Complete newbie, intro and asking for advice

[waffleiron]

Hello all! I was given an old Midland 77-913 today (radio, AA battery pack, and flex antenna - circa 1990) and have been listening in. It's decent enough for listening to truckers passing my city, but it won't reach back to them. Does anyone have info on building a longer-range antenna or amplifier for one of these? I've never done CB before, I've always been an internet kind of guy. But after just playing with it and listening in I can already tell I'll love it. What advice or info would you all give me?

Thanks!

 

[FiveFilter]

Is that a hand-held radio? If so, the small attached antenna that came with the radio won't get you very far so I would get a good magnetic-base antenna of around five feet in length IF, of course, the radio has a port in which the antenna can be plugged into.

Attach the antenna to the top of a car or, at home, the metal roof if so equipped or another fairly large metal surface to serve as a ground plane.

That combination should let you talk about as far as any other legal 4-watt CB radio that does not have a big outside antenna on a tall mast.

The hand-held radio can use up AA batteries pretty fast when transmitting, so if it has provisions for a 12-volt cigarette lighter type plug for use in a vehicle, you might consider getting one to avoid the problems with small batteries.

After you experiment a bit and like the great world of CB communications, you can buy a regular CB radio from about $50 or so and get with the program. The antenna you bought will work with it very well.

 

[waffleiron]

It is handheld, yes. It has a 12v barrel jack, so I did some measurements and found a suitable AC adapter. Works great with that, and I always have an inverter in my car anyway.

The external antenna port is the RCA type, so I built a coax adapter for it. I'll look into getting an antenna tonight.

Is a linear amplifier something I should consider? And if so, is there a good place to start learning about such things? I like to build when I can and buy only if I have to, so I'd need "radio transceivers and amplifiers 101" so to speak.

Thanks for the info!

 

[TheSpaceMann]

Hello all! I was given an old Midland 77-913 today (radio, AA battery pack, and flex antenna - circa 1990) and have been listening in. It's decent enough for listening to truckers passing my city, but it won't reach back to them. Does anyone have info on building a longer-range antenna or amplifier for one of these? I've never done CB before, I've always been an internet kind of guy. But after just playing with it and listening in I can already tell I'll love it. What advice or info would you all give me?

Thanks!

Build a ground plane antenna for it! It will increase your range significantly.

 

[waffleiron]

Space Marine, that is exactly what I would love to do. I have no idea how to calculate the measurements for it, though. Any guides you're aware of that could help?

 

[TheSpaceMann]

Space Marine, that is exactly what I would love to do. I have no idea how to calculate the measurements for it, though. Any guides you're aware of that could help?

108 inch radiator, and four 108 inch radials bent downwards at a 45 degree angle!!

 

[spongella]

If you can get an outdoor antenna erected it'll be a significant improvement over the one included with your set. Those emergency radios were popular just after the CB boom of the 70's and were for road emergencies. You kept one of these in the trunk or backseat just in case.

Just an FYI, linear amps for CB are illegal. To do what you want, talking to truckers, a good antenna, outside and at a a decent elevation will do the trick.

Good luck and hope you're successful.

 

[waffleiron]

108 inch radiator, and four 108 inch radials bent downwards at a 45 degree angle!!

So..... Like an umbrella without the fabric?

And thanks for telling me that linear amps are illegal, I wouldn't have guessed that. That nugget of info didn't seem to matter to the I found talking about them in my quick Google search.

 

[waffleiron]

Also I just noticed that I called you SpaceMarine and it's actually SpaceMann. Sorry about that, my military bias is showing!

 

[waffleiron]

108 inch radiator, and four 108 inch radials bent downwards at a 45 degree angle!!

Found this image online, did you mean this shape?

 

[lmrtek]

Since an antenna needs to be 9ft long to work well on CB, the shorter the antenna, the worse the performance.
Top that off with the fact that truckers are running illegal amplifiers
with several hundred watts, and you will hear them ALOT further away
than your 4 watt LEGAL radio will

 

[TheSpaceMann]

Found this image online, did you mean this shape?

That's it!! Make that and your radio will perform much better!!

 

[KC4RAF]

Waffleiron, if you want to experiment some, here are the formulas for antenna lengths:

Full wave = 936/Mhz
Half wave = 468/Mhz
1/4 wave = 234/Mhz

example would be like:
channel 19, which the frequency is 27.185

You would take, say the half wave length formula of 468 divided by the frequency of 27.185.
468/27.185 which would equal ~17' 4".

You can use those formulas to experiment and build your own antennas.

Also, the antenna is the MAIN part of your CB system.
You can have a 500 dollar radio, but if you're using a cheap antenna, the radio will not perform to it's optimum potential.
Not trying to confuse you, just thought you might like to try it.

 

[BloodandRoses]

Its all about the antenna...