I have an old CB radio from my dad. I have the antenna, radio itself and the microphone. I'm missing the cords to the radio. Anyone know where I can find parts?
I don't have a picture or model name off the top of my head. I'll update this later tomorrow
Thanks
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Yep, most truck stops carry some CB radio parts.
Also, where are you located? I know of a few shops in SA that sell parts...
I'm in Houston. Surprisingly Frys electronics didn't have it! The dude was like "I don't even know what kind of plug that is"
I ordered one on Amazon
The crimp on the antenna connector looks a little sketchy. If you find it doesn't work right, you can always crimp on a new one though, but the tools might cost more than a new antenna. Not sure what kind of antenna you have, but most often the included/kit antenna sucked.
Not sure what your plans are with the radio, but for a low end box you can tweak it a little bit if you plan to actually use it. Some YouTube videos on how to do the basics (like crank up the modulation a bit), but keep in mind you can technically break the law by doing so (although literally nobody cares).
I had thoughts to put it in my jeep but not sure yet. If anything just a desk radio
Can you explain what modulation is? I'm new to this stuff and Wikipedia isn't great at explaining
Radio works by means of waves. Like if you throw a rock into a lake, it makes waves with crests and valleys, spreading out from the origin.
Now there's two basic ways of making this wave carry information. Modifying the the amplitude of the wave (increasing the distance between the crest and valley, think vertically), i.e. amplitude modulation, known as AM.
Or modifying the distance between the crests, think horizontally. You can measure the distance between those crests, usually in meters (wave length), or how many times per second a wave crest comes along (frequency). Hence if you make the carrier wave transport information by changing the distance between wave crests, that's frequency modulation, i.e. FM.
There's also SSB, but that's just PFM and outside the scope of this post.
The make your signal go farther, there are several ways of going about this. More power (wattage). A larger stone thrown into the pond, or throwing it harder. Or put your antenna up higher and make it larger (you're throwing your rock from high up making a bigger splash)
With me so far? Good, because now it gets technical:
Modulation - what is it and how much is too much?
My experience was about a two mile range for mobile to mobile on a good day. And there weren't that many good days. You can stretch that a bit if you have a base radio with tall antenna. 5 watts is the legal max output allowed by the FCC, but there are ways to soup them up. At least, I always heard there was. That was way before Youtube, LOL.I'm looking for 10-20mile reception in either direction to be safe at the least
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I'm looking for 10-20mile reception in either direction to be safe at the least