Calgary Jeep Association
4x4 Related Groups => General Talk => Topic started by: homeguy on September 05, 2010, 06:46:33 PM
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Hi All,
I've been looking at CB's the last couple of months, research everything before I pull the pin. Been looking at the Cobra 75. My question is where would be the best place to get it and the best price. They sell in the US from $99 to $129... so ... hopefully I can get a good price.
Thanks for the responses!
Steve
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Most of us go to the guy at the Road King truck stop on Barlow. Dean @ comtek if I recall correctly. It may not be as cheap as mail ordering a CB...but if you don't know someone that can suggest a good mounting location for your rig, an antenna that will resist abuse in the bush, a coax that will withstand constant opening and closing of the tailgate...I'm sure you get the picture.
There's more to getting yourself a CB than just buying a unit that looks fancy, and Dean has done a good job of guiding a bunch of us.
Your other alternative would be to buy beer or food for a club member that can help you. The problem is that some of us have susbstantial appetites, so that may or may not constitute much of a savings.
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I have the Cobra 75 and like it. It's great for being compact. I have no complaints. I was at Road King on saturday and they definitely have that model there. They were closed and I didn't see the price though.
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I have one and got it from Stan at northridge (http://northridge4x4.ca/)
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One thing I should mention - the 75 is great for being compact, and makes mounting easy. Just be aware that you'll want to mount an external speaker too. The tiny little speaker on the hand unit is almost unintelligible. Not that sound quality on CB's is ever anything better than cruddy...but it's truly craptacular through that little speaker.
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even with an external speaker it really isn't that good. have to add $30-$50 to get a ext. speaker.
too many problems to mention and/or worry about for a simple cb.
cb's i would recommend for jeepers are Uniden Pro 510 or 520 - very compact and have the features that are really important.
(http://www.uniden.com/images/images500/PRO520XL.jpg)
520 has squelch, rfgain and noise limiting - pa isn't that important.
(http://www.uniden.com/images/images500/PRO510XL.jpg)
510 is missing rf gain but that is the least important for general use, just handy sometimes.
Dean at road king carries both (ca$h normally $ave$). he also has the 4 foot wilson flex antenna (best antenna for tj style jeeps).
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I've used external speakers and an FM modulator with decent results. I have heard some say they had less then spectacular performance with the Cobra 75. I primarily like mine for space constraints in a TJ.
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I have the 75, and I mounted the little antenna/power box in front of my stick shift, under the coin tray in my tj.
I use the 20ft stainless whip, works awesome. Tree-proof, and parkade proof!
I don't mind the speaker tho, the external is only really necessary at highway speeds with any situation other than the hard top.
I find I really need to turn the squelch up, but I'm pulling power from the internal fuse box, so a lot of internal noise translates into the radio, especially the wipers on mine.
But I like the 75, one connection, and the unit is out of the vehicle, quite the hidden install. Other than the obvious giant stainless whip on the arse end.
My antenna is an L-bracket, NMO style, using one of the bolts that holds the tire carrier to the tailgate, the bracket is notched in one corner where the tire carrier steel has a bend. Tough to explain, but you'll see when you look behind the tire at the carrier.
I also have the tailgate grounded to the frame with a riddly-piddly ground strap, so I highly doubt it works that well. The long antenna length helps, over 5/8's of a wavelength.
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I have the 75, and I mounted the little antenna/power box in front of my stick shift, under the coin tray in my tj.
I use the 20ft stainless whip, works awesome. Tree-proof, and parkade proof!
I don't mind the speaker tho, the external is only really necessary at highway speeds with any situation other than the hard top.
I find I really need to turn the squelch up, but I'm pulling power from the internal fuse box, so a lot of internal noise translates into the radio, especially the wipers on mine.
But I like the 75, one connection, and the unit is out of the vehicle, quite the hidden install. Other than the obvious giant stainless whip on the arse end.
My antenna is an L-bracket, NMO style, using one of the bolts that holds the tire carrier to the tailgate, the bracket is notched in one corner where the tire carrier steel has a bend. Tough to explain, but you'll see when you look behind the tire at the carrier.
I also have the tailgate grounded to the frame with a riddly-piddly ground strap, so I highly doubt it works that well. The long antenna length helps, over 5/8's of a wavelength.
You sure about that? Where the heck did you find a 20 FOOT whip? Isn't 9 foot the norm? 108 inches.
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5/8 's of 11m = 6.875m = 22.55ft
1/2 of 11m = 5.5m = 18.04 ft
3/8's of 11m = 4.125m = 13.5 ft
Well, thinking about it, the whip is prolly a 3/8's wave antenna, but it sits about 4.5ft off the ground, so in reality its close to 20ft tall mounted.
