CB Radio!

[sripad]

I am looking for a CB radio for offroad use with better range. I don't know anything about CB radios. Before I buy one I have couple of questions for CB radios users..Here are my questions..
1) What is the range like in wooded area, open country side and town?
2) What CB radio and antenna I sould buy?

Can anyone help?

Cheers,
Sripad

[slydog]

mmmmmmm

mobile phone lol

[sripad]

mobile phone lol

Mobile phone don't work in some places. Specially when you go greenlaning.

[smiffy]

i've got a 1.5m whip ariel on my truck. The coils at the bottom of ariel. Nice and flexible so wont get damaged. It's on a mag mount base so i can take it off easily if about town or need to put stuff on my roof rack. People put them on the rear wheel carrier as well but with a bracket. Plenty of option,depends on your own preference.

check out...http://www.4x4cb.com/ it may help you out a little.

[Wild Thing]

I am looking for a CB radio for offroad use with better range. I don't know anything about CB radios. Before I buy one I have couple of questions for CB radios users..Here are my questions..
1) What is the range like in wooded area, open country side and town?
2) What CB radio and antenna I sould buy?

Can anyone help?

Cheers,
Sripad

I've got a maycom fm27 80 channel rig with a 1.5 metre springer on a magmount the range is about 6 miles, been off roading with it through woods etc and as it has a base spring has plenty of give to the point where itsbent over touching the roof then springs up again

[sripad]

i've got a 1.5m whip ariel on my truck. The coils at the bottom of ariel. Nice and flexible so wont get damaged. It's on a mag mount base so i can take it off easily if about town or need to put stuff on my roof rack. People put them on the rear wheel carrier as well but with a bracket. Plenty of option,depends on your own preference.

check out...http://www.4x4cb.com/ it may help you out a little.

Thanks! What range you normally get in wooded areas, country side and in town in good weather?

[sripad]

I've got a maycom fm27 80 channel rig with a 1.5 metre springer on a magmount the range is about 6 miles, been off roading with it through woods etc and as it has a base spring has plenty of give to the point where itsbent over touching the roof then springs up again

6 miles is good!
Do you get 6 miles in open country side? or wooded areas or in Town?

[Wild Thing]

6 miles is good!
Do you get 6 miles in open country side? or wooded areas or in Town?

Thats in town with a lot of high buildings, drops a little in wooded area to around 4 1/2 to 5 miles but also depends on the density of the woods and the atmospherics

[hotjames]

I have a Maycom EM27 (£79.50) with a 1.65cm Thunderpole Orbitor (£14.95) attached to the rear wheel carrier using a right angle bracket. It works very well up to 5-6 miles and you would have to be in some very big woods for whoever your talking to not to hear.

I bought all the bits from Knights Electrocom http://www.kcb.co.uk who have been in the cb trade for many years and are knowledgable and pretty cheap, they have an online shop.

The Maycom is a top rig for the price with the 40 UK and 40 Euro channels, digital display, auto scan, roger beep and multi function mic. Its also quite small so easy to mount. I have mine on a bracket screwed to the left side of the centre console, left of the gear lever so its easily reachable wihtout stretching.

You'll need to pick up a SWR meter (about a tenner, you can get more expensive flashier ones but its a waste of money). A reading of 1.5 is ideal but anything under 2 is fine (I get 1.7 from my setup on the wheel carrier which was suprisingly better than the 1.9 from using a mag mount on the roof), 3 or over and you risk damaging the rig.

One other thing, they were talking about getting rid of the licence requirement but have not made a decision yet so you will also need to get one from the Radio Licensing Authority which is £15 a year.

[Wild Thing]

I have a Maycom EM27 (£79.50) with a 1.65cm Thunderpole Orbitor (£14.95) attached to the rear wheel carrier using a right angle bracket. It works very well up to 5-6 miles and you would have to be in some very big woods for whoever your talking to not to hear.

I bought all the bits from Knights Electrocom http://www.kcb.co.uk who have been in the cb trade for many years and are knowledgable and pretty cheap, they have an online shop.

The Maycom is a top rig for the price with the 40 UK and 40 Euro channels, digital display, auto scan, roger beep and multi function mic. Its also quite small so easy to mount. I have mine on a bracket screwed to the left side of the centre console, left of the gear lever so its easily reachable wihtout stretching.

You'll need to pick up a SWR meter (about a tenner, you can get more expensive flashier ones but its a waste of money). A reading of 1.5 is ideal but anything under 2 is fine (I get 1.7 from my setup on the wheel carrier which was suprisingly better than the 1.9 from using a mag mount on the roof), 3 or over and you risk damaging the rig.

One other thing, they were talking about getting rid of the licence requirement but have not made a decision yet so you will also need to get one from the Radio Licensing Authority which is £15 a year.

Same set up as mine except mine is on a large magmount on the roof, SWR down at 1.3 so pretty chuffed

[sripad]

I have a Maycom EM27 (£79.50) with a 1.65cm Thunderpole Orbitor (£14.95) attached to the rear wheel carrier using a right angle bracket. It works very well up to 5-6 miles and you would have to be in some very big woods for whoever your talking to not to hear.

