goatee

Hi guys

Tried to search what or which cb but it came up with nothing ?

Completely new to cb and don't want to make a mistake. What do and don't I need or is it better to get one with all the bells and whistles?

Is there a preferred CB for the JK ?

Thanks complete novice
Goatee

MrKenmore

Really depends on what you want it for. Trail talking? Talking skip (long distance)? Do you want sideband? Do you want a radio that can be tweaked for more power or additional frequencies?

MrKenmore

A good all around radio would be the Uniden Bearcat 980. This has a little of everything and looks more modern than the old school CB's.

goatee

Thanks Mrkenmore

I kind of found my way to the 880.

What's the benefit of side bands on the 980 ?

This CB will mainly be used on trails but I do intend to travel from Canada to Moab and hopefully the Rubicon 😊

MrKenmore

Well, the cool thing about sideband is that it can travel a lot further than regular AM. To give you an example, I talked to Louisiana from NY on my home CB base station using 12 watts. That's the stock legal limit. AM mode is legal at 4 watts and just won't go as far given the right atmospheric conditions. Channel 38 LSB is where a lot of the long distance communications happen and sometimes its fun to just listen. The most important thing is a good antenna and even more important, good antenna placement. A convenient antenna location may be a compromise but worth it cause most of us can't have a 4 foot antenna on the top of our JK!!!!

jamesmtl

If I may ask a question in this thread. How to portable/handheld ones stack up?
I'd like one for when I'm on the trail just to communicate with other people.
I don't necessarily want a big costly setup installed.

Yuriy

I am also on the market for a change radio. It's so hard to chose because it's so many of them.

trouty33

I run the Midland 75-822 portable handheld and use it mostly for trail use. I have it run to a mounted antenna on the third brake light and it works great. I like that it can be pulled out and put away. The only thing I would change in my set up is my mount for te handset. I like the gear keeper but it swings around a lot on trails... It's great for highway driving and convoys.

MrKenmore

I have a pair of the midlands as well. Pretty good. If you're up to it, the best bet is to get your ham radio license and use little HT's (handie talkies). Test is about $15 and a Baofeng HT is $45ish. This let's you talk on VHF frequencies with much better audio. Of course the catch is you need everyone else to become licensed as well!!!! Have fun and good luck.

bdw293

I vote cobra 75. I have one works great for trails disconnect toss in glove box and its gone. I bought mine in a kit from rightchannelradios.com with everything need to mount in jeep jk. Only thing I added was the cooltech mic mount. Love this setup.