Helping CB friend

[Ensnared]

I am going to step out and ask several questions in this thread. I am wanting to know if anyone has bought a tuned and peaked radio from CB World. This person is wanting a Cobra 25 LTD classic, my favorite. CB world offers two prices for this radio: 1) $99.95, no peak and tune, currently out of stock. It is also the same price on the Cobra home page; and 2) $124.95, peaked and tuned.

1st question: Has anyone bought a peaked and tuned CB radio from CB world. What is the quality of their work?

2nd question: Has anyone ever mounted a CB in a 2021 Toyota Tacoma 4-door? I am talking about a very simple installation. This radio should be ready to easily moved from one vehicle to another.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Save your money. Never buy "peaked and tuned" from anyone. Consider a President McKinley or one of the lesser expensive AM only in the President line up. Install an NMO-27 permanent mounted antenna center mounted in roof in each vehicle, tuned for best VSWR in that vehicle.

 

[Ensnared]

Thank you. I thought this was the answer. I would imagine this place has an assembly line of technicians or several who are overworked. Both possibilities would likely result in poor quality. He does not want a permanent installation.

 

[mmckenna]

He does not want a permanent installation.

Yeah, if he's not willing to do a proper installation, including a good antenna, then it's a waste of money to get the radio 'peaked and tuned'. Sort of like adding a supercharger to his engine, but buying cheap Pep-Boys brand tires for $30 each.

 

[Ensnared]

I am recommending what I have: Cobra 25 XLT Classic and Tram 3500 with a 5 inch magnet mount with rubber boot. He wants this radio easily moved.

I have hooked my radio wiring to a cigarette lighter plug. I know that this is not optimal for performance, but my radio gets out very well. I get compliments all of the time. Mine was peaked and tuned by Troy Two-Way Radio in Troy, Texas. The technician installs P25 trunking systems for public safety systems.

I was quite impressed with the CB modification he shows in these You Tube videos:

 

[bearcatrp]

Only way I would trust someone to tweek a radio is if I was able to watch them in person plus know they know what they are doing from trusted friends who have had this done in the past!

 

[Ensnared]

This favor is starting to deteriorate. My friend is wanting a good CB, with RF gain and Mike Gain, smaller than a Cobra 25. I suggested a Cobra C75WXST. He is a novice and only wants a CB to help on trips. He is not a hardcore CB guy.

I have attempted to find CB shops near Lubbock, Texas. I sent him to South Plains Communications; however, the so-called CB-friendly reviews were rather inaccurate. He favored HAM. My friend, who knows nothing about radios was presented with the same old B.S. I hear from some folks, "Nobody uses CB radios anymore."

I have checked up IH27 from Lubbock to Amarillo. I cannot find a CB shop with the exception of Caprock Communications in Hobbs, NM. It sounds like they install CBs for truckers.

Good CB shops are getting hard to find. I really miss Charlie's Airwaves in Missouri, City, Texas off of Cartwright. I think Charlie passed away.

Does anyone know of a CB shop in the Texas panhandle?

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Only way I would trust someone to tweek a radio is if I was able to watch them in person plus know they know what they are doing from trusted friends who have had this done in the past!

The radios are tuned properly from the factory. Any "tweaking" is suspicious. Sure you might be able to turn up the power or modulation a bit with the pots. However the "tweaking" I have seen involved manipulating inductor cores and removing parts. No thanks. A knowledgeable tech with a GROL would not be doing that stuff, so what kind of qualifications does a "tweaker" have?

 

[Ensnared]

The radios are tuned properly from the factory. Any "tweaking" is suspicious. Sure you might be able to turn up the power or modulation a bit with the pots. However the "tweaking" I have seen involved manipulating inductor cores and removing parts. No thanks. A knowledgeable tech with a GROL would not be doing that stuff, so what kind of qualifications does a "tweaker" have?


View attachment 115249

I hear you. I would like to say that I'm quite impressed to see a quote from Frank Zappa, a first in RR, LOL. You remind me of Wayne Static from Static X.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

This favor is starting to deteriorate. My friend is wanting a good CB, with RF gain and Mike Gain, smaller than a Cobra 25. I suggested a Cobra C75WXST. He is a novice and only wants a CB to help on trips. He is not a hardcore CB guy.

I have attempted to find CB shops near Lubbock, Texas. I sent him to South Plains Communications; however, the so-called CB-friendly reviews were rather inaccurate. He favored HAM. My friend, who knows nothing about radios was presented with the same old B.S. I hear from some folks, "Nobody uses CB radios anymore."

I have checked up IH27 from Lubbock to Amarillo. I cannot find a CB shop with the exception of Caprock Communications in Hobbs, NM. It sounds like they install CBs for truckers.

