy and install a radio good for next to nothing?
It will never have a second use?
I use a CB daily (8-10/hrs), have done so for many years and just might have insights into why some gear worthwhile, and other, not. Not used as a toy. Nor as a rarely-used item. Constant use, being dependent on timely information received.
Performance matters, or it doesn’t. It’d that simple.
Some around here have a thing against mag-mount antennas. I agree in principle. Same principle happens to apply to this thread.
When events prove the small extra cost of a minimum in quality was worth it, there won’t be another round of spending.
Does SSB mean a price increase x3? (Ha!) Between Skip and Sideband being hot last night I could have been talking all over the country parked for the night far from any metro of size. Or back to the major city I’d left
That option should be forgone? Cell service will never be interrupted?
None of you has answered a request for help across the CB, have you? When your decent unit was the only one to hear that TX. (I ain’t talking flat tire).
Y’all are the bubble-boys? Is that it? All geared up for sunshine on a rainy day?
CB’s ain’t too sophisticated. A Yaesu ft450d or other more expensive mobile-ready Amateur unit where you’ll spend more than $1,000 on radio and antenna plus whatever an install requires and licensure might meet some objections above. You’ll hit $2,000 without even trying (gear, tools, supply).
The OP wants “cheap” to define unit in performance and value, he’ll do it that way. Same for any of you. Try to avoid saying you know that of which CB is capable.
Doing it right (mainly Antenna & Power install) means a radio of any quality can be installed. Yeah, there IS a reasonable minimum in performance needed
But a CB won’t ever reveal its capabilities without DSP noise filtration. Add that as budget allows.
A hot-running (expensive) internal-amp radio won’t be more efficient, just the opposite. One pays dearly for the integration. A KL-203 Is almost disposable. Radio unaffected by an amp failure. (Two of them can be had for $100 these days ).
We ain’t talking a 500W Ameritron, here, backing a multi-band Amateur transceiver. The high dollar “Export” falls far short of offering “better” TX/RX for monies spent. They tend toward fragility. (Want a Stryker 955, get one. They sound great!)
Hearing all that’s possible to be heard, and to have just enough umph in TX to get heard, defines a worthwhile radio setup.
Run your own tests. I strongly disbelieve you’ve (whomever) the experience to back up
bad advice as is being offered
A mag mount and a U-510. That’s not even half of what a good rig can do. TX or RX. A waste of $150 for a road-going vehicle.
—A good permanent install.
— Minimum TX/RX radio performance standards.
Combined, lead to a far better outcome.
And, unfamiliarity with what I’ve written doesn’t constitute adequacy as a retort. Others MAY have experience outside the preconceived limits above.
.
It will never have a second use?
I use a CB daily (8-10/hrs), have done so for many years and just might have insights into why some gear worthwhile, and other, not. Not used as a toy. Nor as a rarely-used item. Constant use, being dependent on timely information received.
Performance matters, or it doesn’t. It’d that simple.
Some around here have a thing against mag-mount antennas. I agree in principle. Same principle happens to apply to this thread.
When events prove the small extra cost of a minimum in quality was worth it, there won’t be another round of spending.
Does SSB mean a price increase x3? (Ha!) Between Skip and Sideband being hot last night I could have been talking all over the country parked for the night far from any metro of size. Or back to the major city I’d left
That option should be forgone? Cell service will never be interrupted?
None of you has answered a request for help across the CB, have you? When your decent unit was the only one to hear that TX. (I ain’t talking flat tire).
Y’all are the bubble-boys? Is that it? All geared up for sunshine on a rainy day?
CB’s ain’t too sophisticated. A Yaesu ft450d or other more expensive mobile-ready Amateur unit where you’ll spend more than $1,000 on radio and antenna plus whatever an install requires and licensure might meet some objections above. You’ll hit $2,000 without even trying (gear, tools, supply).
The OP wants “cheap” to define unit in performance and value, he’ll do it that way. Same for any of you. Try to avoid saying you know that of which CB is capable.
Doing it right (mainly Antenna & Power install) means a radio of any quality can be installed. Yeah, there IS a reasonable minimum in performance needed
But a CB won’t ever reveal its capabilities without DSP noise filtration. Add that as budget allows.
A hot-running (expensive) internal-amp radio won’t be more efficient, just the opposite. One pays dearly for the integration. A KL-203 Is almost disposable. Radio unaffected by an amp failure. (Two of them can be had for $100 these days ).
We ain’t talking a 500W Ameritron, here, backing a multi-band Amateur transceiver. The high dollar “Export” falls far short of offering “better” TX/RX for monies spent. They tend toward fragility. (Want a Stryker 955, get one. They sound great!)
Hearing all that’s possible to be heard, and to have just enough umph in TX to get heard, defines a worthwhile radio setup.
Run your own tests. I strongly disbelieve you’ve (whomever) the experience to back up
bad advice as is being offered
A mag mount and a U-510. That’s not even half of what a good rig can do. TX or RX. A waste of $150 for a road-going vehicle.
—A good permanent install.
— Minimum TX/RX radio performance standards.
Combined, lead to a far better outcome.
And, unfamiliarity with what I’ve written doesn’t constitute adequacy as a retort. Others MAY have experience outside the preconceived limits above.
.
