New to base stations need a lot of help

[Maryland32]

I want to set up a base station. I was looking at the galaxy's. Are they worth or or should I be led in another direction? I been shopping and reading on basic stuff. I am curious of the extra stuff. I see you all talk about amplifiers and some different components. Other than the radio and antenna. What do I need to really get some distance? The tricks of the trade if you will. Also what kind kid wattage should I expect to put out? Can they be tweaked? My truck radio puts out around 42 watts! Thanks for the newbie patience

[ironman1956]

I personally would go a different route. Here is what I did. My base has only been up for about 5 weeks. I purchased a new Uniden Bearcat 980 ssb for 126.00 delivered to my door. I purchased a new Sirio GPE 27 5/8 wave antenna for 79.00 and put the antenna 47 feet in the air. I use a Pyramid 12 volt power supply. These radios only pull about 2 amps or so since they are solid state. You cannot get range on just watts but a good antenna will definitely yield some good results. I had to do it on a budget so this is how I went. I have made over 70 contacts in just a few weeks from Monterrey Mexico to Hawaii and Florida and on into Canada with this barefoot rig. I dead key 2.5 watts and forward drive under modulation about 7. You will hear many people saying that you cannot modify a Unident Bearcat 980 ssb and I will be darned if I let someone into this radio with a screwdriver. It works wonderful out of the box.

[Maryland32]

Great. thanks for the Advice. After I made my first post I learned what the cobra 142 and the Uniden presidential radio was. I was considering going vintage but those things are top $. May as well get new. now I understand the antenna and location is more critical than "Peak" ing a radio console. The 9800ssb looks like a nice radio. I assume you needed a power supply to run that radio in the house since its a mobile radio? Would I need any time of power amplifier with a actual Base setup?

[Maryland32]

so really if I set up a antenna and buy a power source I can bring my radio from my truck to the house. How will this perform for me being peaked with a good antenna ?

[Deleted User 14541]

The antenna is what really gives you distance. What are you wanting out of a radio? Are you a ssb user?

If you are an AM only guy I like a cobra 29. If you want a radio with bells and whistles I'm really impressed with the Stryker 955. Very good AM performance and very stable SSB radio. It does about 60 watts out of the box and in my opinion it needs no tuning. Alot of guys max them out to get more power but the audio quality suffers. If you did want to run an amp with this radio it will be a big one....not such a bad thing. You could drive a 6 or 8 pill with it and everything would run cool and clean.

As for an antenna the a99 and I max 2000 are popular. They work decent and are very easy to set up. An aluminum ground plane like a maco v58 will perform even better...unless you goof up the install. It takes more time to set up. If you get it right and seal all your connections it will serve you well. You can find the instruction manual online to help you decide if it's for you.

[ironman1956]

Amps are cheap these days. You can get the new RM KL60 amps for about 60.00 to 70.00 delivered to your door with a ssb switch on them. That does not sound like much but kicking out 60 watts on ssb versus 12 and 25 watts am versus 4 does make a difference with a good antenna. Many users are using the KL203 amps. You can look them up and they put out much more wattage. The KL 60 amps only use 4 watts and your radio pulls about 3 so a 10 am Pyramid power supply which can hold 10 but maintain a 12 amp surge is all you need to run the linear and radio. It is the way I went since there are so few base stations made today. Most people are running mobiles hooked to a power supply. It is also a great idea in an emergency situation such as Katrina. You can run them off of a car battery.

[jessejamesdallas]

Kinda all depends on exactly what you want in a Base...I've been into CB Radios since the Mid 70's, but mostly Mobile radios, and not so much the base's...Year before last, I decided I wanted to set-up a Base, and for the radio I wanted a Cobra 2000 GTL, which haven't been made since around 1999-2000. So this would mean getting a "Used" radio, which I hate doing because you really have no idea if any ones been inside the thing with their Golden Screwdriver.

But found one on ebay after looking for months that looked clean, and the seller said he bought it New, but hadn't used the thing in years...Plus, "He said" it had never been P&T or nothing...Just straight out of the box condition...He was asking $300 for it with one speaker and original hand Mic, so I gambled and bought it, and it turned out to be one of the best dissensions and purchases I ever made off ebay!

