What is the best CB system for home use?

Truckerfan,
Nice to see another new user on the forum. The biggest advantage you can gain for an effective system is in the antenna system ("system" includes the antenna, mount, feedline, any matching devices or couplers, etc.) All other things being equal, greater antenna length and shorter coax length will put the most signal out into "the ether", and receive best as well. The other things that must be equal are coax line loss, antenna impedance, connector losses, weather, time during the 11-year sunspot cycle, local sources of interference (fluorescent, CFL, LED lighting, motors, nearby radios, etc.), radio output power, radio receive sensitivity and selectivity. There are probably more, but I'm trying to qualify my answer a little in advance.
If you've got a patio or terrace and are allowed to put up an antenna, there are lots of antennas originally intended for use on mobiles that work fine as base antennas if the "vehicle half" of the antenna is simulated. Something as simple as a 108" whip (102" plus an extension or spring) mounted to a railing, with one or two wires of about the same length hanging down at an angle from the mount should be really effective. FWIW, a 102" whip is actually resonant up in the 10 Meter amateur band, and usually needs the extra length to "match" signals in the CB range. The difference is a trifle unless you need that last fraction of a microvolt of signal at each other's receivers, though.
If you have to kinda sneak in your antenna, I'd look up the plans for an antenna called an "Inverted Vee", which will be physically shorter in height than the usual 8 feet you have available inside your apartment. You could also hang a standard horizontal dipole indoors if you've got a room that's 18 feet long, but besides the shielding of signal by the building's walls, you'll also be "cross-polarized" from the typical mobile antennas, reducing your effective signal by 90% in both transmitting and receiving (although you'll have an advantage talking to bases using horizontal antennas).
There are lotsa ideas available, but a little more information as to your antenna placement restrictions will be a fairly important guide to their use.
There are also lotsa smart folks on here who've been in the same situation as you, and will doubtless have more (and likely better) ideas than I do, even though I've been doing this for 50 years as of this past March.
So let us know whatcha got for antenna space.
Cheers,
Handlebar

 

I use a Realistic Navajo TRC-458! It must be 30 years old, but has a great receiver and does AM & SSB. When I got it, it had been subjected to cb shop screwdriver wizards but it's back to spec now. When I lived in an apartment 3rd floor, there was a metal railing on the balcony and I bribed the maintenance man to let me mount a "big stick" on it sticking out at an angle. Today that might be an Antron A-99. The ant. didn't harm anything and is of the type than doesn't need a GND. (so it says, and worked well enough) but the days of getting away with anything like that in an apartment are probably over.. If you are on the top floor though, that is the place to be.

 

Make sure the antenna ain't air cooled! Air cooled needs constant air movement to keep from, I guess going bad. Get one that's oil cooled or whatever.

 

The best legal base you will ever find is the Uniden Washington, 8719 version. Look hard for one as it is well worth it. A great AM/SSB base station. They worked well with a D104 mike by the way. The antenna question depends upon what you are allowed in an apartment. The indoor wire types were popular in these settings but worked very poorly and irritated all your neighbors. No doubt the Antron 99 or Imax 2000 on a push up pole around 36 feet at the feedpoint (just above the base of the antenna where you clamp it to the pole) is a good way to go if allowed.

Antenna, air cooled VS oil cooled = gibberish.

I should add CB is no longer the way it was with your dad. Sad but true. However in any community a group of people using it in this way and working to bring back the good conversations and civility which once existed cannot be bad. Enough trying who knows maybe it can be brought back to the way it was. One thing for sure it will never get there unless enough people try so I am all for it. I miss good decent conversations and would love to see it go back to the way it was. Anything worth having is worth working for.

 

Oil Cooled = Snake Oil

 

Wow, you must have one of them mansions , needing to use CB radios in the house..

I had a base setup waaaaay back in the day. Was great, however had to move and could not reasonably set it back up in the new location, so sold it. CB garbage started about then, so never really wanted to set one up again.

 

About any radio will work. I've used sure enough base stations as well as mobiles with power supplies. A good quality mic and antenna are a must no matter which route you go.

I have been considering setting up a base station again in my new garage/shop. But, the "CB garbage" is still terrible!! There are a few old timers around here that have gotten back on the radio, but there are a few young'uns also that think nobody but them is listening.....'f' bombs every other word, subject matter not suitable for all ages. Sure not like it used to be, and I doubt I could change that, so I'm on the fence about a base station. Plus the wife doesn't like the idea of a antenna sticking up beside the house, but she won't say anything if I do decide to put one up, so that isn't a deal breaker. Tried to find somebody to help me do a decent radio check out in the truck this week. You can't hardly find anybody to do that anymore! You get "it's working", but after that they act like you are really putting them out if you ask their 10-20, or smart #$%# start chiming in with no useful information. It's a dilemma!

 

Best CB for home use? Depends on what you want.

If you want to keep it real simple, look for a base station CB. You can find them on eBay, garage sales, etc. You can also find them at ham fests. Most of them you plug in the wall, hook up your antenna coax and you're set.

If you just want to talk on channel 19 to truck drivers, a simple AM base station will work fine. Look for a Cobra 87 GTL, Uniden Zachary T, President Madison, etc. If you don't mind only having 23 channels, a Cobra 135 will do you good but you will only have channels 1 thru 23. You can usually get the 23 channel radios cheaper than the 40 channel radios.

If you want to talk on 19 to trucker AND work people on DX when skip rolls in, you want a single side band base radio. Look for Cobra 2000 GTL, Cobra 142, Uniden Washington. Be prepared to spend some coin on a sideband base station especially a Cobra 2000. Also President used to make the Washington before Uniden bought them out.

Now if you can't find a base station to buy, you can always take any mobile CB radio and run it with a power supply and hook up the coax and you'll have the same thing, just not as fancy.

Now you will also need a good antenna. If you want to do a DIY antenna, you can make a dipole from 2 pieces of 14 gauge insulated wire, about 9 ft long, and hang the ends 20 feet or higher off the ground, suspending the ends with rope, and making sure the wires are not near any metal. Solder the ends to an SO-239 (female CB antenna connector - you can buy these on eBay or even Radio Shack sells them) Check your SWR with a meter and ensure it's less than 2.0:1. If possible find a ham radio op with an antenna analyzer and see if he will help you tune the antenna. This will ensure you are dead on frequency. You want the dipole to resonate between 26.965 and 27.405 with 27.205 as the center freq.

If you'd rather buy a commercially made antenna, get an Antron 99 or an Imax 2000, and use LMR-400 as your feed line. Put the base antenna with the antenna feed point as high as you can....or 20 feet (if possible) for best results.

HTH

 

just know what the local laws are before placing that antenna high in the air. the last thing you want is to get a knock on the door because you pissed someone off with your sky scraping antenna lol

the best antenna i have used for base applications is the antron. they are now sold as the solarcon. the old aluminum 5/8 ground plane was a GREAT antenna; good luck on finding one of those laying around. the old Starduster style has made a comeback. you can get them off ebay. i have always preferred a metal type antenna over the fiberglass ones. but then again, it is all personal choice.

either way, just be sure to set those SWRs and have a good ground. i dont care if they claim that the antenna is ground free........the last base antenna i had set up was an antron. i had an old copper 3 core radiator out of an old 70s lead sled buried 4 feet in the ground. i then had solid strand insulated copper wire run from the radiator up the pole to the PL 259 connector at the antenna, attached with a hose clamp to the 259. i did not have any problem at all with line noise or any electrical noise at all. it was amazing.