Good CB shops are getting hard to find. I really miss Charlie's Airwaves in Missouri, City, Texas off of Cartwright. I think Charlie passed away.

Does anyone know of a CB shop in the Texas panhandle?

Why go to a CB shop if this is a cigar lighter, mag mount install?

You can buy President CB radios on line and if you buy an antenna from them, the warranty is significantly extended.

A couple of the models are rather small, check the specs for these:

President Thomas FCC AM/FM $109 New product "ships Jan 2022". Has new FM capability. These are not shipping yet, but worth the wait.

President Adams FCC AM $69 The ADAMS FCC is a compact CB with a large, color LCD display and 7 selectable back light colors. It features a digital S meter, ANL filter, Noise Blanker This is a smaller radio.

President Andy II FCC AM (NOAA RX) $89

President McKinley USA FCC DIN sized, AM/USB/LSB capabilities, front panel loudspeaker with President's unique ASC (Automatic Squelch ) $189. I would buy this in a heartbeat for my next CB.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

I hear you. I would like to say that I'm quite impressed to see a quote from Frank Zappa, a first in RR, LOL. You remind me of Wayne Static from Static X.

I am musically inept, but I enjoy Abba to Zappa and can be heard listening to Bjork as well as Fad Gadget and Gina X. I wanted to play the accordion when I was young but my folks tried to persuade me to play trombone in school band. -- It was traumatic.

 

[Ensnared]

Why go to a CB shop if this is a cigar lighter, mag mount install?

You can buy President CB radios on line and if you buy an antenna from them, the warranty is significantly extended.

A couple of the models are rather small, check the specs for these:

President Thomas FCC AM/FM $109 New product "ships Jan 2022". Has new FM capability. These are not shipping yet, but worth the wait.

President Adams FCC AM $69 The ADAMS FCC is a compact CB with a large, color LCD display and 7 selectable back light colors. It features a digital S meter, ANL filter, Noise Blanker This is a smaller radio.

President Andy II FCC AM (NOAA RX) $89

President McKinley USA FCC DIN sized, AM/USB/LSB capabilities, front panel loudspeaker with President's unique ASC (Automatic Squelch ) $189. I would buy this in a heartbeat for my next CB.

Now, I am getting curve balls from my friend. I would like to avoid an installation. I will look at these radios. Do any of these have Mike gain and/or RF gain?

 

[Ensnared]

I am musically inept, but I enjoy Abba to Zappa and can be heard listening to Bjork as well as Fad Gadget and Gina X. I wanted to play the accordion when I was young but my folks tried to persuade me to play trombone in school band. -- It was traumatic.

I tip my hat to those who have interest in diverse music. I would agree on the musicians you mentioned. I will throw you a weird one for oddity: Unknown Hinson, "The Future is Unknown." I don't believe there is a musical category for him. He is definitely on my Austin, Texas bucket list.

Thanks for your CB comments.

 

[Ensnared]

Why go to a CB shop if this is a cigar lighter, mag mount install?

You can buy President CB radios on line and if you buy an antenna from them, the warranty is significantly extended.

A couple of the models are rather small, check the specs for these:

President Thomas FCC AM/FM $109 New product "ships Jan 2022". Has new FM capability. These are not shipping yet, but worth the wait.

President Adams FCC AM $69 The ADAMS FCC is a compact CB with a large, color LCD display and 7 selectable back light colors. It features a digital S meter, ANL filter, Noise Blanker This is a smaller radio.

President Andy II FCC AM (NOAA RX) $89

President McKinley USA FCC DIN sized, AM/USB/LSB capabilities, front panel loudspeaker with President's unique ASC (Automatic Squelch ) $189. I would buy this in a heartbeat for my next CB.

Why would they include FM on a CB? I am old school.

 

[alcahuete]

I might be the odd man out here, but depending, I'm all for peaking and tuning the radio. Most CBs don't put out 4W as it is, but even if they do, getting your radio up to 16W theoretically adds an entire S-Unit on the receive end. Plenty of CBs are capable of that right out of the box. There are hams (present company included) who spend thousands of dollars on amps just to achieve an extra S-Unit or two.

There is a well-known CB shop out there that claims to get 28-32W out of a 25LTD. If that's actually the case, and the radio still sounds good, you're looking at an 8x power increase, or a couple S-Units. That's the difference between being heard or not.

I haven't used CB in a very, very long time, but simply from an electronics perspective, it makes perfect sense to me.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Why would they include FM on a CB? I am old school.

