GE 3-5812A

[DSD]

Saw a GE 3-5812A for sale locally. Anyone got oppinions on this radio, Does it have much potential? Also how much would be too much to pay for one?

Hey Todd...

As I've said many times...I love the older radios/rigs.

This is one that I would pass on for one that more up to date.

IMHO...paying anything over $20 is too much.

Bombero

[DSD]

Well I ended up picking it up before I saw this. I only paid $20 so I guess its not so bad. On the plus side it seems to work real well, was picking up a guy in Lake Charles LA just a bit ago when I was testing it. Now I just have to convince the Mrs to let me get a better antenna then the mag mount cb20 I've been using now

-- Monday, 29 June 2015, 9:30 AM --

So I guess the next questions is the antenna and mount, I'll be using this in the trucks at work and I'm never in the same one so it needs to be real easy to set up and take down. A lot of the guys use the vise grip style mount because most of the trucks have a 1/2" round x 4" stainless stud coming off the top of the cab. What I don't know is if that is grounded, I'm assuming that if it isn't I would want to run a ground wire with the coax right? I was planning on putting a 5.5' Hot Rod on it because we're only allowed to use a less than 6 ft antenna, also it will need to be leaned forward to stay under the 13'6" mark, which is another requirement. I say forward because thats what everyone else seems to do, is there a reason for that?

[MDYoungblood]

That wasn't a bad deal, $20 was about what I would give depending on condition. The vise grip temp mount is okay as long as what you lock it on is grounded. I have seen them vibrate off, I'd wrap tape on the handle to keep it from popping open. Leaning the antenna forward does help with SWR, a lot of times you can get a good SWR be leaning and don't have to adjust the antenna.

3's

Greg

[DSD]

So I got a 5' skipshooter and the vise grip mount and set it all up on a few of the trucks I have driven in the last week or so, but I can't seem to get the SWR down to less then like 3.25 or so. None of these trucks are very well grounded it seems so I ran a wire from the vise grip mount and hook that in with the radio ground, but that doesn't seem to really help.


I've poked around with my multi meter some, but I'm not really sure what I looking for. One thing I did see that I don't think is right is that there is no continuity between the radio ground black wire and the outside of the coax connector on the radio. There is supposed to be right? I was also thinking about getting rid of the cigarette lighter plug and getting ones for the banana jacks that are provided for radio power in the trucks and see if that helps any.

Any suggestions on where to go from here would be hugely helpful, just keep in mind anything I do has to be easily removable at the end of my shift so I can take it with me.

Hey DSD..

Change it over to the banana plugs and get rid of the lighter plug and see what ya get.

Good Luck.

Bombero

[MDYoungblood]

If the SWR doesn't seem to change from truck to truck I would take a good look at the coax, might be pinched somewhere along the length or a connector might be bad. You didn't say what you were using for a meter, I wouldn't put my faith in a garage sale radio's internal meter. If your antenna setup has a spring on it , remove it and check the SWR.

3's

Greg

[DSD]

So things have been a bit busy at work lately, which is why I haven't had a chance to get back here. I've applyed to a postion that would be a promotion and would mean I would be assigned a truck which should make this quite a bit easyer. You were asking about the meter I'm using, its a workman SWR-3p. I'll also be ditching the cig lighter plug before the next round of testing.