Thanks to both of you for a great channel. Enjoy it much and just got my old radios going again a few months back. Added a few new antennas and an antenna tuner been on CB since about 1965 or so. Still running some of those radios. Adirondack Mtns upstate NY by the Border.
I love these kinds of tests!! Everyday gear in everyday situations. 7 mile range IS impressive. I've been buying little CBs like that one and giving them to friends so they can have some fun. Realistic radios always seem reliable, and I have also been able to find a lot of them like yours for around $20 on eBay. Thanks for doing this! ~ 993 in Washington State
I had my first CB radio when the Federal government required a license to transmit signals. It wasn't until a year ago when a friend of mine got me interested in it again. Together, we both got President McKinley SSB/AM radios, heavy antenna cables, ground wires, 12 volt batteries, battery tenders for keeping the 12 volt batteries charged and a couple of used television towers. My friend's tower, with antenna is 45 feet in the air, while my antenna is 54 feet in the air. His tower is secured to the side of his house. My antenna is anchored in a base of concrete that measurers 4 feet tall by 4 feet square. My friend lives six miles away from my home. Most every night, about 10:30 p.m., we talk on our radios on channel 38. We can still talk during the daylight hours and heavy skip doesn't talk over us. All done barefoot. The other night we were joined by other stations that were within thirty miles from us after I checked the distance on my State's map. We also checked on the distances we can transmit from our base stations to our mobile stations and we checked on the distance we can transmit between our mobile stations. The furthest I could hear my friend and he could hear me from my base station to his mobile station is about 19 miles. We can hear and speak with each other, mobile to mobile, about seven miles distant. My friend was a radioman in the U.S. Air Force and he has taught me lots of things about radios. The height of our antennas really made a huge difference in signal strength and clear modulation. Kind regards from Northern Michigan.
AM CB radio now getting hot. People seem enthusiast with this evergreen analogue AM mode. Greater range does not really matter, but the pleasure and excitement really awesome.
Hello dear friend, great video. I live in Scotland and I use the Baofeng UV-5RPMR 446MHz radio. and I managed to reach out 162.25 miles on only 5 watts of power. I also use a Midland 38 UK/EU 80 channel radio and I can reach thousands of miles out across Europe. Radio is king. Kind regards. Paul.
Great demo. I have two of these little units, and I'm probably going to be selling them to my adventure buddies with a magnet mount each in order to get them set up. Cheers!
That’s great man my experience has been around 5 miles But the terrain down here is quite bumpy. Your wife’s awesome by the way, Most women don’t give a damn about CB radio haha
I live in a coastal area so went to a wharf 10km (about 6 miles) away and talked back to my 'base' radio (I don't have a proper base antenna so I'm using a truck antenna for receive purposes only), and it was as if I was only a few hundred feet away, crystal clear transmission. That wide open water really makes a difference, holy.
Just playing around going through old videos and imagine my surprise seeing you played with this. The TRC-415 was my first NEW radio, back in 1987. I think it was $35 at the time! It was a decent basic radio, but the fond memory is figuring out where was ALC was and yanking out the ALC transistor. It got very loud with a stock mic, and when we stuck a friend's D-104/TUG9 desk mic on it, it sounded exactly like some of the "big radios" in our area. Had a lot of fun with that little guy. What a walk down memory lane!
You know what... if someone just wanted a basic setup for a road trip, off roading, or just plain listening to whats going on, you cannot go wrong at that price. Surprisingly good all round. Good to hear you both. Stay safe out there, 015 Tarmac Junkie wishing you best 73s. Cheers John 👍🏻😎
G'day Mower Junkie, reminds me of my first CB radio here in Australia, Roberts RCB 55, 23 channel with small magnetic base antenna... Not much distance!! The problem with magnetic base antennas is the artificial ground, usually through a capacitor....an antenna with a proper electrical ground to the car body will work much better.... I can get distances mobile to base of 20 miles fairly easily with a standard radio and a 6 foot whip.... Even better with 9 foot stainless whip. We only use uhf for highway use here in Australia, that radio would be great for highway work on channel 19 over there. 73 my friend. US2317
A setup kind of like that goes in my truck any time I travel. I've got a ham radio in there too but that cheap CB is always far more useful. It's no good in the city with too much static. But out in the middle of nowhere, one of the greatest things ever.
