CB Boosting

[Brake Pad]

I was chatting with a trucker this afternoon, and was only able to chat for about 2 minutes, I lost him. would a booster antenna, work, or try something else?

[MiCarl]

If you were going opposite directions on the freeway in 2 minutes you'd be 4 miles apart. I've never done more than that with mobile-mobile CB (and in the 70s I did a lot of CB).

 

When I was a kid our base antenna was about 60' and we were near the highest spot in the county. To our mobiles we could get maybe 5-8 miles and our radios were not quite stock:2143:. To another base we could get maybe 15 miles.

 

Now there were people with directional antennas and hundreds of times the legal wattage that did transmit quite long distances. There was a guy in Florida I could hear just fine near North Bay Ontario. Of course since I had well under his 5000 watts I wasn't going to answer him.

 

I've never heard of a booster antenna. There are amplifiers, which are illegal for CB use, that will boost the signal power. Of course your electrical system doesn't have the capacity to run a really big one.

 

Of course if you're traveling in the same direction you can prolong communication indefinitely if you keep up with him. A switch to a first gen would help with that.

[BOO]

I'd say 4 or 5 miles is pretty darn good for the CB's now of days. There is so much garbage on the air you're lucky to get that far. And AM mode for communicating is a terrible mode so as you can see everything is against you.

The CB's are good for a group ride to keep everyone informed and together but that's about it.

BOO

[Brake Pad]

That answers alot. thank guys. and no, I didn't no where he was