I would ask someone to tune it and give them a few bucks but I havent found anyone with a swr meter yet or a cb on their car. Im in the city theres not much someone needs a cb for. Your setup is def over kill I mean damn man its a cb not a nasa communication device you range isnt even over 5 miles so all that work for such a small range isnt worth it.

 

Try...
Tom's Radio Service
248 Doat St
Buffalo, NY
716-893-2505

Actually I am a Ham, and a Tech (both computer, and radio). So that device is part of my toolset. Since I like playing with low power (QRP) having your antenna tuned correctly is a must if you want to get out as well as receive (yes tuning works both ways). Bottom line a properly tuned, and decent antenna with 4W of power you can easily get more than 5mi. Under the proper atmospheric conditions you can talk skip to the West Coast.

 

KF thanks Ill give him a call but damn Doat street my jeep isnt armored. I dont know about talking to the west coast though.

 

No problem. Well from what I've read Buffalo is much like Newark (or Camden, or Paterson) here in Jersey. You don't need armor (well maybe an IBA), just a heavy right foot..

As for talking to the West Coast, and Europe... I've done it on 5W (PSK31 aka Digital Data), and 25W SSB from the Jeep. Didn't do anything fancy. Just have to watch for the right conditions. No fancy amp, no antenna made with snake oil with coils the size of a Fosters can. For our purposes a decent radio, and a 102" whip antenna all properly tuned will get you good distance. Like playing with stereos the headunit is only as good as the speakers. A good set of speakers will make even the cheapest stereo sound like a million bucks.

 

Yeh KF I have a ham radio which was tuned by my uncle way back when and a 60 foot antenna that they no longer allow nor make that thing was getting down to the carolinas and hitting all over the place it was crazy. I was thinking about putting that in the truck but Ill just save it for the house later when I move down south.

 

Cool. What do you mean by tuned? Ham rigs are pretty much ready to go out of the box unless he did a MARS/CAP* mod which just unlocking the transmitter to work out of band. The 60' antenna is it a flagpole, or a tower? If the radio is a Ham rig you will have to run it straight to the battery. My ICOM pulls close to 20A which would fry the average electrical system. If the radio is a Galaxy, or Ranger it's not a Ham rig.

*Military Auxiliary Radio System/Civil Air Patrol