Potter County Man
Member
Back in the early days of the Citizen Band radio,, when all the radios used crystals and tubes, if a man did not have things right, he turned his new found hobby into a worthless piece of junk.
Sometime after 1972 when solid state technology caught up to the radio world and CB radios were operated with just 3 crystals - they incorporated a circuit into the radio which folded back the power when the nominal impedance was not 50 ohm.
A 3' antenna would be a fraction of a wavelength, maybe you are confusing this with a base loaded whip antenna, maybe with a mag mount.
Regardless of which radio you own, if the antenna is not resonant, it isn't going to talk very far and it isn't going to last very long.
In the early days of CB - the hams often times helped the CB'rs to get started and many of them opened CB radio repair shops that included installations.
The people that paid to have their radio set up installed - usually had good signals.
Where as the people that put up their own antenna and did not know what they were doing - caused the CB radio repair shop grief and made many people rich!
There was more money to be made repairing CB's then there was in selling them!
When the price dropped from $100 - $500 down to $35.00 - the number of CB radio repair shops diminished and today are almost non existent.
My radio talks half way around the world with just 100 watts - which I do on a almost daily basis, so if your 4 watt radio talks 15 miles, that isn't anything to brag about!
Transmission and reception is dependent upon Location Location Location...
You don't put up a 3' whip on a pipe stuck in the ground, a couple of feet off the ground and expect it to talk anywhere.
Sometime after 1972 when solid state technology caught up to the radio world and CB radios were operated with just 3 crystals - they incorporated a circuit into the radio which folded back the power when the nominal impedance was not 50 ohm.
A 3' antenna would be a fraction of a wavelength, maybe you are confusing this with a base loaded whip antenna, maybe with a mag mount.
Regardless of which radio you own, if the antenna is not resonant, it isn't going to talk very far and it isn't going to last very long.
In the early days of CB - the hams often times helped the CB'rs to get started and many of them opened CB radio repair shops that included installations.
The people that paid to have their radio set up installed - usually had good signals.
Where as the people that put up their own antenna and did not know what they were doing - caused the CB radio repair shop grief and made many people rich!
There was more money to be made repairing CB's then there was in selling them!
When the price dropped from $100 - $500 down to $35.00 - the number of CB radio repair shops diminished and today are almost non existent.
My radio talks half way around the world with just 100 watts - which I do on a almost daily basis, so if your 4 watt radio talks 15 miles, that isn't anything to brag about!
Transmission and reception is dependent upon Location Location Location...
You don't put up a 3' whip on a pipe stuck in the ground, a couple of feet off the ground and expect it to talk anywhere.
