bpnjensen wrote:
On May 16, 4:35 pm, D Peter Maus wrote:
Get a decent converation going, and you'll be surprised at how many
will participate.

Yeah :-)

Your mileage will vary, of course, but if you know how to apply it, a
decent CB rig can indeed be a lot of fun.

Peter, in your opinion, what would constitute a decent rig? I don't
have on just now, but In the old days, I always used off-the-shelf
Cobras and Pearce-Simpsons, usually with a (TUG8) D104 mike attached,
even while I lusted after Trams and Brownings. They always worked
well for me, but then what did I know? Base antennas were, variously,
1/4 wave GPs, a HyGain Penetrator (super antenna!) and a Wilson 6-
element beam (amazing antenna). Mobile antennas were either 1/4-wave
whips or HyGain "rabbit ears" on the gutters - also great antennas.

Bruce Jensen



I don't have a base set. Mobiles and HT's, here. Mostly Unidens and
Cobras. I have a 148GTL Sideband that I like. Lots of features,
including a built in SWL meter for tweaking the antenna when I move it
from car to car. This is the classic Cobra, and can be tweaked within
an inch of its life, with the right technician's license. It came out
before the FCC mandated redesign that precluded certain types of over
power tweaks. Upper and lower sideband are good. The clarifier has a
pretty narrow range, but if the far end rig is in compliance, it's never
a problem.

Sounds good, intelligiblity is quite good, and it works.

Most of the rigs I've seen, today, have more features that don't
matter than performance. So, it's kind of a crap shoot there.

Nothing I've seen in a mobile is worth giving up my 148GTL for.

Of the base stations I've seen recently, I've not seen much that
strikes my fanny. A couple of Galaxy rigs are pretty tasty, if wholly
illegal.

Like most rigs, the real performance will be in the antenna. HyGains
are excellent, as you've noted, a good beam will do wonders, but is
overkill for the service. I had a buddy, decades ago in St Louis...this
was junior high school before the huge CB boom... with a cubical quad
that he let me load my Arvin 100mw ht into one afternoon. I wound up
jawing with a trucker in North Carolina. The trucker admitted to working
a 100w linear into a collinear pair, but I was only working 100mw into
that cubical quad.

Fun days. If I'd known what that kind of experience would have led
to down the road, I would have burned that HT and started playing with
my little brother's Barbie Dolls.

A few years ago,one night I heard an 18 wheeler truck driver on I-20 in
Jackson,Mississippi say on his CB Radio he had just got through talking
to a CB Radio guy in New Zealand.
cuhulin