old cb vs new, or antenna?

[rjvalenta]

a few years ago i found my old Uniden Pro538w in a box in the basement, a buddy of mine had given men 2 102" whips, so i made a vertical dipole with them with the center mounted about 15ft up (where the coax connects) on my chimney... meh, i don't hear much, i just assumed CB was dead...

then i got a new car and thought i may take some road trips, so i put a new Cobra 75 All Road in there with a President New Virginia... made my first road trip, 4 hours each way... didn't hear much... assumed CB was dead.

but lately i'm hearing more as i drive around town, seasonal changes, atmostpheric changes, maybe the St. Louis area is more active than i thought.

at the same time i don't hear much when i'm at home... 102" whip vertical dipole that's 15ft up... vs this mobile antenna, what? shouldn't the house hear more? i can open the squelch to static and turn up the gain... not much to hear.

as i started to type this, i heard someone call for a radio check and i responded, they thanked me - here i am at home, hearing some things, people hearing me... but it's a lot less coming in than when i'm driving around.

so my questions to the online experts: is it possible that my 30 year old Pro538w is just old and can't hear well, or would i be better off focusing on my antenna? have radios advanced so much that i would see a noticeable improvement in performance buying a newer radio?

i ask because... in the end, these are 27mhz radios on a circuit board with assigned channels, which i would think hasn't changed much in decades. we aren't shifting to SDR systems, there's no internal tuner for the antenna, no ALC, etc that i'd see on a ham rig... or... maybe CB has come a long ways and i'm just not aware.

i look online and i see videos of guys talking for miles with radios that seem older than the radio i have here on my desk though, so i'd love to hear some thoughts.

will a newer radio improve reception and overall communications via CB?

thanks,

richard

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Try turning up the RF gain to make sure it is all the way up. If you back it down does the noise level change dramatically? How is VSWR to your whip antennas? Maybe a bad connection? Is the top one connected to the center of the coax? You could have high noise level at your home or maybe the radio is bad. Try swapping your other radio as base.

 

[K4EET]

Hi Richard (@rjvalenta),

Like @RFI-EMI-GUY is questioning, we need some hard data about your setup to tell how it is performing. I have an old CB radio that is almost deaf. If the transmitting CB radio is out front of my house, I can hear them and talk to them. As soon as they drive away, I can no longer hear them. The radio probably needs an alignment to improve the receiver’s sensitivity. Another CB radio receives just fine; local and DX as well.

Your Uniden Pro-538W is 40 channel AM (amplitude modulation) only and the Cobra 75 All Road is 40 channel AM and FM (frequency modulation). Both have weather channel capability but neither has SSB (single sideband) capability.

Can you receive the weather channel on both radios when connected to your home antenna system?

Can you receive the weather channel on both radios when connected to your car’s antenna system when sitting outside your house?

While AM is still somewhat active in most areas, SSB is becoming quite active for skip due to the sunspot cycle of the sun. Neither of your radios can do SSB. As for the newest FM mode, that is not too active since it is new and older radios do not have the FM mode.

Let us know the answers to our questions and we can go from there.

 

[707ways2Sunday]

That dipole should work great if tuned. Got a picture of how it’s mounted on the chimney? How the coax, that leaves the feed point, is oriented is critical with a vertical dipole.

What is your swr?

 

[Varmonter]

Does your car radio receive in your driveway where your house radio does not? 1.IF IT DOES.. try swapping it with your house radio..2.IF IT DOES NOT.. then perhaps your house is in a hole ..location location.
But I'd try swapping radios and see if the old uniden has ears in your mobile..if it does.. then look at your dipole..

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

CB band can be pretty sporadic. Local stations are subject to the terrain and radio horizon (calculators on line), so stations 10 miles distant may not be heard unless one or both of you are on very high ground. Are you within 5 miles of a major truck route? Listen to channel 19. When the skip rolls in you will hear the world, and then it is gone. If you listen long enough you will hear skip.

 

[slowmover]

2023 Best Mobile CB

Via mobile experience as an OTR truck driver. Several thousand hours annual use. Earlier references to the Qixiang factory’s new circuit board elsewhere. Several brands. The above possibly the best known example at present. Paired with the equally new Driver Extreme DRX-9010 External Speaker...

forums.radioreference.com

 

[707ways2Sunday]

How the vertical dipole should be mounted!! With coax following the mast and yardarm for lack of a better term!!!

 

[rjvalenta]

the antenna is attached to a lead 2ft pipe via what i would call a 'hamstick dipole mount' (similar mounting to the above pic but closer to the chimney and on it's side, not above it), coax to the middle and coming off at a 90' angle to the antenna, with a few turns together as an ugly balun. moving the mobile to the desk would be a challenge as the wiring is well tangled and hidden in the car, ill have to find another option for testing which could be the Midland 75-822 handheld collecting dust in my garage (unless someone thinks that a bad idea).

really i'm considering a Lincoln II+ with mod, but i dont want to throw money at a radio when my antenna is an issue. i'll try to dig out the Midland this weekend and see what results - thank you all for your input!

anything else to check is appreciated!

rjv

 

[707ways2Sunday]

RJ, another option might be to run the coax from the dipole to the radio in you mobile.. for comparison. It possible