

SWR Match and good ground to the bike frame WILL HELP.Image Best CB Antennas Rating 1. Summary: Anything over 25 watts is TOO Much (legal or not). If I have an emergncy issue, I pull out my hand-held Ham radio, and hit a nearby repeater (typical radius of 40 - 100 miles), and my fellow hams will always help when you need it. Ask the Hams for (legal) help, and you will be surprised at how willing they might be.Įven though I am a Ham, I have done nothing (yet) to improve my CB. CB shops cannot (generally) compare to the level of knowledge/expertise. Besides, they may take it on as a challenge, and some of these guys know more about RF propogation than you can imagine.
#Cb antenna booster professional#
They can set your SWR with some very accurate and professional equipment, and they can advise as to other (legal) things you can do. Go find you nearest Ham Radio club, (and they are EVERYWHERE) and ask for some help. But, even this can be overcome with some effort and expertise. Partly, this may be due to the limited amount of STEEL (ground-plane) on the bike. Goldwing CBs are known to be a bit on the week side, and are used primarily for bile-to-bike communication when riding in groups. Please, Please do not go to a truck stop and buy a 125 Watt Amp.Īs I said at the start, best bet - Good antenna, good ground on the bike, and good SWR. If you can find a 20 Watt linear (which IS ILLEGAL) then you will be heard 5 miles up the road, IF and ONLY IF, you have a good SWR and good ground, etc. (Almost no other portion of the radio spectrum is so noisy.!) This is what all the truckers do, and it's what causes all of that background noise that you need to squelch out on channel 19, etc.

For that, you need the Ground Wave portion of the signal, and anything over 20 - 25 Watts will not help.Ī 125 Watt (or greater) Amp will get you heard some place 3 or 4 states away, by somebody that cannot respond. So, Sky Wave is NOT what you need for CB Communications to reach down the road a good 4 - 7 miles or so. The truckers call the Sky Wave "Skip" and it does indeed reflect off of the upper levels of the ionosphere, and come back to earth God knows where. Ground Wave (FRS, 4 Watt CB, etc.) and Sky Wave. The BEST BET is to improve the antenna (which includes the grounding), amd the SWR. I can vouch that the FCC will rarely, if EVER come to look for ya. Sometimes, it's not the crime, it's if ya get caught. Of course, they had switching circuitry internal to the BRICK that made the transition. That being said, I've seen "Bricks" or "Foot Warmers" with amps in the receive circuits that would boost the amplitude of incoming signals, so they had the best of both worlds, Transmit AND Receive amps. I've seen 10 and 25 watt bricks melt the phenolic/plastic that the coil is wrapped around, and those antennas look funny when the phenolic is melted and the antenna is bent in half, because at that point, it becomes rigid again, and it's a permanent bend. Not only that, but, most have coils in the makeup of the antenna, being physically short, and the wire inside is around 18 gauge maybe. I also laughed when these guys would come in with blown finals or semi-finals or the power supplies. I know, coz I use to get some of those with blown front ends and made good money fixing them.

I've seen bricks in the 50-1000 watt range, and of course, when near other CB's, they have a nasty tendency to "BLOW OUT" the Front end of many receivers in their vicinity.