Will wonders never cease? What a bunch of good finds. Very good representation of both sides of the conversation. Of course, external speakers will make audio out sound great on both radios. That's my experience.
I have a tiny Realistic TRC-439 in my truck for years. My brother in law gave it to me with a little mag antenna and mic. It’s little but mighty in performance for a radio Mabey worth $10.00. It gets out about 4-5 miles but I’ve chatted with many people and made lasting contacts in my travels over the years with it. It started the radio bug for me. 9WR2356 in Canada.
Thanks for sharing Your story Brian. it just goes to show, We can have fun and talk with some great people....even with a basic radio. Take care, 73's from 151 SC.
Pretty basic test, but surprisingly, it was quite interesting--used to do the same thing w/ walkie-talkies from the 70's, u know, the ones w/ a 9v battery. And although it wudn't be a "$7 set-up," the SAME test on SSB (as a comparison) wud be even more interesting!
Hi Mower Junkie, I'm from the Netherlands, nice channel you have. Great to see your videos! Love that Realistic, beautiful radio. This is a nice test. A good example to see that weak AM signals still stand up very well in the noise. With FM it's different, with the squelch open, weak FM signals will be much harder to detect in the much louder noise that FM has. Weak AM signals last much longer while FM stutters and drops out. Here in Holland FM is common, it is good for local use and it suffers less from static. But I like AM much more, the much softer noise floor makes it nice to listen out weak stations with the squelch open. AM also has no 'capture effect' that FM does. Multiple FM stations simultaneously oppress each other and is a mess to hear, in AM that sounds much better and quieter. I also think that AM belongs to CB, it belongs to shortwave radio what CB really is. It gives me the real nostalgic shortwave radio feeling, with crackles and lightning in the distance. Greetings from Holland!
So I have a 25 foot channel master push up mast and my Solarcon A99 is mounted on top of a 10 foot copper pipe. That puts the base of my antenna, when mounted to the mast at about 33 feet and the tip of the antenna at 50 feet. That puts it about 10 feet above the peak of the roof of my brick and wooden house. I just sunk an 8 foot copper grounding pole. I have 2 questions. 1) I'm assuming I should NOT isolate my antenna from the mast? 2) Would a ground plane kit add any value to my send and receive signals? It was heart warming to listen to you and your wife talk to each other.
Wow! it sounds like You did a great job installing Your A99. You're correct, You should not isolate the antenna from the mast. For local use, I did not notice any difference with or without a Ground plane on My antenna. But My antenna did do a lot better with DX, after I installed a ground plane kit. Thank You for the comment, My Wife really liked the last part. Take care, 73's from 151 + 268 SC.
Hehe this is my first cb as teenage ham radio operator trc-415 realistic in Poland Krakow in 1992 on a base antena avanto top one astroplane .. super radio .. i have 0..5..+10khz switch ... power regulation .. echo rogger beep rfgain and xtal filter 10.695 in receiver ... my first update to cb,s .. hehe .. good radio .. tnx 73 !
Got three of these for free.. two with the silver faceplates and one with the black. One works great, one less so and the third doesn't receive or transmit at all. Got the working one on my dash and it's a great little radio.
It' been very quiet here too! Now and then I'll hear a single DX station come in for a minute....Then they're gone, and it goes quiet again! Come on Mother nature, Give us some DX!
I live in Quebec and I do receive a lot of DX skip from parts of USA (a lot from SC) EVERYDAY... on some channels it goes on & off in minutes. Other channels like the Superbowl ones (6 and 26) are opened all daylight. Too bad we are not heard in the South.
You got that right."Great little system for beginners" I also prefer a more advanced radio, But We all have to start somewhere. Thanks for watching, 73's from 151 SC.
You should probably call this the Candy Crush video LOL. Great radio for $7 radio you can't go wrong. And from what I've seen on your s meter it looks like that Mobile Radio has not been clipped nor peaked. ..
