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Newbie here.

P

pistolero

Member
Apr 16, 2013
54
2
18
Raleigh, NC
Hello out there!
I Bought a Jeep Cherokee a couple of weeks ago and I'm going to be doing some offroading, figured some com equipment might be a good idea. Have an order coming. Bought a Uniden 980SSB, a Midland 75 822, and a couple of cheap Cobra magnet mount antennas. (I know better now, I was in a hurry. :redface: )
New to all this CB stuff. Can't wait till my stuff gets here.
 

Welcome to the hobby. Don't worry right away about the cobra antennas. You will have a lot of fun with the 980 and when you see fit..upgrade the antenna. I would do that before anything else. Have fun and if you ever have any questions there are a lot of good people here that I am sure would answer and questions and help you out.
 
pistolero said:
Black 2003 Grand Cherokee Limited 4.7l HO. Stock so far, except for an exhaust I just got installed this morning. (High-flow Magnaflow converter, Flowmaster series 70, 3" tubing, sounds cool.) Lift and tires to come.
Click to expand...

I've got a BC980 and some 33s for my 1st gen Tacoma. You're gonna probably want a good magnet mount on top of that Cherokee, too.
 
I had a 2000 XJ (gonna get another one someday) and ran a 2950DX into a Wilson 1000 roof mount. I ran a mag mount before that. I mounted my radio between the visors. Not sure if yours has an console thingy above or not.

There are some good radio install pics on the various Jeep forums, all flavor of jeeps included. Whenever I hit the trail, I just unscrewed the coil if I thought the trail would knock it off. If you ever drop your fuel tank, put some ferrites on your fuel pump wires. Can't recall the brand, but Carquest Auto Parts sells a line of pumps that are RFI filtered. That fuel pump whine will drive you nuts on AM.

Anyways, welcome!
 
It's here. Well the radios and the smaller antenna are here. The 3' Cobra is still in the mail I guess. Of course when I got back to the house it was storming and now it's dark so the Uniden isn't installed in the Jeep yet.
Hooked up the 75 822 to the 21" antenna and the lighter jack on the way back to the house. Not really any traffic that I heard scanning. The weather radio function works well though.
 
Welcome to the board !! The radios you have are good little rigs...and SSB mode will be a huge help in your contact range....Look into getting different antennas when able,the Wilson antennas mentioned above would be good ones to use.

Also be sure to set the swr on the antennas as well,you can have the best antenna in the world,but if it isnt tuned properly you wont be able to get a signal in the air
 
welcome to the hobby.

if you havent figured it out yet, you soon will, that the caveat to CB radio and offroading is that to have a good range with your radio, you need a big antenna.

but big antennas get smacked on trees and rocks and whatever else you happen to lean into on a trail.

the general rule for mobile antenna length is that the whip itself must be 48" or longer.
antennas shorter than that have pretty large losses, and your signal wont get out very far at all. 5-10 miles depending on terrain.

thats ok for talking to someone that is on the trail with you, but if you ever got way out in the boonies, out of cell range, and stuck alone, you are going to want a radio and antenna setup that will allow you to reach the main highway from wherever you are.

the reason i bring all this up is to show you that one radio system will not be enough for all your needs.

the mag mounts will be fine for short distance comms, but you should consider getting something like the wilson 5000 hard mounted to your roof.
you can always unscrew the antenna from the mount until you need it.

you should also consider some sort of GMRS/FRS/ or maybe even a ham radio (with license).

if/when you catch the radio bug bug time, you will probably want an amp for your jeep.

good luck,
LC
 
Thanks again for all the info and welcomes.
I got the 980 hooked up today and played with it some. Can hear quite a bit, but can't get anyone to talk back to me yet. Not really a surprise I suppose, with a 21" magmount antenna. Went through the calibrations and diagnostics on the 980 and it passes everything and claims SWR at 1.0 with the Cobra magmount. It's just too small I guess.

The Midland handheld receives pretty well. But with the tiny antenna it only communicates with the Jeep for less than a 1/2 mile. When I get a better ant for the Jeep I'll hook the 21" external to the Midland.
 
Well, in a roundabout way I have it all hooked up sorta. :blink:
Went to Radio Shack yesterday and picked up a 66" whip. Found a truck stop down the road that has some CB stuff and got a "Road Pro" or something like that magnetic base. Couldn't get the SWR under 2.5 or so no matter what. Chopped that whip up trying. Took the base back and exchanged it for a Little Will. SWR = 1.0 all across 40 channels. Picked up the Cobra 36" I originally ordered, same deal, 1.0s everywhere no tuning needed.
Put the Cobra ant on the old lady's Mazda and my boy with the handheld in it. Talked fine between the two out to about three miles from the house.

Hearing lots of traffic but still can't get anyone to talk to me. I'll try on sideband tonight probably.
 

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