DutchVDub
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Milliken, CO
What radio would you recommend as best bang/buck? Also, where did you mount them? Pics?
CB Radio
- Thread starter DutchVDub
- Start date
RangerRick
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Longmont, Colo.
Midland CB it's not expensive and will last forever. Spend your money on a really good antenna. Mounting the antenna in the center of the roof is great for a ground plane and long distant reception but it can be tough parking in a garage. Access to the hole would be through the interior light. Yes you can stand on the door sill to put it on and off as long as you hold the base so as not to twist the unit out of the base. Bumper mounts, drip rail, or hood mounts are OK. Magnetic mounts can be used on the roof and are pretty good. Don't do a side mount.
Stumpalump
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Franktown Co.
Best bang for the buck will be a cobra 25 or a uniden pc-68xl. If you want small and easy to mount you can get a Uniden 510 or 520. They are real small and you can screw them right to your console or mine I had on the glovebox lid. Small radios can only be tune up so much but the first two radios I listed are real radios. I got threatened with a suspension or ban when I tell the real deal and what truckers run but you can call me for that. personally. I think any radio for the trail is mandatory like last night in the dark but for a few more bucks you can get a nice real radio that has been tuned up. Then you can allways just park on a hill and reach out into the county for fun or hobby. I buy from this guy and he works with his local jeep club and can hook you up with anything. He tunes all the radios he sells so it will be out of the box 3 to 10 times cleaner. I don't know if you saw my antenna but it thru the center of the roof. This gives the best ground plane. The ground plan is basically half the antenna.http://www.sparkyscbshack.com/cbradios.html
Sting25
twitter.com/cmchadwick
- Location
- Wheat Ridge, Colorado
Get a cheap cb and a good antenna. Then go get an amature license and a real radio 
WB9YZU
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Madison, WI
I used to run "Fancy" radios with WX recieve and the works, but I gave that up for space. Currently, I use a Uniden 520 (Pro520) in both Jeeps and they have served me well for years. I had mine attached to the pass side of the transmission tunnel, but
it got moved when I re-did the interior and now resides where the FM radio was ( I made a bracket for my 98' )
There are threads galore here on CB radios and installations, with pictures, so I won't bother you with what is in the installation/owners manual.
Things I have found to work for me:
Decide on radio location that is easy to run cable to.
Decide where you are going to pull power from. For CB installs, I just go to the "Radio" fuse on the fuse block and Ground.
Mount radio and get power to it.
Now for the tough part, antennas. Ranger Rick advised a roof top install, and that is the optimal place, but frankly it's a PITA for a City Dweller like me who has a lifted Jeep and wants to do City Ramps and park in my garage without getting out and disconnecting the antenna from the mount each time. For my install, optimal was not going to be part of the result, but I didn't want it to perform too badly either.
So for my install, I mounted the antenna on the opposite fender from the FM radio antenna and used a NMO mounting bracket that is right angle, which is screwed to the inside of the fender lip inside the hood area. I also Off-Road in thick wooded areas, so I run a bottom loaded whip (Larsen), which clears the Parking Ramps, and the roof of my garage, and is flexable enough to get caught on trees and still come out alive.
K40 makes a real nice antenna. When I used to do installs, those were the nicest tuning antenna on the market. Barjan (Truckstop branded goods, they own Wilson) makes a base load antenna which is adjusted with a screw on the bottom that I have on the YJ and I like it. Here is a pix of my rig, you can see the Larsen baseload on the left side. www.mcjag.org/trips/Archive/0606_AVF/DSCF2474.jpg
Ron
it got moved when I re-did the interior and now resides where the FM radio was ( I made a bracket for my 98' )
There are threads galore here on CB radios and installations, with pictures, so I won't bother you with what is in the installation/owners manual.
Things I have found to work for me:
Decide on radio location that is easy to run cable to.
Decide where you are going to pull power from. For CB installs, I just go to the "Radio" fuse on the fuse block and Ground.
Mount radio and get power to it.
Now for the tough part, antennas. Ranger Rick advised a roof top install, and that is the optimal place, but frankly it's a PITA for a City Dweller like me who has a lifted Jeep and wants to do City Ramps and park in my garage without getting out and disconnecting the antenna from the mount each time. For my install, optimal was not going to be part of the result, but I didn't want it to perform too badly either.
So for my install, I mounted the antenna on the opposite fender from the FM radio antenna and used a NMO mounting bracket that is right angle, which is screwed to the inside of the fender lip inside the hood area. I also Off-Road in thick wooded areas, so I run a bottom loaded whip (Larsen), which clears the Parking Ramps, and the roof of my garage, and is flexable enough to get caught on trees and still come out alive.
K40 makes a real nice antenna. When I used to do installs, those were the nicest tuning antenna on the market. Barjan (Truckstop branded goods, they own Wilson) makes a base load antenna which is adjusted with a screw on the bottom that I have on the YJ and I like it. Here is a pix of my rig, you can see the Larsen baseload on the left side. www.mcjag.org/trips/Archive/0606_AVF/DSCF2474.jpg
Ron
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DrMoab
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- The Utah Backwater
Maxrad is the only antenna in my book. For a number of reasons.
The first is quality. They just plain work well.
Second is ease of tuning.
Third is they use their own coaxial base that is just pure genius.
I agree with you two here though...the antenna is where its at. I also use a Uniden but its just the 510. This has been in three jeeps and has been well abused. It even survived a dunking in muddy Kane Creek in Moab and still works fine. For under 50 bucks you can't go wrong.
The first is quality. They just plain work well.
Second is ease of tuning.
Third is they use their own coaxial base that is just pure genius.
I agree with you two here though...the antenna is where its at. I also use a Uniden but its just the 510. This has been in three jeeps and has been well abused. It even survived a dunking in muddy Kane Creek in Moab and still works fine. For under 50 bucks you can't go wrong.
Frank Z
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Colorado Springs
cobra 75 with an extenal speaker