Yeah I did work pretty good I got the markets in my rate is like that all the time have no luck with those antennas though but to them at Walmart and they just the ground and check the ground on the door not very good on the antenna
@@MowerJunkie Some of the handhelds get out well if attached to a good external antenna. The only thing is the receivers on them tend to be more dodgy. Don't usually have features like ANL and NB.
It is a very good quality antenna and a decent radio, middle coil - the highest efficiency. Antennas with a lower coil would not be able to do it. Even such 1.3 meters are weak. Nowadays it is difficult to buy good and new AM radios, they are made too cheap and the modulation and the loudspeaker are of poor quality. FM radios have better sound quality, but the range is slightly worse. FM radios are much less "RF whistle".
@@MowerJunkie thanks I looking at a small radio on ebay, put a bid in for $9 I've got the 102 whip👍 Now we will sit back and 🤞 my fingers It's a small cobra radio
@@mindsway7036 CB radio is a form of short wave, and it's the cheapest and easiest to get started in. If You want to use the other bands You'll need to get a licence from the FCC.
Sounds a little under modulated, but hay, $7 who's complaining. If you do get it adjusted get it done by a professional who knows what they are doing and avoid power mics. It is not that bad mind you for an AM set. On that antenna it is not bad. EDIT: The windscreen is NOT the place to mount a CB, heat can make it drift and worse, blow the finals when being used as it wants to dump heat from inside the radio when transmitting, also the audio amplifier can overheat.
Exactly, it's just a $7 setup. at the end of the video I gave a warning about how it should NOT be mounted on the dash, because of how hot it can get. Take care, 73's from 151 SC.
I'm glad y'all have fun with cb
Thanks to both of you for a great channel. Enjoy it much and just got my old radios going again a few months back. Added a few new antennas and an antenna tuner been on CB since about 1965 or so. Still running some of those radios. Adirondack Mtns upstate NY by the Border.
Thanks Andrew. It's great to hear that You're back on the radio again! Take care, and thanks for watching. 73's from 151 SC.
I love these kinds of tests!! Everyday gear in everyday situations. 7 mile range IS impressive. I've been buying little CBs like that one and giving them to friends so they can have some fun. Realistic radios always seem reliable, and I have also been able to find a lot of them like yours for around $20 on eBay. Thanks for doing this! ~ 993 in Washington State
Right on Kurt! that's awesome that You're helping others get on the air! Take care 993. 73's from 151 SC.
I had my first CB radio when the Federal government required a license to transmit signals. It wasn't until a year ago when a friend of mine got me interested in it again. Together, we both got President McKinley SSB/AM radios, heavy antenna cables, ground wires, 12 volt batteries, battery tenders for keeping the 12 volt batteries charged and a couple of used television towers. My friend's tower, with antenna is 45 feet in the air, while my antenna is 54 feet in the air. His tower is secured to the side of his house. My antenna is anchored in a base of concrete that measurers 4 feet tall by 4 feet square. My friend lives six miles away from my home. Most every night, about 10:30 p.m., we talk on our radios on channel 38. We can still talk during the daylight hours and heavy skip doesn't talk over us. All done barefoot. The other night we were joined by other stations that were within thirty miles from us after I checked the distance on my State's map. We also checked on the distances we can transmit from our base stations to our mobile stations and we checked on the distance we can transmit between our mobile stations. The furthest I could hear my friend and he could hear me from my base station to his mobile station is about 19 miles. We can hear and speak with each other, mobile to mobile, about seven miles distant. My friend was a radioman in the U.S. Air Force and he has taught me lots of things about radios. The height of our antennas really made a huge difference in signal strength and clear modulation. Kind regards from Northern Michigan.
AM CB radio now getting hot. People seem enthusiast with this evergreen analogue AM mode. Greater range does not really matter, but the pleasure and excitement really awesome.
Thanks for the info...from your Mexican friend.
