Best cb radio for the money
 

Hey guys im a newb and I was wondering about which cb radio I should get. Please feel free to tell me about your own setups.

Cobra Compact 40-Channel CB Radio | Meijer.com

under 40 bucks and works awesome:beer:

I have the Cobra 75 all in one removable unit. I like that I can put it away when not in use and that it has many nice features like weather and such.

What I don't like is the price and the inability to add an external speaker. (An external speaker is nice to mount behind you in the sound bar so you can listen to your stereo and not miss calls).

Cooltech sells a very nice all in one kit for the JK that includes CB,Antenna,Antenna Mount,Coax, and Mic clip (Versamount).

You can add a remote external speaker to the Cobra 75. It plugs in to to little box your antenna plugs into.

lots of us use the Uniden Pro 510XL, small like the Cobra.

Uniden 520 xl
 

Hi the uniden 520 has the PA and also rf gain nob, Same radio other wise as the 510. you can get them on amazon pretty cheap, You will really like this radio, it is a great basic CB. IMO have fun. here is what I posted a while ago and what i was running in my JK until I got my Ham radio license and radios. /#post2946337[/url]
I am not sure if that will get you to the right thread where I posted that but here is what I used and where I got it. CB world is a nice place to get CB and some Ham stuff, and I just ordered some stuff from them and got free shipping!!

this is from an old post of mine when i got my CB:Uniden 520 xl $39.00 off ebay,new
Here is what I got from CBworld, it works perfect for me. The 18' coax has a PL259 connecter on one end that goes into the radio and a lug for the stud assembly for the antenna. I snaked it thru the tailgate no problem. I also ran a short ground wire from the tub of the jeep to the frame , I couldn't get my SWR's down until I did that. Grounding the antenna mount is most important. With the lug type connecter on this cable it has its own ground wire to screw on to the mount.
AUD402 Adjustable Universal CB Radio Mounting Bracket
$6.99
Everhart TSM4-R Four Foot SUPER FLEX WAVECB Antenna , this is super flexible good antenna, trail tested you will be hard pressed to find a better antenna.
$11.50 . It does need to be tuned for the right swr, you will need a SWR meter and you will end up cutting a few inches of the wire off to make it right. You just take the pastic top off the top of the antenna and pull the inside wire out little by little and check the swr as you cut it to the right length.
KCB5SS Stainless Steel Lug Stud Antenna Mount $4.95
PL8X18 18 Foot RG8X Coax $16.99
K1A PUSH-N-TWIST Quick Disconnect Replacement for R1A $13.99
hope this helps..

Thanks for all the help guys!

I recently installed a Cobra 75 and it's a nice unit for a Jeep. Nice and compact and, YES, you can use it with an external speaker, as was mentioned earlier. But, before you install one, try using an auxillary cable into your radio input jack and use the speakers already in your Jeep. Yes, you lose listening to your radio while the plug is in, but I prefer to not listen to it anyway while off-roading. Then, if that doesn't appeal to you, you can always add an external speaker later.

SWR Tuning Procedures Included
 

I have the Cobra 75 installed with a 36" Firefly antenna. It installs very easy and it is compact enough that you will not give up valuable real estate in an already cramped Wrangler. This setup is very nice and I was able to balance channels 1 and 40 to 1.9 with the SWR and channel 20 reads an impressive 1.3. I would bet you could get this even lower with the 48" antenna. The SWR tuning took me approximately 15 minutes. You can also add an external speaker by way of the small control box or you can run it through your stereo speakers by plugging a standard aux cable into the control box and your aux jack on your head unit.

FYI. SWR Tuning.

1. Connect SWR between antenna and control box.
2. Set CB to channel 1.
3. Set SWR switch to calibrate.
4. Adjust SWR needle to calibration mark with mic keyed.
5. While keeping mic keyed flip SWR switch and note the reading.
6. Repeat steps 3-5 on channel 40.
7. If channel 1 reading is higher than channel 40, your antenna is too short. If channel 40 is higher than channel 1, your antenna is too long. Adjust accordingly. Your goal is to get them as balanced as possible. With a 36" antenna, anything below 2 is acceptable, obviously the lower the better.
8. After you get channels 1 and 40 balanced, switch CB to channel 20.
9. Set SWR switch to calibrate and adjust needle to calibration mark with mic keyed.
10. While keeping the mic keyed flip SWR switch and note reading. If you have done this correctly, your reading on channel 20 should be significantly lower than your balanced readings on channels 1 and 40. Congratulations! Your CB is now tuned and ready for action.

So I just installed the cobra 75 with a 48" antenna and the swr readings were way over 5, almost to 10 actually.

Is this a grounding issue? I grounded the antenna by doubling up 2 #14 awg copper stranded cables bolted to the bolt that holds down the sub box in the rear right of the tub.