Popular CB Channels and a few questions

[Jdlefebure]

What are the more-used CB channels? I read that 17 and 19 are your east/west, north/south traveling

I hooked mine up tonight and the radio works (old school cobra 40 channel) I heard faint sirens every now and then but nobody talking.

Also when i have my squelch all the way to the left I can hear my engine on my cb when I go to neutral and i can rev it up a little bit and still hear my engine if that makes sense?

last, how do i "tune" in to get the clearest signal if talking?

[Guest]

You typically have to squelch out the engine noise, at least I do.

I think 9 is emergency channel and is monitored.

Most trail rides I'm on people tune to 4. No idea why.

I never have mine on other than trail rides, so I don't know where to find chatter.

There are a few shops in KC that tune, but I can't tell you who they are now. It's not terribly expensive, but is somewhat of a science on Jeeps because we don't have large flat surface areas for ground plane.

[Jdlefebure]

Did you sand the area you bolted your antenna onto? or just flat over the paint? to "squelch" out the engine noise, do I try to get it between the fuzz and the clear, or can I move it all the way clockwise.

[Guest]

all the way clear only allows the strongest signals to come through. in between the fuzz and clear will get you more signals, although some will be weaker than others

[Jdlefebure]

Thanks for the info ZJ

[spunebil]

Squelch out background noise by turning to right until it is quiet.
When I drove over the road , 19 was main channel with , 21 ,23,17 being used by variois regiona of country. Channel 9 was for ( I believe still is ) for Emergencies only , but some Fools w ill use 9 on trails.
I only use CB on trails nowadays but channels probably havent changed.

[mujeeper]

I'll second TommyG & Spunebill. I've also heard channel 5. If you go to a park & check in, might be worth it to ask. As far as the engine noise, ya, that's just radio sensitivity. I'm convinced if you turn your squelch low (or high) enough, you can probably hear yourself think. Your CB radio instructions should explain how to set it up. I just bought a new one (old one bit the dust). As far as antenna tuning. I wouldn't waste my time doing that. Unless you plan on using yours to communicate on highway like truckers do (or did) you probably don't need to. I had a cheapo that did what I needed.....chat on the trail and any nearby rigs. Tuning seems to be more for if you need to talk to someone 3 miles away. You probably don't need that on the trail. My recommendation is to have someone with a cb radio come by (not too close) and test theirs out. You can always swing by here if you're in olathe. I still gotta wire mine in......Darn. I still gotta buy a cb antenna......alright, gotta go sop on amazon.......

[spunebil]

Oh yea, that " engine" noise is the alternator. They ( or used to ) have filters to help elinate it

[ericfx1984]

Channel 9 is the emergency channel, BUT it is not monitored anymore...

as for the noise you are hearing, try hitting the NB / ANL buttons

for AM, channel 3 and Channel 8 are locally used and have lots of chatter first thing in the morning and late at night

for side band, you can talk on 38 LSB, around 7pm all the locals get on there...

a properly setup CB can talk from kansas city MO (in the ghetto) all the way to Overland Park on a clear sideband channel

[Guest]

I think tuning has merit. On more than one occasion we've had 2 or 3 groups out that needed to communicate between each other. It's always a crapshoot about which rig has a good enough CB to reach the other group that may be more than a mile away.

Some parks, like Flat Nasty or instance, haven't ever seen a cellphone signal.

[spunebil]

Tuning will help forsure , but a cb is basically line of site form of communication ( no cb towers out there ) lol
So hilly terraign will interfear with transmission / reception. I use a 8 1/2 foot whip antenna to help ( a wee bit) to get some hieght, thus shortening the hills . . . So to speak

[ericfx1984]

CB can talk way further than line of sight...

I have a stock Galaxy DX 959 and a 102" SS whip I talk from KCMO to Overland Park, KS any day of the week... I used to run a 4' Firestick and it did pretty well as well...

as for tuning not mattering... lol, that is not at all the case...

take the Cobra 29 LTD Classic for instance... I just had one land on my bench and it made 2.5 watts dead key and 7 watts swing (swing is when you talk, forward power...) anyways, when I was done with it, it not only had more power ( 6.5 watt dead key, 20 watt swing) BUT IT WAS cleaner sounding too

I have seen radios come across my test bench that only made about 2 or 3 watts on AM the law allows for a 4 watt dead key on AM (Dead key is when you key the mic and do not transmit anything, this can also be called a carrier...)

in fact I regularly have conversations with a couple guys in New York, and California... all on a perfectly legal radio...


I actually own all the equipment to align the Transmiters and receivers on any CB out there and I can even go through and get a little more power out of them... all for about $20 :)

another thing to take into account is SWR (standing wave ratio) this is basically reflected power... power that you transmit that is reflected back into your radio (it's the best explanation I could come up with)

anything above 1.5 SWR is wasted power and will hurt your radio's ability to get out and talk... anything above 2.0 will cause damage of a period of time... and transmiting above 3.0 can damage your radio instantly...

SWRs should be checked with a confirmed INLINE SWR meter... while you can use the meter onboard, it is NOT very accurate, and often times it is hard to read.

check your SWRs

there are tricks to doing this...

if anyone wants to hear the difference a good aligned and tuned CB can make, just let me know... I can show you... I can help you with PROPER antenna setup (antenna's do perform better in certain areas...), I can tune your radio... I can tune your SWRs, I can do just about anything with a radio...

I have a special tune up I offer right now where I upgrade your Cobra 29 (GTL, LTD, classic, etc) to include a mosfet final that pumps out around 40 watts, and give you an adjustable dial to turn the power down for normal use, and crank it up to call out when you need help... (considering the stock final maxes out at 20 ish watts)

[spunebil]

Radio waves travel in a straight line, which is wht radio and tv towers are so tall. Cell phone towers are shorter but placed so they can relay signals consistantly over there range. I used tp work on cell towers ( it gets windy up there btw)
A radio can occasionaly get atsmophic ( sp?) Bounce and recieve/ transmit at crazy ranges.
They show an example of this in the movie " we were soldiers", while training state side they pick up radio transmission from other side of world ( vietnam)

[ericfx1984]

11 meters (CB) signals have no problems getting long distances...

when I drive from Independence, MO down to Overland park, ks, I talk to my local CB friends all the time... no issues with contact... just a stock radio, no amplifier...

short answer is CB and other freqs from 3-30 mhz are ground wave they follow the earths curvature...

then there is 'skip' that is basically where the signal bounces off teh atmosphere (inosophere?) and back down

[spunebil]

If you can get tadio waves to Bend (follow curvature of earth) then get a patten on prossess cause it will make you Super Rich