CB Radio

[Howard]

Does anyone own a CB radio? My mate gave me one today and I can't get a signal. What sort of aerial do I need to make? And what are the range on these antiquated pieces of equipment? Lol

[headbrace]

Is CB radio the one truckers use to communicate? If so then it would be very interesting to listen to and take part in.

Got no advice tho sorry

[LoopyJuice]

"That's a big 10-4, touch his ass son, you'll like it" <American Pie 2 what exactly are you planning for the equipment? If i were you i would venture down to a local electronics shop as they usually know their stuff about CB radios etc (i am talking proper local electronics shop not PCWorld or anything, somewhere where the people are genuinly interested in what they do)

[Gubbage]

they look ace sound cool but weren't they banned cause people where listening to things they shouldn't. I'm probably Very wrong or thinking of something else. i used to have an airband radio and listen to planes and stuff

[Flibb]

Ahhhhh CB now your talking. Maplins still do some stuff for them. Think the main users now are truckers and 4x4 drivers. Anybody doing anything in a convoy also uses them as they are cheap and you can use them anywhere (unlike mobile phones). Range is very dependent on where you are and weather conditions. Usually 10 - 20 miles (from memory), but the aerial needs to be set up so your gonna need a swr meter. If its gonna be in your car get a magmount aerial, if at home you will need to setup a base antena. You cant really use a car aerial at home because the car acts as the groundplane. I have used this mob in the past
http://www.kcb.co.uk/index.htm
very good peeps. Think you are still ment to have a license to run a cb, was £5 at post office (just fill in the form). Depending on weather you can sometimes get stupid amounts of range out of them, also helps if you are running a slightly over powered burner (legal limit 4W, a family member had 100W), and AM stuff, have talked to US on an AM rig and Italy Spain on a normal rig, but this was during strange weather conditions. The last time I used a CB apart from in the landrover there were just some very strange people luring on there, bit like IRC for the old and perverted. But they can still be a grin if used with your mates, just dont start pissing other people off as they can trace using directional antenas, this I have seen done they then spiked his coax so it took out his rig.
If the rig you have is old they can be a pain in the arse, the link above sells second had gteed ones, as well as aerials and swr meters.
Good luck
Flibb

[Howard]

Thanks for the info Flibb. Any idea how I'd go about building a fairly good antenna? Lol

[Flibb]

We were running something like the vector 4000, mounted on the longest scaffald pole we could find. Think it was about 60ft high in total and was mounted on top of the chimney. Council ordered it to be taken down in the end, was most impressive. Everybody I know allways bought their aerials, never made them, even a friend who was a radio ham and made his own radio modem. Think they are actually quiet compicated and need to be tuned properly. Give knight cb a bell and see what they have secondhand, best bet might be a fibrglass stick, the one I had was called a white stick it was only about 4ft long and mounted on the house gutter, reception was ok. Whatever you get you will need coax and a swr meter to set it up. How far away is your mate with the cb and wher are you based?
Cheers
Flibb

[Howard]

My mate is about a fifth of a mile away ish. I'm in Surrey, South east UK.

[Trash Man]

Fifth of a mile is easy within range of even a cheap CB.

Me and my brother used to play with CB's a lot when we were younger as we used to live near a trading estate you would get a lot of truckers on there talking all sorts of rubbish.

Best thing you can do with your aerial is to get one with a big magnet as a base and then go down the scrappy and get an old mini bonnet and stick the aerial on that, you should have a range of around 5 miles with that.

[Howard]

What can I use to make an aerial without going to get/buy anything? Lol

[Trash Man]

errr, you could try a coat hanger, but a half decent aerial will only set you back about £15.

[Flibb]

And yay after a couple of seconds on google flibb finds a linkage.
http://home.att.net/~wizardoz/cbmw/antenna_fabri.html

Probably just as cheap to buy one though.
Flibb

[steve threlfall]

Originally posted by Howard
Does anyone own a CB radio? My mate gave me one today and I can't get a signal. What sort of aerial do I need to make? And what are the range on these antiquated pieces of equipment? Lol

arent these illeagal mate ??

[Trash Man]

Originally posted by steve threlfall
arent these illeagal mate ??

Not at all, you are thinking of a police scanner.

[steve threlfall]

Originally posted by Trash Man
Not at all, you are thinking of a police scanner.

thats ok then mate. as i understood, a cn radio could be used to pick up police frequncies but im used to getting things mixed up

[acidrainy]

thought that was HAM radio that could do that steve...?