So, technically speaking, it is a 20' antenna! :P
Roadking, he has the long, swashbuckling whips for ya.
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11 meters = 433.07 inches.
433.07 inches divided by 4 (because it is actually a 1/4 wave antenna) = 108.26 inches
The height of the antenna "don't mean a thing" when it comes to antenna size...only to the propagation of the wave in terms of clearing the obstacle represented by the vehicle that it is mounted to an achieving a line of sight.
That said, don't get too rammy about going out and buying an actual 5/8 wave CB antenna. In an off-center mounting as is common on Jeeps that don't have a metal roofs, the real gains offered by a 5/8 wave are nowhere near what the "theoretical"advantage of +/- 2 db should be. Time has proven that a 108" stainless steel whip is probably the best all-round CB antenna for bush bashing :)
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I probably will stick with the cobra 75, just due to being able to take it out of the jeep for security reasons... like said above. I was looking at the speakers, so will probably add one of those.
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If you take out some of that cruddy hard foam that is right over the driver's left shoulder on the "roll" bar, you will be able to fit a speaker inside the fabric cover where it zips up. Then you can run the wire down along the pillar behind the driver's door.
You can also do the same thing on the passenger side if the mood strikes you. I actually run a CB speaker on the passenger side, and a HAM speaker on the driver's side. I need external speakers for both since I find the speaker on my CB to be anemic, and the speaker on the chassis of my 2 meter rig is underneath my seat and kinda muffled because of that.
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Just so you know, Road king was over $300 about a month ago. Well worth buying online or give northridge a call.
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I don't remember what I paid for mine. It was 7 or so years ago. I think it was $150+/-. I did get mine out of the US.
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I've replaced two Cobra 75s for guys that had them crap out on them. Brought them to me as they thought they installed the antenna wrong and after mucking around it turned out the radio was bad.
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http://radioworld.ca/product_info.php?cPath=6_132&products_id=598
Radioworld has it for $155
Shipping from TO extra, +GST.
There is no way that Road King would have it for $300+, unless it came fully equipped, coax, antenna, mounts.
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There are currently two differnt Cobra 29s in the For Sale forums at really good prices with antennas. These are on the high end of the spectrum for CBs and can be made to perform VERY well. I run 3 three of them in my vehicles and they work great. Just have to get creative with mounting as they are a large unit.
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I will throw one thing out there though...what CB you mount to your rig doesn't really have all that much effect of CB performance. A good coax, a good antenna (TREVOR!), and a good mount will do more for your ability to use the CB effectively than changing what CB you install. All legal CB's are running at 4 watts, so there won't be much difference in what performance you get from them. As long as you can talk to the rest of the folks on the same trailer run, who really cares?
If you want to talk to someone that's on a different trail run...get yourself a HAM license. Then you'll be able to talk to folks!
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It is true that the antenna plays a bigger part in the equation than the radio, however a good radio vs a bad one makes life nicer as well. I found the sound clarity on a higher end receiver to be much more understandable than on a low. Now when you are just puttering along on a trail talking to someone 3 jeeps in front of you won't notice a difference. Where you will notice the difference is when you split up or try to reach another group just other that ridge or looking for a lost group is when you'll hear a difference. Gunther and I have similar Cobra 29s and I've been amazed before how far we can reach. Now granted if I had a Ham it wouldn't even be an issue but thats a whole other topic.....
Basically my point is I'd rather spend $150 and get a used higher end CB radio than a $150 on a new 75. I can defiantly see the attraction of the compact package of the 75 and not everyone needs a high end reciever but I havn't been impressed with the 75s I had to trouble shoot. Its kind of like the Warn/Champion/Superwinch saga. Why buy a cheaper quality new winch when you can buy a used Warn for similar money...
Also the higher end radios are <ahem> upgradable.
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Yup...that's definitely a valid point. For me, the 75 makes sense because I'm not willing to give up enough of the limited dash space in my daily driver to mount a standard sized CB, and I don't want to mount in the footwells. The problem is made worse by the fact that the head unit for my HAM and my GPS doojamahickes take up extra space.
Given that I tend not to use a CB for anything other than talking to other Jeeps that are within a mile of me, the 75 works fine...and it leave lotsa space for "shiny" radios.
Now I just need to figure out how to fit an HF rig into my Jeep...that'll really let me cover some distance with HAM.
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Ya if you've got a ham no need for a big honkin CB.
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I was at the Bass pro shop a couple weeks ago, they also seem to have a decent amount of CBs for sail... may be worth checking as well.
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I was at the Bass pro shop a couple weeks ago, they also seem to have a decent amount of CBs for sail... may be worth checking as well.
Thanks for the heads up... I work up in Skyview, cross iron mills is 5 min away.