So what's everyone using for 2 way radios & how do you like them?

I'm thinking of going this route prior to a CB, as I think it's going to be cheaper first off, and I don't have to do any wiring...lol

i had two wasys in my x now im puttin in a cb..im thinkin ill keep both in there tho..dont take out the two ways if u do put a cb in...

http://www.clubxterra.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3779&page=3

like the middle of the page ull see my radios

Let me be the first to say a properly tuned CB will beat a FRS radio hands down! FRS or GMRS radios simply suck unless your hiking and have a straight line of sight.

After using the CB for a couple years it broke and I was relegated to using FRS radios. To say the least I thought they totally sucked after getting used to the range and clarity of a CB. Everytime I clicked on the FRS or someone would talk it would ussually only partially come through unless they were REALLY close.

In my opinion the FRS/GMRS ranges are way overstated for common use. In my experience the FRS radios only get about .5 mile range or less if the conditions are hilly.

CB 1 mile is common in rough areas and 3+ miles easily on flat open areas.

The average Handheld FRS is limited by low watts 0.5 watts and short antenna encased in basically a metal cage which interferes with its ability to transmit and recieve. The average CB is 4.0 watts and the antenna is not encased in the vehicle so better transmission and reception.

These are the 2-ways I have in mine:

http://cobra.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=304&category_ID=29


I'm going with a cb once I find the one I want and decide where I want it mounted. They work great for me when I'm wheeling with one other vehicle but when there are more than 2 of us, I will give one to the trail leader who can then relay to the rest of the group. I mainly keep it tuned to a weather station lately due to all of the severe storms and tornados recently.

As for range, I don't know but I know that a friend of mine took one with him to run to the store and we communicated back and forth to roughly 3 miles without any problems. Haven't tested any farther than that. And granted this was primarily across flat land as well.

They are great to use on hiking/camping trips as well.

Thanks for the input guys, now to seriously think WTF I should do, I'm guessin' that it shouldn't be too hard to install a CB, I just didn't feel like pissin' around with wiring at this point as I don't have a lot of time on my hands.

:wink-big:

I'm definitely going the cb route and retiring my hand-helds to when I'm hiking and such. Or pass them out to wheelin' buds that don't have cb's when we go.

If you give a mouse a cookie.....

Let me put it this way, There are some things that you spend your money on and then you say DAMN IT!!!!!! This may be one of them. I personally wouldn't take "the step" and I would just go with CB

Soccerbrace has a good CB install write up some where.

Word of advice run you power right from the battery dont try and tap an existing line. Keep the antenna line away from the passenger side rear seat there is alot of interference that comes from the fuel pump. And of course use good shielded wiring for everything.

http://www.clubxterra.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2497

Thanks for the heads up on the fuel pump interference. That never would have crossed my mind and that is exactly where I was planning to run my wiring too.

Thanks for the heads up on the fuel pump interference. That never would have crossed my mind and that is exactly where I was planning to run my wiring too.

SHIT...who would have ever know, thanks for the heads up on that fuel pump interference alpine spirit! Does that go for any gen...I have a, oh shit I can never remember...lol, anyays it an 02, so I think its a 2nd gen, right?

:aufkopfhauen-big:

Nope.. it's a 1st genny. 2nd gens are from '05 +. I think of the "round eye" 1st gens and version 1.5. hahaha

Yeah the fuel pump is directly beneath the passenger side back seat cushion. I was going to run my wiring down the rocker to the rear cargo but glad he shared that handy bit of 411.

Right oh...

I was just talking to someone about tuning their CB before Moab and thought this article would help a few out.

The normal recommended procedure for tuning a CB antenna instructs you to check standing wave ratio (SWR) on Channels 1 and 40 and use that information to determine if the antenna is electrically long or electrically short. See our article "Setting the SWR of your Antenna". You are further advised that your goal is to adjust the antenna so that the SWR on Channels 1 and 40 are the same value. When you do that, the SWR will be at its lowest point (the dip) at or about Channel 19. The reason for this method would be to allow you to have the best SWR scenario across all 40 CB channels. But, what if you do not use all CB channels? For instance, suppose the majority of your conversations take place on channel 5, or 10, or 30, etc.. You can tune your antenna with the dip in a place other than channel 19. Likewise, if the antennas bandwidth has the SWR too high at the channel extremes, you can increase the efficiency of the system by shifting the resonant point somewhere else.

For all intents and purposes, a transmitting antenna will be resonant at one specific frequency. This is the frequency where you will generally find the lowest SWR and realize the highest effective radiated power. If you want to zero in on a specific channel, that is, have the maximum effective radiated power on a specific channel, simply tune your antenna so that your SWR is lowest on that channel.

The process is similar to the standard method. Suppose you wanted your SWR to dip on channel 30. In that case, check SWR on channel 20 (10 channels down) and on Channel 40 (10 channels up) and adjust the SWR until it is the same on both channels. This will, in effect, put the SWR dip at or about channel 30. Likewise, if you wanted the dip to occur on Channel 12, you might use Channel 1 (down 12 channels) and channel 24 (up 12 channels) as your reference points. For other channels, just move up and down the same amount of channels from your desired dip point and use those channels as your reference points.

In any case, with the dip positioned at channel 19, making the antenna electrically (not physically) longer will move the dip towards the lower channels and making it electrically (not physically)shorter will shift the dip towards the higher channels.

Here are a couple of SWR charts that may offer you a visual depiction of what this procedure is about. These charts are made for the purpose of visualizing the off-center tuning concept. You actual readings can vary. The green band shows the channel coverage at 2.0:1 SWR and lower, the yellow band show the 2.0:1 to 3.0:1 channels and the red band is the over 3.0:1 danger zone.

This chart shows the SWR curve that used channels 1 and 40 as the reference points for tuning. The antenna, perhaps because it is a very short (physically) antenna that it does not have a lot of bandwidth. You can see that the SWR on the channel extremes is between 2.5:1 and 3.0:1.

http://www.firestik.com/Tech_Docs/swr007b.jpg

Suppose you are like many users and only use the lower 20 channels. To improve efficiency in the channel 1 to 20 range with the same antenna depicted in the above chart, you can shift the resonant frequency over to channel 10 by balancing the SWR on channels 1 & 20. That offers maximum efficiency across the lower 20 channels that this user uses, allows for safe transmitting up to about channel 30 but, restricts transmitting [not receiving] on the 10 highest numbered channels.

http://www.firestik.com/Tech_Docs/swr008b.jpg



Because of this article my CB has always been tuned Off Center to 14 because I never use channels above 30 and it gives a better send recieve on channel 9 (emergency channel) and on 19 (highway chat channel).

Setting the SWR - http://www.firestik.com/Tech_Docs/Setting_SWR.htm

So Ur saying if i have ran it thru my cig lighter what will that do to it?

You may not be getting the cleanest power supply to the CB. So you may be getting feedback from the cigarette lighter. It may work but most cigarette lighters are considered to be "dirty power" other things are tapped into the same lines further back which can cause interference.