Hello dear friend, great video. I live in Scotland and I use the Baofeng UV-5RPMR 446MHz radio. and I managed to reach out 162.25 miles on only 5 watts of power. I also use a Midland 38 UK/EU 80 channel radio and I can reach thousands of miles out across Europe. Radio is king. Kind regards. Paul.
Great demo. I have two of these little units, and I'm probably going to be selling them to my adventure buddies with a magnet mount each in order to get them set up. Cheers!
That’s great man my experience has been around 5 miles But the terrain down here is quite bumpy.
Your wife’s awesome by the way, Most women don’t give a damn about CB radio haha
Thanks, She really is a Fantastic Woman! Thanks for watching, 73's from 151 SC.
That is super cool the way she plays radio with ya. Mine will sometimes for a while. 👍🇺🇸
I live in a coastal area so went to a wharf 10km (about 6 miles) away and talked back to my 'base' radio (I don't have a proper base antenna so I'm using a truck antenna for receive purposes only), and it was as if I was only a few hundred feet away, crystal clear transmission. That wide open water really makes a difference, holy.
yep, open water makes a great ground plane for distance.
Just playing around going through old videos and imagine my surprise seeing you played with this. The TRC-415 was my first NEW radio, back in 1987. I think it was $35 at the time! It was a decent basic radio, but the fond memory is figuring out where was ALC was and yanking out the ALC transistor. It got very loud with a stock mic, and when we stuck a friend's D-104/TUG9 desk mic on it, it sounded exactly like some of the "big radios" in our area. Had a lot of fun with that little guy. What a walk down memory lane!
You know what... if someone just wanted a basic setup for a road trip, off roading, or just plain listening to whats going on, you cannot go wrong at that price. Surprisingly good all round. Good to hear you both. Stay safe out there, 015 Tarmac Junkie wishing you best 73s. Cheers John 👍🏻😎
Thanks Paul. It just goes to show.....You don't need a lot of money to get on the air.Take care Tarmac Junkie. 73's from Mower Junkie 151 SC.
Mobile to Mobile Test ... Rare Test .. with average Antenna's ... Outstanding ... Good Job
Thank you very much! We had a lot of fun making this video. 73's from 151 SC.
G'day Mower Junkie, reminds me of my first CB radio here in Australia, Roberts RCB 55, 23 channel with small magnetic base antenna... Not much distance!!
The problem with magnetic base antennas is the artificial ground, usually through a capacitor....an antenna with a proper electrical ground to the car body will work much better....
I can get distances mobile to base of 20 miles fairly easily with a standard radio and a 6 foot whip.... Even better with 9 foot stainless whip.
We only use uhf for highway use here in Australia, that radio would be great for highway work on channel 19 over there.
73 my friend.
US2317
Thanks Anthony. A set up like this really is just a basic, or beginner radio. But it does work well for what it is. Take care, 73's from 151 SC.
A setup kind of like that goes in my truck any time I travel. I've got a ham radio in there too but that cheap CB is always far more useful. It's no good in the city with too much static. But out in the middle of nowhere, one of the greatest things ever.
I agree! They certainly are a very useful tool to have when traveling. Take care, and thanks for watching.
Cb station absolutly beautiful......ciao ciao dall'Italia...
Thanks Rudy. Take care, 73's from 151 SC.
Will wonders never cease? What a bunch of good finds. Very good representation of both sides of the conversation. Of course, external speakers will make audio out sound great on both radios. That's my experience.
Nothing like cheap , especially when it works !!! Great video Mower Junkie
Thanks Dallas, Barbara and I both had fun testing this one.
I have a tiny Realistic TRC-439 in my truck for years. My brother in law gave it to me with a little mag antenna and mic. It’s little but mighty in performance for a radio Mabey worth $10.00. It gets out about 4-5 miles but I’ve chatted with many people and made lasting contacts in my travels over the years with it. It started the radio bug for me.
9WR2356 in Canada.
Thanks for sharing Your story Brian. it just goes to show, We can have fun and talk with some great people....even with a basic radio. Take care, 73's from 151 SC.
