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best cb radio to include in our emcomm station	Reply
by KE7KLY on April 11, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
we are putting together an emcomm vehicle (small camp trailer) that will include a full range of radio gear including Project 25 and microwave. does anyone have a recommendation for a good citizens band base or mobile radio we should include? We have already decided that it should probably have cb SSB capability. Thanks,

RE: best cb radio to include in our emcomm station	Reply
by W7AIT on April 11, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
Cobra 148 GTL I built a “CB GO BOX” using a Cobra 148GTL. Its a 40 channel AM/ SSB radio with and excellent receiver, nice smooth squelch. The “Radio in a box” approach was done to meet the following requirements: 1. Ease of setup / operation by unlicensed persons 2. AM and SSB capability 3. Power: 110 VAC. 4. Antenna: Any CB antenna. The Antenna I designed: 30 foot push up “Buddipole Vertical Ground plane”, covers 26- 29 mhz., set up and disassembled in 10 minutes. Actual field testing of the CB GO BOX range – 15 to 30 miles. I have complete plans for this design. It could be designed to run on 12 VDC, but the first prototype was designed for 110 vac base operation.

RE: best cb radio to include in our emcomm station	Reply
by KB3LSR on April 12, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
I would go with the Cobra 148GTL too. Midland makes an SSB CB, but it's a lot more expensive than the Cobra.

RE: best cb radio to include in our emcomm station	Reply
by KD4LLA on April 12, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
I am glad to see the thinking here. I always wondered why no one else thought of CB radio in an emergency. Every truck on the highway has one. R/S TRC-465 (AM/SSB) in my vehicles and shack. Very sensitive receiver. The radio is fifteen years old, but cheap on Ebay.

RE: best cb radio to include in our emcomm station	Reply
by AB2ZK on April 13, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
I totally agree that a good CB should augment any Em-comm setup.I personally use a Midland 79-290 40CH W/ Sideband (AM/USB/LSB).It's a great compact unit that has a detachable control unit,offers 7 weather bands and receives great.Unfortunately, I think it may be discontinued but should still be available if you search around.

RE: best cb radio to include in our emcomm station	Reply
by K7CB on April 14, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
A Cobra 148 would probably be the way to go. They're one of the only ones on the market that are actually legal. Everything else are exports. Galaxy makes an AM/SSB radio that probably isn't too bad, although I've heard they tend to drift a lot on SSB. I don't know how good the new 148GTLs are. The best were made in the late 80s in Taiwan or the Philippines.

RE: best cb radio to include in our emcomm station	Reply
by AJ4DW on April 24, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
We're considering the same for our CERT trailer. I haven't been on the CB bands since the 60's... how much is CB-SSB actually used? I ask because it seems that you have the choice of SSB or access to the weather channels, but not both (and a weather receiver might be a good thing for a CERT to have along).

RE: best cb radio to include in our emcomm station	Reply
by KB1LKR on April 26, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
I'd take the AM/SSB CB for versatility/flexibility and use a weather receiver (w/ SAME), a spare 2m FM transceiver, or, if on a major navigable body of water (e.g. ocean, great lake, Mississippi R, etc.) perhaps even a marine VHF transceiver.

RE: best cb radio to include in our emcomm station	Reply
by W8AAZ on April 30, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
I can't really say what the utility of a SSB CB is on the normal 40 channels range. Most of the SSB ops slide "out of band" or something, don't they? Used to be Ch.16 was for SSB but it is probably for whatever now. I would think most of the operations you might have to consider on CB would be in AM mode anyway. Try to get a fairly good antenna and match it to the center of the range. I think that perhaps the Unidens and Cobras are the popular affordable radios these days. I can't see spending VHF Dual bander type of cash to aquire a deluxe SSB CB. Also I would consider one of the higher than bottom price models that have a noise blanker, not just limiter. My modern car is so noisy that it needs the blanker circuit to make the radio usable at less than next door signals. Noise limiters work to a point but they get overwhelmed by excessive noise. Blanker is much better. I have a Uniden with it. Have another radio that is quite good quality except no blanker and unusable in the car. Basically put in the longest antenna you can fit!

RE: best cb radio to include in our emcomm station	Reply
by N7IOH on May 6, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
I don't know that you really need a SSB radio for CB emcomm. I bought the Cobra 18WXST II just to have in case of an emergency. It is a 40 channel radio with 10 weather channels. It can scan all 40 channels which I thought was more important than having SSB and wondering what channels to monitor. It can also monitor channel 9 & 19 simultaneously. The speaker faces the front. It's difficult to cover all the bases with a portable station. Trying to monitor all AM and SSB CB channels would be very difficult. I opted to be able to monitor the 40 AM channels via the scan mode. Yes you could get a scanner and put all 120 CB channels in but than you would have to catch what channel the call was coming in on and get your CB on that channel while you are busy with other emergency duties. If the scanner picks up another call before you catch what channel the call was on you may loose the help call all together. The last price I saw was about $65 from Amazon.com with free shipping. Al, n7ioh

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