Home cb

[Dazza1969]

Hello just joined the group my name is Darryll and i'm wanting some advice. I'm wanting to buy a home cb radio system and wonder what i need to get started

[MrWeetabix]

OK firstly, welcome to the forum. Secondly, what do you know about CB and what has brought you to the hobby? Also where are you based (rough area, we dont need your address! haha) and have you got any friends who are on CB?

Craig

[Dazza1969]

I'm near Sheffield and i'm interested in cb radio as its an interesting hobby. Also when i was a kid my mate's dad had one and i used to have a go on it as well. Plus i've watched the film Convoy a few times also my missus is interested in it as well

[original45]

You could spend hundreds on radio gear.if you don't have restrictions on antennas for base I'd go for a used but in good condition antron 99 antenna. Robust and simple tuning rings forgiving on height mounted too at least mine are.
Look how much coax you need and get a low loss quality rg 213 if that's too expensive look on eBay unispectra rg 58 coax.96% tinned braid it's good.
Always buy more than you need too.
Cheaper in long run often.

I have power supplies but I use a leisure battery mostly now or huge car battery.
Get a swr power meter 10-100 watts about 24£ ebay but only the type with a switch for power 10 or 100 watts of swr so you can alternate between 10 watt scale of 100 watt scale.
Not the best but for price serve well

Radios well depends if you want cb or ssb radio.

[Captain Fantastic]

I'm also new and restarted. Therefore I dont have any of the experience of the others. But my 2cts would be...
Get something with SSB if you can, when searching on the 40 channels you will then probably be able to tune into the stuff that sounds like noise.
A car battery is a good psu. Just keep an eye on the charge.
And go with a vertical as mentioned if you can. I made a horizontal dipole which worked and I spoke to folks 900km away, but I couldn't talk to the guy 6km down the road from the direction of the end!

[original45]

Ssb I too would agree ,ssb seems to be very active loads of weekly ssb networks going in UK @ present
If you can mount a base antenna at your property whilst out and about keep eyes on scan alert for those steel swadged trampoline poles.
These make great antenna masts the good ones anyway .often seen for scrap or free to collect on f book marketplace.
have no experience in these myself but few guys I know rate the superstar ss 6900 n version of simular and not expensive.
Keep power down, get couple psu cooling fans that run off 12v to keep cooling fins cold as some these radios get hot.my president jackson 2 gets mighty warm without
Which reminds me I need to permanently fit 2 cooling fans on fins rather than keep setting up fans here and their.
So cool cool low power for longevity.

[bear]

I'm near Sheffield and i'm interested in cb radio as its an interesting hobby. Also when i was a kid my mate's dad had one and i used to have a go on it as well. Plus i've watched the film Convoy a few times also my missus is interested in it as well

He's on a wind up

[Dazza1969]

No i'm not i'm seriously interested

[Captain Fantastic]

No i'm not i'm seriously interested

Dazza - don't be put off. Have look around and read up on other similar threads (I think I asked about a couple of newer rigs to compare). From my experience, don't overlook the antenna part. You can spend $$$ on a radio, but with a rubbish antenna it will disappoint (again, I'm new at this so also listen to others opinions).

[bear]

You could always post in the CB section if you are serious.

[MrWeetabix]

You could always post in the CB section if you are serious.

I have moved this to the CB section. well-spotted

[The Collector]

My advice would be to buy a used, cheap UKFM set-up first of all, to see if you like it and also to check if there's anyone on in your area to actually talk to! A cheap silver rod aerial, co-ax, power supply and basic 40/80 channel radio should cost about £60-ish if you're lucky.

If no one's on locally, you can either give up and resell it all (hopefully with little or no loss of money if bought cheaply second-hand), or upgrade and buy a radio capable of SSB operation, which'll mean you can talk to different countries when the atmospheric conditions are right.

There's no point in spending £300+ on top gear and then finding out the channels are completely empty. It's happened before on here and it'll sadly happen again.