Pretty basic test, but surprisingly, it was quite interesting--used to do the same thing w/ walkie-talkies from the 70's, u know, the ones w/ a 9v battery. And although it wudn't be a "$7 set-up," the SAME test on SSB (as a comparison) wud be even more interesting!
Thank You. I will be doing more testing soon. Take care, 73's from 151 SC.
Hi Mower Junkie, I'm from the Netherlands, nice channel you have. Great to see your videos! Love that Realistic, beautiful radio. This is a nice test. A good example to see that weak AM signals still stand up very well in the noise. With FM it's different, with the squelch open, weak FM signals will be much harder to detect in the much louder noise that FM has. Weak AM signals last much longer while FM stutters and drops out. Here in Holland FM is common, it is good for local use and it suffers less from static. But I like AM much more, the much softer noise floor makes it nice to listen out weak stations with the squelch open. AM also has no 'capture effect' that FM does. Multiple FM stations simultaneously oppress each other and is a mess to hear, in AM that sounds much better and quieter. I also think that AM belongs to CB, it belongs to shortwave radio what CB really is. It gives me the real nostalgic shortwave radio feeling, with crackles and lightning in the distance. Greetings from Holland!
Now this is a good test for the guy that just got home with his new garage sale toy
Another diamond in the rough. Thanks for sharing with us
Thanks for watching, 73's from 151 SC.
So I have a 25 foot channel master push up mast and my Solarcon A99 is mounted on top of a 10 foot copper pipe. That puts the base of my antenna, when mounted to the mast at about 33 feet and the tip of the antenna at 50 feet. That puts it about 10 feet above the peak of the roof of my brick and wooden house. I just sunk an 8 foot copper grounding pole. I have 2 questions. 1) I'm assuming I should NOT isolate my antenna from the mast? 2) Would a ground plane kit add any value to my send and receive signals? It was heart warming to listen to you and your wife talk to each other.
Wow! it sounds like You did a great job installing Your A99. You're correct, You should not isolate the antenna from the mast. For local use, I did not notice any difference with or without a Ground plane on My antenna. But My antenna did do a lot better with DX, after I installed a ground plane kit. Thank You for the comment, My Wife really liked the last part. Take care, 73's from 151 + 268 SC.
@@MowerJunkie Well it isn’t up yet. I’m working on it. Thanks for responding.
The GE version was my first CB back in the 90s
Hehe this is my first cb as teenage ham radio operator trc-415 realistic in Poland Krakow in 1992 on a base antena avanto top one astroplane .. super radio .. i have 0..5..+10khz switch ... power regulation .. echo rogger beep rfgain and xtal filter 10.695 in receiver ... my first update to cb,s .. hehe .. good radio .. tnx 73 !
Got three of these for free.. two with the silver faceplates and one with the black. One works great, one less so and the third doesn't receive or transmit at all. Got the working one on my dash and it's a great little radio.
Nice! The TRC-415 is a nice little radio. Enjoy the hobby, 73's from 151 SC.
Great test and editing..
man the band has been gone for like 2 months up here.. maybe a couple real low signals.i hope it starts getting better. 73,kb3aum
It' been very quiet here too! Now and then I'll hear a single DX station come in for a minute....Then they're gone, and it goes quiet again! Come on Mother nature, Give us some DX!
I live in Quebec and I do receive a lot of DX skip from parts of USA (a lot from SC) EVERYDAY... on some channels it goes on & off in minutes. Other channels like the Superbowl ones (6 and 26) are opened all daylight. Too bad we are not heard in the South.
this is fun, thank you
Yup! My Wife and I both had fun with this video. Thanks for watching, 73's from 151 SC.
I used to have a realistic like the one with the wood grain face plate. Wish I would have kept it.
I hope You can find another one someday. Thanks for watching, Take care.
There is one cheap probably on eBay or Craigslist.
Great little system for beginners. Can't beat the price. I prefer my radios to have a few more features but hey that's just me.
You got that right."Great little system for beginners" I also prefer a more advanced radio, But We all have to start somewhere. Thanks for watching, 73's from 151 SC.
I'm surprised it worked that well! Have you ever reviewed a Uniden Bearcat 880 (AM) or 980 (SSB)? I usually advise a Bearcat as a first GOOD cb...
