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Best CB to Buy?


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#1 andrewinlondon

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Posted 01 December 2004 - 02:05 PM

Hi,

Can anyone recommend the "best" CB radio to buy?

ie. one that is optimal for use in mini convoys and also for eavesdropping possibly on trucker bandwidths to find out about traffic jams etc - if this is also what people use them for; but which won't break the bank?

What are their warranty issues like? Is it OK to buy them second-hand?

This also sounds like a pretty technical area, given Charlie Brown's CB saga. Is there a "plug & play" version out there, or does one have to become an "audio-engineer for a day" to get them working properly?

And while it's nice to have more "toys", do you all get good, practical use out of yours', or are they more for show and style?

Thanks in advance for responding. :lol:

#2 cbradio4minis.co.uk

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Posted 02 December 2004 - 04:31 PM

CB in it's simplest form is a magmount on the roof, and power from your cigarette lighter - a two minute job.

To install properly isn't that much more difficult - new sets come with a bracket for the radio, run a lead from the battery to the CB for power, and decide how you want the aerial...

Often, magmounts are a good solution, as can be removed if needed, although it's important to get the right aerial - the basic "centre loaded" magnetic aerial kits available for about £10-£12 are well known for their poor performance, so best to avoid these.

Guttermounts are a more permanent solution - the aerial can still be unscrewed for security etc but the gutter mounting stays on the car. These need to have a bit of paint scraped away so that the 2 allen-keyed pins that tighten down into the trough of the gutter can make a shiny, metal-to-metal earth connection.

There are mounts available that can go on your bootlip, and (if brave) mounts available to go straight through a hole in a body panel.

There are boxes available (£8) that allow you to use a CB aerial to receive broadcast FM (radio 1 etc) so that you can replace an FM aerial with a CB one, still have radio yet have only one aerial on the car.

At cbradio4minis.co.uk we have complete packages starting at £72, although we are waiting for more stock from the factory of the very cheapest set at the time of writing. The quality (and therefore life expectancy) of the slightly more expensive units is much better than the Team unit.

Below is a link to the CB radio packages available at cbradio4minis.co.uk - you can choose any of the different mounting options, and between a large or small "springer" aerial, although alternatives to this aerial are also available.

Click on a items' name in the list to go to a page with photos and more info about that product.

In terms of warrantee, all new CB's have a years guarantee although this does not cover the output transistor which is what can be damaged if you have a high SWR. This is because an aerial needs to be mounted correctly, earthed if necessary (magmounts dont need a conventional earth - just plonk it on the roof and away you go) and tuned on the vehicle, so it's the customers responsibility to check the SWR (with an SWR meter - £8.50 plus free connecting lead if bought with a package).

In terms of the "best set" it depends on what you want to spend - if we look at sub-£100 units, the Midland 78 Plus Multi is the most popular set, being small, well built, having a good mix of useful facilities, has a "chunky", and is one of Midlands' new "Multi" sets where you can gain access to other european countries frequency allocations. What this means is that IF you are prepared to operate outside the cb radio law, a bunch of friends travelling together can tuck themselves away on an AM channel and get increased range from the lack of background interference, and from the fact that AM (which is illegal to use in this country) gives more distance anyway.

Having said this - most of the UK legal channels are pretty quiet so you will still have no problem finding a quiet channel with a standard set!

Over £100, Midland win again in my opinion - with the Midland 48 Excel Multi (£115) being the best set, with lots of good facilities including PA (public address) where you can fit a small waterproof horn speaker someone under your bonnet... switch the set over to PA and your voice comes out at over 100db, great fun!

We can do the 48 Excel multi in our packages - the aerial and mount works out at £20, so a complete package like the Midland 78 Multi package but with the 48 rig instead of the 78 would be £135. If you are looking for the BEST you could change the aerial to a Sirio Mythos 9000 (for another £8) - still under £150 for an excellent system.

For a cheaper option, you can't go far wrong with the Midland 38 or Danita 3000 (both great budget sets) in package 4, again offered with the same aerial and mount choices.

Hope this answers most questions, anyone got any further questions, post them - i'll do my best to answer them.

Regards

Jim
Proprietor
Communication Eleven - cbradio4minis.co.uk - 4x4cb.com

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#3 Brawlyrox

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Posted 02 December 2004 - 04:38 PM

LOL great response cheers, personally i think cbradios4minis is a great company and i will be using them for gear on the run.

#4 cbradio4minis.co.uk

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Posted 02 December 2004 - 04:53 PM

Thanks for the flowers Nick!

Forgot to say that all the 80 channel sets (i.e. not "Multi" ones) have written on them somewhere "for use in the UK only" whereas the multi sets are legal to use throughout europe, indeed designed for this so anyone on any overseas trips should deffinately get a multi set.

From this point, all new sets from Midland will be "Multi" and most mobile sets will also be 12v/24v autosensing (not that this means much to us, but good for truckers).

Hopefully this will mean that we end up with more choice and some new rigs, as the manufacturers don't have to spend money getting type approval in each individual country, instead the Multi European spec allows one version of a set to be sold in the whole of europe.

I'm hoping we may see some of the car stereo/cb units that are available on the continent, although it might be wishfull thinking!

If everyone buys CB's then the manufacturers know theres still a good market in the UK, and we may get some nice goodies!! :grin: :wink:

Jim

#5 tipcat

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Posted 02 December 2004 - 08:11 PM

Jim,
Any chance of a TMF club discount if you get a lot of business due to the Nurburgring run? :cheese: :lol:

#6 cbradio4minis.co.uk

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Posted 02 December 2004 - 09:05 PM

I'm sure i could do something, maybe 5% discount for anyone mentioning TMF... probably work best if people phone me as i would have to do partial refunds for web orders as no way of giving a discount on there.

Another way to save more money is for people who live near one another or know each other "off-list" is to club together and make one purchase and share the carriage cost between them, as 10kg costs as much to send by courier as 3kg - anyway, even if a consignment is over 10kg, I cap the cost at £9, so if 9 people clubbed together, you'd get 5% off, and only pay £1 each for next day delivery!

Jim

#7 CharlieBrown

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Posted 02 December 2004 - 09:33 PM

Hi Jim,

The Mini Forum Staff will be contacting you shortly to sort something out.

Chers,

Charlie


(Ps Thanks for the Aerial and Mount for the Italian job!)




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