Uniden CB radios? Good? Bad?

My friend recently gave me this Uniden Grant XL that the meter doesnt work on it and I ordered a remanufactored mic for it. How good of a radio is this Ive heard they are the best Uniden CB ever made is this true? How much power do they put out? And with a K30 antenna how far a range do you think I can get out of it?

 

Good solid radio-have owned several of them. As far as power goes. depends if it's a stock radio or if it's peaked/tweaked or even modified. Really need to bench it to find out. Remember that stock type accepted CB radios are only allowed 4w AM and 12w PEP on sideband. Peaked/tweaked radios can sometimes swing as far as 15 or 20 watts depending on the radio. Adding heavier finals and the like can boost it even further.

Range is a subjective thing. Sometimes, even with best antenna/coax match, atmospheric condidtions can kill your reception and transmission. Best advice is this-make sure that your antenna and coax are matched properly for the lowest possible SWR-even the most powerfull rigs can be be crappy with a poorly matched transmission system. If you don't know how to this-goto a reptuble responsible CB shop like Walcott CB-they can do it for you and do it right.

 

I see this is an old post but I feel compelled to add my 2 cents in.

Yes Unidens are good radios. They're every bit as good as their famed brother, the Cobra, and in some instances even better.

Unidens give you everything a Cobra can, usually for less. And yes back in the late 70's to somewhere in the 80's, Cobra radios were built with Uniden boards in them.

You sure about that Kc0rey? It's my understanding all radios are undertuned from the factory at less than 4 watts so as to give the manufacturer some "cushion" as each radio will vary differently in power.

I don't know if this constitues the same thing or not.....but if my truck is sitting outside the house and I key up the radio in the house with it on channel 20, I get some bleed over on channel 21. Maybe a littole on 19. But no other channels can I be heard. Again that's with the two antenna very close to each other, as in less than 20 feet apart.

P.S. one of the two radios used here is a Uniden Washington, the other is a Cobra 21 that left the factory with a Uniden board. Still working after 32 years.

 

Most radios are lucky if they have %80 modulation from the factory. Most also are set 3-3.5W carrier and some even below 3W. There is nothing wrong with an align and tune; to have your radio set the way that it should come from the factory. What the problem is, is when people go beyond that and start over-modulating, and unbalance the radio, etc. I have heard people states away bleeding over several channels when DX was rolling. I have heard people bleeding over on the local side as well. It is very annoying to every other operator out there. But that being the case doesn't mean that a good and proper tune is a bad thing. It just means that a bad tune is and to watch who tunes your radio.

 

As a "dumb rookie" when it comes to radios i've found that my Uniden PC68Elite puts out like a champ. Assuming its got the right coax and antenna. I used a stock Mack coax with a little 4 foot whip and it got the job done for my local gig. i could talk to the scale house at the pit,the loader man at the pile, and the guys i was running with assuming they were close. But when we started making longer multi-day runs i decided that i needed to "graduate" to a "Big Boy" radio. Bought a New antenna new coax and started looking for a "better" radio(all in all spent about $100 on At, and Coax). Bought a "tuned and peaked" 29ltd from one of my coworkers for bout $150 and some change. that radio spent about 4 days in my truck till i went back to my Uniden. Now ive got a k40 adj. antenna and a mini-8 18' coax and the SWR is at 1.5. I get some compliments on the radio and at last check i was putting out 8+ miles. So Coming from someone who has used a Stock uniden from the get go,and knows nothing about the "Tech" involved. Id say its one of the best radios ive had and have had the pleasure of using.

 

I run a GRANT LT as a base on CB works great

 

You must have gotten a bad 29 then because. after being run across a bench to make sure they are doing what they should be doing, they both put out the same. The only difference is the foot print they make in the cab.

 

I heard that, I think for 199$ I would've went and bought a magnum 257.

 

You are all over it! You are right on all counts. Too many “short sick” idiots think blasting large wattage out there will make them think they are top dog, when they are just another low grade moron trying to make up for multiple personal short comings.

 

For many years, Uniden was the OEM manufacturer of most of the more popular CBs that were just rebranded. Uniden is a solid piece of equipment. There are many famous radios in Uniden's past such as the HR2510 and the entire line of President radios. Also, Uniden currently manufacturers the two finest scanning radios available to the public- SDS100 portable and the SDS200 desktop/mobile (I own one of each model).