I bought all the bits from Knights Electrocom http://www.kcb.co.uk who have been in the cb trade for many years and are knowledgable and pretty cheap, they have an online shop.

The Maycom is a top rig for the price with the 40 UK and 40 Euro channels, digital display, auto scan, roger beep and multi function mic. Its also quite small so easy to mount. I have mine on a bracket screwed to the left side of the centre console, left of the gear lever so its easily reachable wihtout stretching.

You'll need to pick up a SWR meter (about a tenner, you can get more expensive flashier ones but its a waste of money). A reading of 1.5 is ideal but anything under 2 is fine (I get 1.7 from my setup on the wheel carrier which was suprisingly better than the 1.9 from using a mag mount on the roof), 3 or over and you risk damaging the rig.

One other thing, they were talking about getting rid of the licence requirement but have not made a decision yet so you will also need to get one from the Radio Licensing Authority which is £15 a year.

Thanks, Sounds good. What is a SWR meter? What the SWR meter reading tell us?

[sripad]

Same set up as mine except mine is on a large magmount on the roof, SWR down at 1.3 so pretty chuffed

I like the 5 miles range. Is the magmount strong enogh?

[Wild Thing]

I like the 5 miles range. Is the magmount strong enogh?

yes the mag mount is strong enough its 8" diameter.
You use the SWA meter to tune the aerial into the rig

[hotjames]

The SWR meter tells you how well matched the length of the aerial is compared to the wavelength you are transmitting on.

You don't need to understand the complicated stuff (I know I don't) to use one. Once you have the rig set up, make sure you park in an open area at least 20ft from buildings and do it with the doors shut. The ariel will plug into the back of SWR meter and another co-ax lead from there to the rig. Then turn the CB on.

Firstly, go to channel 20 on the UK band.

Put the switch to FWD and while transmitting, turn the knob so that the needle swings over to the far right of the scale. You will probably see the word “SET” or a red mark at the end of the scale - make the needle line up with this.

Once this is done, and while still transmitting, switch over to REF and the needle should drop down to give you a nice low reading.

If the needle hardly moves when you switch over or does not come out of the red portion of the scale - STOP transmitting - you have a problem, probably with the groundplane connection.

A reading of below 1.5 is ideal, a reading of under 2 is ok, but a reading in the red part of the SWR meters’ scale means that the SWR is high enough to possibly damage the set.

What you need to do next is to take readings on channels 1 and 40 and make a note of them. (You will need to switch back over to FWD and fine tune the calibration on each of these channels.)

If your readings are LOWER on channel 1 than they are on 40, then your aerial needs to be shortened. (In most cases, this is what you are likely to find.)

If your readings are LOWER on channel 40 than they are on 1, then your aerial needs to be lengthened (by loosening the grub screw and pulling some of the whip out of the coil).

A meter with a built in antenna matcher may help you reduce the readings if you can get it out of the red to start with - but you’ll need to make sure you don’t accidentally adjust the controls after you have set it up. Mark the settings and lock them by sticking tape over them (or similar) to prevent them moving.

Hope this helps

[sripad]

The SWR meter tells you how well matched the length of the aerial is compared to the wavelength you are transmitting on.

You don't need to understand the complicated stuff (I know I don't) to use one. Once you have the rig set up, make sure you park in an open area at least 20ft from buildings and do it with the doors shut. The ariel will plug into the back of SWR meter and another co-ax lead from there to the rig. Then turn the CB on.

Firstly, go to channel 20 on the UK band.

Put the switch to FWD and while transmitting, turn the knob so that the needle swings over to the far right of the scale. You will probably see the word “SET” or a red mark at the end of the scale - make the needle line up with this.

Once this is done, and while still transmitting, switch over to REF and the needle should drop down to give you a nice low reading.

If the needle hardly moves when you switch over or does not come out of the red portion of the scale - STOP transmitting - you have a problem, probably with the groundplane connection.

A reading of below 1.5 is ideal, a reading of under 2 is ok, but a reading in the red part of the SWR meters’ scale means that the SWR is high enough to possibly damage the set.

What you need to do next is to take readings on channels 1 and 40 and make a note of them. (You will need to switch back over to FWD and fine tune the calibration on each of these channels.)

If your readings are LOWER on channel 1 than they are on 40, then your aerial needs to be shortened. (In most cases, this is what you are likely to find.)

If your readings are LOWER on channel 40 than they are on 1, then your aerial needs to be lengthened (by loosening the grub screw and pulling some of the whip out of the coil).

A meter with a built in antenna matcher may help you reduce the readings if you can get it out of the red to start with - but you’ll need to make sure you don’t accidentally adjust the controls after you have set it up. Mark the settings and lock them by sticking tape over them (or similar) to prevent them moving.

Hope this helps

Understood! Thanks very much mate!!

I was looking at a portable MAYCOM AH-27 CB RADIO TRANSCEIVER - refurbished (item number 140031749259) on eBay. What is your thought on this? Have you used one of them before? I need to know what the range like in one of these.