Next I bought a .64 Ground plane antenna from Mr.Coily, and a 30' tower, and a small 1x3 tube amp...Thing brought in stations from every direction across the Country...Which normally you would think that's a Good-Thing, but not so much...With stations on the West-side coming in at 20db+ at the same time stations on the East-side are coming in at 20db+, makes for one big train wreck...You literally can't make out what anyone is saying.

So then after about a month of this, I decided it was time for a Beam Antenna...After lot's of research on which type of Beam to go with, I decided on a Quad..."Lightning L4 quad"...Why? Because Lightnings L4 Quad is dual-polarity, meaning using a antenna switch, you can switch between Horizontal polarization, and vertical polarization with just the flip of a switch, and only have to have the one antenna.

Vertical is what you want to talk local, and Horizontal is what you want for DX...You can talk DX with vertical polarization this is true, but horizontal usually is a little less noisy...

Another thing about Beam antenna's is the multiplication factor...The more elements your beam has, the stronger the signal...However there's a trade-off to this...The more elements the beam has, the narrower your signal pattern gets...So lets say you have a 3 element beam for instance...You could point it in the general direction of NY City, and be able to talk to the whole upper east coast from the Carolina's to Maine without moving the antenna...But if you had something like a 8 element beam, if your pointed at NY City, that's about all your going to be able to hear and talk to unless you move the antenna...But for the guys you talk to in NY, your going to be right up in their drive-way!

This is my L4 quad, on a 40' tower and with the mast it's up just under 50' to the boom. The L4 has a 30x multiplication factor...in a nut-shell, that means the people that hear you on the other end will hear you at 30 times the actual watts your putting out...
My quad...(click on pic)


So in my case...I have a amp that does 400w's...That x 30 and I sound like I'm doing 12,000w's to the receiving stations! Granted, Mother Nature has a big-say in just how good you sound on the other end, there's been times when I've got the channel on lock-down, only to have some yo-yo with a 4w radio cut my lips off, just because Mother Nature moved around on me and pulled my plug.

Vertical antenna's have no multiplication factor because they only have the one element, so to get the most out of a vertical, you want to go with the tallest one available since "Height is Might"...And that would be either the .64 wave, or 5/8 wave (both are around 21' tall)...Just remember your going to be picking up signals from every direction at the same time...Or rather "Can" pick up signals from every direction.

[wild willy]

Depends on where you live. If you live very close to your neighbors, you have to watch what you are transmitting.I was barely over and my friends heard me loud and clear. Keep your modulation 100% or less and that with a good ground will help. Just remember, what you can get away with in your mobile, will not be the same in your home. Just my 02cents from my own experiences. Good Luck!

[jessejamesdallas]

Depends on where you live. If you live very close to your neighbors, you have to watch what you are transmitting.I was barely over and my friends heard me loud and clear. Keep your modulation 100% or less and that with a good ground will help. Just remember, what you can get away with in your mobile, will not be the same in your home. Just my 02cents from my own experiences. Good Luck!

Good point...specially with a Base...Over modulated radios are bad about getting into electronics you don't want to be getting into! Like neighbors TV sets and computer speakers! And when you feed a over modulated "peaked & tweaked" radio into a Amp at the house, you could make your neighbor's angry enough to turn you into Uncle Charley... this is not a good thing.

[Maryland32]

Wow you guys are incredible. Very nice systems. Yes I was looking for something much farther down the rookie line. How would a a99 antenna do with a mobile unit peaked to 40w with a power supply . roughly 45ft maybe a little higher on roof? I'm near Baltimore Md. and I heard people today while driving from Kentucky and Louisiana. Except now I'd like to talk back!

[Deleted User 14541]

Hot rod radios and crummy amplifiers will make you the most hated guy in the neighborhood. Another good thing about a 5/8 ground plane is its less prone to causing neighbor problems than an a99 or imax. If you go with a beam it can also help by allowing you to point away from the troubled neighbor.

[MDYoungblood]

Hello Maryland32,
Welcome to the forum. I'm with 543, don't scrimp on the antenna, one thing you don't want to do is keep climbing up on the roof. A good ground plane will beat the Imax or Antron, (both the same maker). Get quality coax too. Using the mobile is what most do at first, I used one for years when I first got into radios.
I'm in NE Baltimore, you will hear me on 38lsb most evenings, you have a couple stations down your way on the same channel. Catch you on the air.
As a new member could you write an intro in the "Welcome to the Forum" topic, http://www.cbradiotalk.com/viewforum.php?f=89 , so others can say "Hello".
3's

Greg

[The DB]

When it comes to base antennas, you don't need to go expensive to have a descent antenna. Look at the T2LT design, for example. It is little more than a piece of coax that has been stripped on the end, and a coil made to specific instructions. Many people have made these and love them. Although they do have the disadvantage of needing to be mounted from their tip, unlike most other base verticals which are designed to be mounted from their base and rise from there. As they say, height is might.

