Quote:
Originally posted by ed s:
lol
The red looks ok but..........
I have fire stix ??? antennas and not sure they are what I need. The weather radio on cb does not come in as well as it should. I depend on the weather radio alarm and not sure it will work with a weak signal. I do not know for sure what kind of cb range I have either. Next trip planned for mid next week and hope to find out.
Next week may be a blue ball week LOL
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I am a geek and somewhat familiar with rf stuff.
The major thing that you have to do with any CB is to make sure the antennas are tuned. Cobra radios have an alert if they are out of tune. It is usually a red led that comes on when you transmit. Sometimes marked TX error or alert.
Our coach had to have these funny horns to extend the body mount CB antennas that threw the tuning out of the window. So, I had to add a matching/tuner devise. They are about ~$25 on eBay. See
CB Antenna Tuner
This will improve your CB, but may not improve your weather radio. The reason is that when you put dual CB antennas on the mirrors, they become co-linear and are designed to provide best reception in a cone directly in front and to the rear of the vehicle. This will actually reduce the effectiveness of the weather radio significantly if the transmitter is out of that cone. (usually is)
Best suggestion is a separate SAME weather radio, also available on eBay. This has a omni directional antenna pattern and also contains severe weather alarm settings. Most do have an external antenna, but I have never found the need. See
SAME Weather Alert Radio
There is another new option that we switched to. It is a software that monitors NEXRAD radar. Too complicated to explain here, so I will write about it in a separate post as to not hijack this one.
So, net net is that the dual antennas make you more directionally efficient for talking to others in front and behind you, but significantly degrades the weather function.
BTW, I also had one of those CB's that had the base unit hidden and all the controls in the mike on my old coach. Neither the CB or the weather ever worked well with two replacements from the factory doing the same poor job.
Hope this helps!