im getting my new CB radio in this week, a Cobra 29 LTD Chrome. I have dual 500 watt whips. on my current Cb i cant talk to anyone unless im right next to them cab by cab. i dont want that crap with my new set up. what do i need to get or do to get my CB to work like it should? thanks in advance

 

dont run it barefooted no more...get u a linear...thatll throw u some juice to it to get out there....get ur cb tuned to a linear also at a cb shop if you buy one....some truck stops have cb shops/chrome shops....i have a little 40 channel midland in my truck....its almost 30 yr old and i have a 120 watt linear pushin it thats 20+ yr old..it was my papaws ....they havent been tuned with each other and the cb hasnt been tuned or peaked either...but it runs pretty good...i can talk bout 20 mile radius with it.......

 

GET UR SWR's checked!! even with the old one u should of at least been able to talk a couple of miles... I can talk about 10 miles or so on mine barefoot, when juiced up.... well i dont know..i work mostly in chicago and have talked to indianapolis, grand rapids, detroit...trying to make it to atlanta ga.. guys got big radios down there!!! but that is all on "skip" and thats a conversation 4 another day

 

get the antennas tuned to the radio and you should be able to talk a good ways out there.... but if you do not tune the antennas it will kill your radio just like your last one....

 

If you must have 2 antennas then only use one and keep the other as dummy. Have your SWR's checked and use an 18ft coax. The bigger the metal mounting surface, the better. Also don't use the factory mic, get an Astastic noise cancelling mic.

I can talk all day over 12 miles on my Galaxy 959 thats been peaked and tuned, with no linear.

 

what are SWRs and whats running it barefooted??? sorry guys Im an idiot when it comes to this stuff. lil red express, whats a 18ft coax? ive heard that having dual whips to close to each other will fight againt one another, but how close do they have to be to do that?

 

SWR, Standing Wave Ratio. If its to high it will ruin a CB and cuase poor performance. Barefooted means with no linear or CB amp, just the CB. The coax is the cable that runs from the CB to the antenna, 18 Feet long. The best thing is to just use one, that way you don't have to worry about the distance between them.

 

thanks man, next time im home ill run into kenworth and see if they can hook me up with the cb amp or linear and check my SWR

 

im a cb tech and you can run bare foot not power that fine and still talk you could put an amp in there for more power but bare foot on a cobra 29 usaly will put out 50 watts alone when you mount your antena make sure its grounded and also take it to a cb shop and ask for a super mod what that is is they increase the modulation on the radio so youll be louder also it matters how long your anttena is were its mounted what kind of coax your useing the direction of your anntena like right know it sound like you have directional antenna if you have any more quetions about anything to do with cb or amp anntnnas or ham and amiture radios or scaners shoot me a pm

 

thanks a lot man, i dont have it yet but im getting a pro tech headache rack and im going to mount the whips to it. is that a good enough ground? also how long of an antenna should i get and what coax do i need?