When it comes to DX you can easily make a horizontal wire dipole. It doesn't take much to make, and will work very well for a first antenna. Just string it up between two trees or a tree and a house, or whatever you have to string it between.

You definitely want a good antenna, but you don't necessarily have to pay an arm and a leg to get one.


The DB

[ironman1956]

I love my Sirio 27GPE for 79.00 and it is rated a 5/8 ground plane. I think if you use your mobile and a power supply and get some decent coax and a good ground plane you should be in business. Many people use the Maco V58 I believe. Thankyou Jesse James Dallas for your post for I did not understand beams very much until I read your post.
Here is the formula for adding wattage to your rig. Take what wattage you cranked up to divided by your original of 4 watts , take the log of that and times it by 10, now you have your new decibel level you are putting out. So if you take a 25 watt linear on am divided by 4 you get a 7.95 decibel increase. Now lets say you are using a 200 watt linear divided by the radio input of 4 watts is equal 50 , then take the log of that X 10 = 16.9 decibels increase, so you see that a 200 watt linear will not put out 8 times what a 25 watt linear does. It does not work that way. I have always heard guys say that the first 100 watts are your best. Any comments would be appreciated.

-- Tuesday, 11 November 2014, 12:29 PM --

I love my Sirio 27GPE for 79.00 and it is rated a 5/8 ground plane. I think if you use your mobile and a power supply and get some decent coax and a good ground plane you should be in business. Many people use the Maco V58 I believe. Thankyou Jesse James Dallas for your post for I did not understand beams very much until I read your post.
Here is the formula for adding wattage to your rig. Take what wattage you cranked up to divided by your original of 4 watts , take the log of that and times it by 10, now you have your new decibel level you are putting out. So if you take a 25 watt linear on am divided by 4 you get a 7.95 decibel increase. Now lets say you are using a 200 watt linear divided by the radio input of 4 watts is equal 50 , then take the log of that X 10 = 16.9 decibels increase, so you see that a 200 watt linear will not put out 8 times what a 25 watt linear does. It does not work that way. I have always heard guys say that the first 100 watts are your best. Any comments would be appreciated.

P.S. If you are on a budget I bought my diplole for 8.95 on ebay and used the grey electrical 1/2 inch conduit with a t connector to put it into the air so the radials would stand out like the shape of a t. They are made of wire and your PL-259 screws right on to them and you do not have to ground them. Just thought I would throw that in.

[Ragwire]

...You will hear many people saying that you cannot modify a Unident Bearcat 980 ssb and I will be darned if I let someone into this radio with a screwdriver. It works wonderful out of the box.

Apparently, you can tweak the power and modulation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Esatm-X88B8

73
Rob

[Toyman]

I have a Uniden Bearcat 880 and same results as before mentioned but I use a Imaxx2000. Then I use a few other radios from a 929 to a old tuber Robyn T240D.

[poboy309]

I started with a wire dipole inverted v, a grant lt and a power supply. I now have a horizontal wire dipole. I've talked all over the country with it. With a little more power, I've reached Australia on ssb. Even if you get a vertical, you can still make a horizontal for cheap and try it out.
I've been lucky with switching power supplies. No noise on the cb band.

[1206FL]

Ragwire, I would not tweak the power on the uniden 980. If anything turn it back a bit. 3 watts dead key on am, 100% modulation, and on SSB I have turned mine back to 10 watts. The final in the 980 is over rated at 15 watts. It will do 15-18 watts on SSB. But that final will heat up quick. Also have have been hearing about a lot of guys blowing the finals in these radios even stock after 6-8 months of use. Guess I have been lucky, but they aren't a powerhouse radio. For $106 you won't find a cheaper SSB radio radio brand new though. And besides. No one will tell the difference between 10 watts and 20 or 30 watts. It would take an increase to 50 watts from stock to make any real difference to the receiving station. You can open the clarifier. Good radio, just not built for power from the factory. JMHO.

[1206FL]

Sorry Ragwire, this is more for ironman1956.