Unfortunately not, But I am hoping to get a 980 in the future. Thanks for watching, take care.
@@MowerJunkie Uniden 980 and President McKinley are both good SSB radios.
You should probably call this the Candy Crush video LOL. Great radio for $7 radio you can't go wrong. And from what I've seen on your s meter it looks like that Mobile Radio has not been clipped nor peaked. ..
Yeah I did work pretty good I got the markets in my rate is like that all the time have no luck with those antennas though but to them at Walmart and they just the ground and check the ground on the door not very good on the antenna
Just out of curiosity do you ever play with handheld cb radios?
If I had some handhelds I would do some testing with them, But unfortunately I don't have any yet. Thanks for watching, Take care.
@@MowerJunkie Some of the handhelds get out well if attached to a good external antenna.
The only thing is the receivers on them tend to be more dodgy.
Don't usually have features like ANL and NB.
That was my first radio back in 1986
Another awesome video thanks for the effort!
Glad you enjoyed it! We had a lot of fun doing this test. Take care, and Thanks for watching.
It is a very good quality antenna and a decent radio, middle coil - the highest efficiency. Antennas with a lower coil would not be able to do it. Even such 1.3 meters are weak.
Nowadays it is difficult to buy good and new AM radios, they are made too cheap and the modulation and the loudspeaker are of poor quality. FM radios have better sound quality, but the range is slightly worse. FM radios are much less "RF whistle".
Oh nice that is a setup similar to what I started with
Yup, it is best to start off with a basic setup. it's similar to what I started with too. Thanks for watching, 73's from 151 SC.
7 miles in a straight line? Or 7 on the odometer?
straight line miles, I use an online map to get the distance.
That's encouraging 👍what kinda radio was that? and you think it would get out better on a 102 whip 73s
It would do a lot better on a 102 whip. I used a Uniden Washington, a Realistic TRC-451 and a TRC-415
@@MowerJunkie thanks I looking at a small radio on ebay, put a bid in for $9 I've got the 102 whip👍
Now we will sit back and 🤞 my fingers
It's a small cobra radio
after all these videos, im finally watching actual display evidence...🍻🥇💵
Do you work on your cbs?
Yes, I do work on My radios, but only Mine. Thanks for watching, 73's from 151 SC.
Hey Mower!!! Good vid bro!!!
Thanks, We had a lot of fun with this one.
@@MowerJunkie Your welcome
heck I got some radios just cant find anyone around here to talk too
Keep trying, You may be surprised how many people are actually out there. Thanks for watching.
Diciembre 2022 ❤❤ tengo el mío guardado 😅
I just bought an antiana like that one
Mower Junky is short wave radio is good to listen to ham radio?
Yes, Short wave is good to listen to.....But it's even better if You talk on it. Thanks for watching, Take care.
@@MowerJunkie that's exactly what I was going to ask you. So whats the cheapest way to talk on Ham radio?
@@mindsway7036 CB radio is a form of short wave, and it's the cheapest and easiest to get started in. If You want to use the other bands You'll need to get a licence from the FCC.
i like it
Sounds a little under modulated, but hay, $7 who's complaining. If you do get it adjusted get it done by a professional who knows what they are doing and avoid power mics. It is not that bad mind you for an AM set. On that antenna it is not bad. EDIT: The windscreen is NOT the place to mount a CB, heat can make it drift and worse, blow the finals when being used as it wants to dump heat from inside the radio when transmitting, also the audio amplifier can overheat.
Exactly, it's just a $7 setup. at the end of the video I gave a warning about how it should NOT be mounted on the dash, because of how hot it can get. Take care, 73's from 151 SC.
@@MowerJunkie Yep, you did, just reinforcing it.
Hey that ain’t bad
Thank You. Take care, 73's from 151 SC.
My wife don't like Radios 😑
My Wife doesn't like the radio either, But she does like to help Me. Thanks for watching, 73's from 151 SC.
@@MowerJunkie oh ok 😏
@@MowerJunkie that's gold, right there.