Can anyone shed some light on C5 CB setups they have used that worked well.

This is for a One Lap of America car.

Our Needs:
- Good Range - I know handhelds aren't very good, and we're willing to temporarily put an ugly antenna on the car. Of course we can't use a magnetic one.

- We'd prefer the head unit to be compact but clear in terms of transmission/reception quality.

Any other advice is welcomed.

 

Has anyone used this? Other than a head unit, what else would I need? It seems overly pricey.
http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?p...dept%5Fid=1340

 

For a decent radio, get the Cobra 75WXST radio: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=172282

This radio is small in size (fits in your hand) and has excellent power for its size. It's pertty much the CB radio of choice in our club.

Along with the typical 40 CB channels, it includes 7 NOAA weather channels that may come in handy during the drives between events. There is a separate power supply box that connects the radio unit, power, and the antenna. The power leads can be terminated in a plug for using the power port in the center console. The little power supply box can be left on the floor or if you have a roll cage or harness bar, just wire-tie it out of the way.

For an antenna, try this Radio Shack unit: http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=family This mounts to the glass and works reasonably well for both CB and weather channels.

Another possibility is this one: http://www.hamstick.com/otgcb.htm

Like any permanent mount antenna, they have to be tuned for the best SWR value. A SWR (standing wave ratio) meter is required to do this in order to get the best possible transmit signal. Find a shop that can do this once the antenna is installed.

The Ecklers unit is pretty high priced. Most any decent "no ground plane required" antenna will work fine. Where it is mounted on the car determines how well it receives/transmits. The higher above the car the better.

 

c4cruiser; that's a prety cool CB you linked to.

I am surprised that people are still using CB though; with most going to FRS radios.

 

Our club has tried FRS and these radios really don't have the ability to transmit more than 1/4 to 1/2 mile from inside a car. And if one car goes around a corner or hill, it's next to impossibel to communicate with that car until it gets close again.

Going into cities or residential areas, we have found lots of kids or groups using the FRS channels so it can be difficult to talk to other cars when a channel has to be shared. They seem to work OK outside as long as it's a "line of sight" transmission.

The newer GMRS radios work better as they have higher TX power but for a group of cars on a tour, CB still works the best.

 

it's been many years since I used a CB... but then it was similar; you couldn't get a clear channel to talk on. There was always someone telling me to "get off their channel" or they were running so much TX power (hundreds of watts) that they tied up the channel they were on... and also a couple channels on either side - due to spill over from the high wattage.

Has things settled-down with CB recently ?

 

I've used GMRS/FRS. They're both nearly worthless in-car unless the cars are very close. Also, this is for LEO notifications, something you can't get with FRS.

Back to CB
- Have you used those antennas c4cruiser? the Radio shack one had some bad reviews.
- Can you get these window mount ones off the car? This is going on the OLOA car and then being taken off.

 

My experience with through the glass antenna is they come off very well. Sometimes it takes a little work to get them to pop off. I just use a knife and start working under a corner and sooner or later they will just pop off. Then use a razor blade to clean off any left over glue. Normally the inside is more like industrial double sided sticky tape and the outside is more like epoxy glue. Just be sure you don't install it over any defroster wires or dots (and obviously tint) and it should come off with out too much problem. But if you want to reuse the antenna you will need another mounting kit which will be the tape and glue and normally some kind of cleaning pad in a tear open pouch.

On another note, the lower the frequency you go the worse the through the glass antenna will perform. CB is very low at around 27MHz so I wouldn't expect very good results with a through the glass antenna at that frequency. But then again, on a plastic car (no ground plane) like ours I don't think any antenna is going to work very well at this low frequency. I have seen someone selling a mount that mounts the antenna on a tab that sticks out the rear above (or below?) the license plate, that would probably be a fairly good way to go.

Good luck on the run Sounds like lots of fun!

 

I personally use this Uniden unit on the job. It's small, quite on the receive and powerful enough to get the job done. As for the antenna, my guess is grounding the mount for proper ground plane may be difficult on a vette.

http://www.uniden.com/products/produ...oduct=PRO520XL

 

Not from what I have heard! I tuned down there while playing with my new Uniden scanner while out on the Interstate. There was at least 3 different automated recording that kicked on and played about ever 2 minutes advertizing the specials at the local truck stops including everything from apple pie to hand soap! I never heard anything like it before! It had more advertizing than FM broadcast! I don't think the FCC approves of using the CB band to advertize.




Thats funny! I remember many many years ago people would actually brag on how many channels they could talk on at one time. They thought the more the channels they could cover the better their radio was. But in reality it just showed how crappy it was.

 

There is not a lot of use of CB anymore except for the trucking industry. Guess boaters and hunters use them but it's nothing like the CB craze of the 70's.

Some club members have used the through the glass antennas and they work fine in club tours. The antennas were installed at the upper corner of the passenger side of the windshield to avoid dealing with the defroster grid on the rear hatch.

Keep in mind that a club tour may only strech out a mile or two. If the cars stay together, then there is usually no problem with reception or transmission using these antennas. The primary purpose of our radios is to insure that people keep together and provide any driving directions to cars in the back of the pack.

You can build a mounting plate to attach to the rear license plate holder and then electrically ground that plate to the frame of the car or good boyd ground by using at least 12 gauge wire or braided ground straps. Then install a standard style antenna and make sure the coax ground wire sheath is grounded to that plate.

Then you can use any good quality 4' top-loaded tuneable fiberglass whip like a FireStik II or K40. Use a quick-disconnect mount on the antenna base so it will be removable during the One Lap events or for safekeeping at night.

 

WOW; I guess I should give CB another try.