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CB radio suggestions; Suggestions for a new CB user
Topic Started: Saturday, 27. August 2016, 16:57 (847 Views)
awhitecat
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26 Charlie Tango 2206

I live at Derby in the East Midlands. I am building a boat in my garage and spend a fair bit of time out there. I am thinking of getting a cheap CB radio off ebay or whatever. I have a 12 volt power source and understand I shall need an external antennae. I shall use an external speaker.

I have no experience with CB radio. When I say cheap, I mean cheap.

Any suggestions? Any Forum Members in my area?

Thank you for your help.

Mike



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John123
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26 Charlie Tango 763

Hello and welcome to the forum, Mike.

If you are after a new radio. Something like the CRT One would be a good choice. It only has am/fm capabilities, but it is compact and around the £40ish mark, brand new.

If you are after a radio that has wider frequency-coverage and ssb, something like an Anytone/Maas/KPO/Supertar/Intek 5555 (they are all the same radio under different names) would do the job on a budget. They are around the £140 mark, brand new, so they should be well under £100 for a good second-hand radio.
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awhitecat
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26 Charlie Tango 2206

Thank you for those suggestions, John.

Mike
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Mudslinger
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You can pick up UK channel sets for under £20 in working order

The UK channels are still the most popular for local chat.

Something like a Midland, Maxcom, Audioline etc should do the trick, then if you feel like progressing to long distance stuff then you can upgrade to a multimode at a later date.

Just make sure you have a decent antenna, otherwise you won't hear much.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Audioline-340-Uk-FM-CB-Radio-/232055850732?hash=item36079b46ec:g:iIMAAOSwMtxXuf-c

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/YORK-861-40-CHANNEL-CB-in-working-order-/331952691319?hash=item4d49ec1877:g:1cEAAOSw-itXwcea
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razor36
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depends were you live you might not here anyone on uk40
M0LSG
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Jp28
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26 Charlie Tango 2181

Hi,

I'm getting the Albrecht AE 6110 mini CB radio. It is quite cheap depending on your budget and it is similar to the CRT one but has a signal meter. I've used this radio before, at a friend's house and it defenatly performs for the tiny box it is. 73
27.555 for a copy?
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awhitecat
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26 Charlie Tango 2206

Thank you for that help, Jp28, razor36 and mudslinger.

Tell me about antennae? The roof of my workshop is slightly slanted and made of wood and plexiglass corrugated sheeting. I presume I need something bigger than a conventional whip antennae on a car? Co-axial cable to a wire antennae with insulators at each end? Length? I nothing about CB radio....

Regards, Mike
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Northern Crusader
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26 Charlie Tango 1760

The wire antenna you're thinking of, a dipole, isn't really any good for local contacts. If you want to do it on the cheap look at how to make a quarter wave groundplane antenna. A mobile antenna would work but you'd need to make up some ground planes to compensate for the missing vehicle body which acts as a groundplane. Good news is that four lengths of wire 9ft long each arranged in a cross is one of the most efficient groundplanes other than a 9'x9' sheet of copper.

Coax length is the length needed to get from the antenna to the radio by the route you need it to go. Don't listen to anyone who says it needs to be a specific length.
Edited by Northern Crusader, Monday, 29. August 2016, 10:45.
26CT1760 / M0GVZ
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awhitecat
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26 Charlie Tango 2206

Thank you, Northern Crusader for that antennae help. I have had a look on the web for building the type of antenna that you suggest. As you say there are no shortage of sites to help. I have listed here a you tube video and a couple of pages.

https://youtu.be/HkmD3Sgz7Q0


Posted Image


Posted Image

For the wavelengths/frequency of CB radio in the uk, that length of the arms you suggest (9 foot?) is correct? What about the vertical spike length? In Derby, there is a electronics (sort of!) shop named Potts that has a lot of the components I guess I need for constructing this sort of thing. I see I have just missed a 'radio fair' at Buxton. I would have quite liked to visit that. Any suggestions for online component shopping?

Mike
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Northern Crusader
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26 Charlie Tango 1760

9ft for everything. So each arm is 9ft, the vertical element start at 9ft. Sandpiper Antennas has a lot of stuff for home brew.
26CT1760 / M0GVZ
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BigTone
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26 Charlie Tango 4498
Do not forget to get an SWR meter.
SWR is basically the ratio of power going up to the aerial to power reflected back.
If its being reflected, its not being radiated.
With this you can fine tune the aerial
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Nik Gnashers
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26 Charlie Tango 573

Mike, you can build a 1/4 wave ground-plane antenna for the CB band out of stuff which costs almost nothing.

Start at 9 foot long for each part but with an SWR meter you will probably find that the top radiating vertical element will almost certainly need to be trimmed down to about 8 foot 6 inches for a good SWR reading.

Just from our own home-brew antenna section, we have a few threads which may give you some idea's :

http://s3.zetaboards.com/copythat/topic/7652604/1

http://s3.zetaboards.com/copythat/topic/7653130/1

http://s3.zetaboards.com/copythat/topic/7635665/1

http://s3.zetaboards.com/copythat/topic/7593653/1

http://s3.zetaboards.com/copythat/topic/7578787/1
Edited by Nik Gnashers, Sunday, 4. September 2016, 16:07.
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