FM Mode is used in the UK and other European countries. It provides better squelch response and noise rejection. The FCC approved FM last year, finally. If I had to choose between AM radio and AM/FM I would choose the latter. But I prefer SSB to FM if I had to make that choice.

 

[arudlang]

Why go to a CB shop if this is a cigar lighter, mag mount install?

^^ This x2. Any reputable radio will be fine out of the box if its just getting paired with a mag mount. Look for the best ANL and NB in the biz if its gotta take its power from a cigarette lighter socket. Not much point in going all out on the peaked radio to have that signal go nowhere through a significantly compromised antenna.

The antenna is really the most important piece. If he just won't go with anything other than a short mag mount then it doesn't hardly matter if its a $5 ebay radio that is 40 years old, the radio won't be the bottleneck in that system. On a truck it should be pretty easy to do a better antenna setup that can just be unscrewed when not needed, just have the coax run be the only semi-permanent part of the install. A full whip would be best, something with a 6-ish foot like a wilson 1000 might work pretty good.

I almost want to recommend the President Bill FCC radio. I mean, I do, but I am just as bummed as your friend will be that it does not have adjustable receive gain. The screen is also kinda small and hard to read, scan is slow, and the speaker is not very loud so kinda needs an external speaker or use an aux cord to pipe it into the car's audio system maybe. Those are it's downsides. On the upside, very small radio that can be mounted anywhere, President sells extra quick-release carriages for it so you can easily move it from vehicle to vehicle, very good ANL/NB + Hi-Cut, channel change buttons on the mic, automatic and manual squelch, NOAA weather capability, adjustable screen colors, simple/easy interface and buttons.

I am not as blown away by my President Bill FCC as I had hoped but it is a nice radio that lends well to swapping from car to car and has decent features, and is easy to use. Automatic squelch kinda makes up for the lack of adjustable RF gain. Still needs a good antenna, the best radio can't work miracles with a mediocre antenna.

Why would they include FM on a CB? I am old school.

FM Just became legal in the USA. Probably nobody is really going to use it much (my opinion) but we'll see. The President Bill FCC is rumored to have a straightforward internal mod that unlocks FM capability. Something you can look into.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

I might be the odd man out here, but depending, I'm all for peaking and tuning the radio. Most CBs don't put out 4W as it is, but even if they do, getting your radio up to 16W theoretically adds an entire S-Unit on the receive end. Plenty of CBs are capable of that right out of the box. There are hams (present company included) who spend thousands of dollars on amps just to achieve an extra S-Unit or two.

There is a well-known CB shop out there that claims to get 28-32W out of a 25LTD. If that's actually the case, and the radio still sounds good, you're looking at an 8x power increase, or a couple S-Units. That's the difference between being heard or not.

I haven't used CB in a very, very long time, but simply from an electronics perspective, it makes perfect sense to me.

The FCC limits the amount of total power that a CB final amp can dissipate. In other words, it should burn out long before making 32W average power, unless we are talking SSB PEP, maybe that can be squeezed since 12W PEP is the SSB norm. But I would expect it will be quite distorted.

Personally I would keep the radio stock and buy an RM Italy amplifier and a CB bandpass filter. If the end user is going with a mag mount, they should stick with low power or there will be feedback and other nasties.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Now, I am getting curve balls from my friend. I would like to avoid an installation. I will look at these radios. Do any of these have Mike gain and/or RF gain?

The President US website has a comparator tool to compare features of all the models. President is HQ in Naples FL so they are a reliable company unlike all the Chinese stuff thrown over the transom.

As far as an installation. A Larsen NMO-27 style antenna permanently mounted, center roof and tuned properly, is about as good an antenna as you can get for CB radio. It does require drilling a hole, but it really wont hurt resale value or otherwise damage the vehicle. Mag mounts on the other hand, can scratch paint in a large area, discolor the paint, or come loose at speed and bang up sheet metal. If installation seems to be a problem, get a small radio and put your effort into a permanent NMO-27 antenna. You can have a regular police/fire type two way shop install that antenna and tune it. It will be no mystery to them.

 

[alcahuete]

The FCC limits the amount of total power that a CB final amp can dissipate. In other words, it should burn out long before making 32W average power, unless we are talking SSB PEP, maybe that can be squeezed since 12W PEP is the SSB norm. But I would expect it will be quite distorted.

Personally I would keep the radio stock and buy an RM Italy amplifier and a CB bandpass filter. If the end user is going with a mag mount, they should stick with low power or there will be feedback and other nasties.

The finals can always be replaced with something better. Very easily done. I'm not sure what they are doing to produce the 32W (which I'm sure is peak), but if that's the case, no amp needed, and a couple more S-units on the receive end. If it were me, I would certainly try it for $25.