Henry Rifle Forums

Is anyone here into cb radios? I just got a Cobra lx and a new Wilson antenna.

Hey good buddy...you got your ears on ?

I had one 40 years ago.

I made a living for years working on them. Had some fun too back in the day.

I have one in the garage somewhere. I haven't used it in thirty years.

Yep, I have 2. Still use them, plus I'm a Ham Radio operator.

dasmoeturhead wrote:Yep, I have 2. Still use them, plus I'm a Ham Radio operator.

Do you get many decent people to talk to? Lot's of trash mouths around me. They seem ok, but not much class.

we have a factory installed Cobra 75WXST ... https://www.amazon.com/Cobra-75WXST-40- ... a+cb+radio .... in our Freightliner Sportchassis .... we use it mostly when we are traveling to get traffic info .... unfortunately, on channel 19 (the trucker's channel ) you will run into way too much trash talking .... when we find someone we want to speak to, we take it to a different channel

I carry them in my 4x4 trucks for communication on the off-road trails. In my "trail truck" I have a Cobra 75WXS, which has the speaker and all of the controls in the mike. In my daily driver, which I sometimes take off-road, I use a portable Midland 75-785 and a mag mount antenna.

I have a bunch of hand held walkies for hunting. They eat batteries for breakfast but work pretty good.

Mine takes 9 batteries but batteries are not a problem when you plug into the truck. I only run on batteries when I am at the campsite waiting for others to arrive in case they get lost and need directions.

There are a lot of scumbags on the CB bands, especially in ch 19. If you use sideband there are still a lot of good radio operators out there, and for one reason or another they haven't gotten there ham license yet, and just stick with 'm and sideband radio. There's always that idiot out there that gives us decent operators a bad name.
I'm using my 2 meter Ham radio more and more. There's always someone out there to talk with, and its a very laid back band.

73

daytime dave wrote:Is anyone here into cb radios? I just got a Cobra lx and a new Wilson antenna.

That's a big tin fur.

Breaker 1-9......we do have the "Bandit " on the forum, right?!!

I just dug my old CB radios out of the dust bin. Here is what I have. Cobra 19 Plus manufactured in Feb 1986 Back then my call sign was "Tired Seabee".
My other radio is a GE Weatherband 40 portable. It has a 40 channel CB band and 3 weather bands.
Now that Dave has started this thread I am thinking about using these again.

In glad to hear it . you'll have fun. People that don't know anything about radio communications will tell you the Citizens Band Radio is dead. Boy are they wrong. It may have died down in the 80's, but its back now. When the conditions are right you can hear most of the U.S.
Get a good antenna.

Is my Wilson Li'l will any good? Before, years ago, there was a Cb shop locally and I always got what they said was good. Over the years, the kids found and ruined all my good radios. I got a Cobra 29 with weather and a dimmer in Saranac Lakes Radio Shack when I was killing time. I really liked going back to it. It was locally peaked and tuned by an unknown person who used to do it a lot where I live. I just stopped receiving and transmitting. I ordered a peaked and tuned radio from ebay after researching the merchant. The Li'l will isn't too big to mount on the roof of the truck. I made a mount for it because under the dash is impossible in my old truck. I'll post a photo after dinner.

Here is the simple mount I made for the radio and external speaker:
I have always had an external speaker. It just handles the sound better I think.

I tried it out on a short road trip and it stayed in place and with the cup holder stowed away, I could see the radio face pretty well. The cup holder can just fold out too. It makes the radio stand straight up and the face isn't visible. Not a problem for me.

1911ly wrote:I made a living for years working on them. Had some fun too back in the day.

I'd like to hear more about that. I've always liked them.

daytime dave wrote:

1911ly wrote:I made a living for years working on them. Had some fun too back in the day.

I'd like to hear more about that. I've always liked them.

I ran a shop for years. Did lots of repairs and modifications. Built a few custom radios, Hey days were mid 70's threw the early 90's. Things change a lot after that. Then I got in to commercial 2 way radio, Paging systems and equipment and early cellular phone stuff repair. A lot more bucks to be made working on that stuff.

I am heavily in to ham radio. I have done a lot of work from restoring vintage radios to building the new software designed stuff. I am a geek. I also have a pretty good collection of vintage ham radio equipment. I have a lot of Collins, Johnson, Heathkit etc. Currantly i am running mostly my own homebrew equipment, linear amp included. But I have some of the newer nice stuff like the Icom 7800 various amps. I am really fond of the Henry amplifiers, how ironic isn't it! lol I do all modes and all bands. Health reasons have slowed me down. So I am pretty much retired from work. I still do an occasional project.

I even have a large collection of early CB radios going back to the time it was a ham band. Most of it is in storage from when I moved. I need to do something with it someday. if it is cool I probably had it. have it or fixed one. I have had a lot of fun.

Back in 1978 I was deployed to a small island in the Indian Ocean. Our only way to phone home was by Ham radio. Our operator would find other Ham operators to relay the call to a station as close as possible to home for a local phone call at the receiving end. Sometimes the best they could get would be a long distance call from stateside. The operators in between would have to listen for you to say over to key the mic for the other end to respond. I imagine many of the conversations went something like this. Hello honey I love you over.... I love you too over. I miss you over..... I miss you too over. Etc.
Most times there would just be one relay and the delay was not noticeable.
And too often there would be a Russian "fishing" trawler off shore and we couldn't get any radio reception.
So I have a great appreciation for the good folks who gave us their time and support with their radios.