r/cbradio

I know it's a dumb question, but wanted to be sure asking the pros.

I know the antenna needs to be straight up (perpendicular to the ground) and straight.

But I have a mag mount antenna in my car, positioned on top of a piece of metal that it's not straight; so, the antenna has an angle.

Some pics:

https://preview.redd.it/bmkceb3sejwg1.jpg?width=3060&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=71dcd61a2f95e5264316ed15ad7ed023aeb68608

https://preview.redd.it/oz1rgb3sejwg1.jpg?width=3060&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5f4ac6db223c6e70d5611a49a8f4bd3cab2b8670

https://preview.redd.it/noq56h3sejwg1.jpg?width=3060&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=265d1995b173dafc522063ec384628215fd056e4

What should I do:

• Leave it as it is, doesn't matters
• Mount it on the roof (the antenna will be too high and hit every single parking garage entrance, including at my home where I park, so it will be bent all night.
• Bend the antenna a little bit with pliers, so it's straight up (perpendicular to the ground)
• Change antenna (buy an antenna with a mount and put lower, like on the bullbar) = $$$ and time consuming as I have to remove the whole coax cable from inside the vehicle and change everything + expenses.

Side note: it looks like I already have hit a couple of branches or something.

Thanks in advance

I go off-roading in my 5th gen 4Runner a lot and I am looking for radio recommendations. Years ago I had the following in my Jeep, but I took a long break from off-roading and sold all my equipment along with my Jeep.

I had a Ham radio: Yaesu FTM-400 XDR - I really appreciated the built in APRS

A CB radio: Uniden CMX760 Bearcat - I liked having the controls on the mic instead of on the unit, so I could stash the unit somewhere out of the way

And one of these GMRS radios: (somehow I have information on buying all three, but maybe I returned or resold one or more because I only remember having one, but I'm not sure which one...) Midland Micromobile MXT115, MXT275, MXT400 - Similar to the CB radio, whichever one I used had the controls on the mic itself, so I could stash the radio unit out of the way

I am considering getting one or more again, but since that was probably 5-6 years ago I'm wondering if there are other options I should consider (either newer, better, more features, and/or cheaper).

I already have a few handheld radios (a BTech Ham HT, a Midland GMRS, and a Midland CB) so I'm not like hard-up on getting one or more of these, but in some cases it is nice to have the added range, quality, and features.

ETA: My reason for 'upgrading' from a handheld to a mobile radio is primarily range. I've got myself out of some sticky situations by using my Ham radio, and having more range on all the radios means I can reach people further, especially if our off-roading group is trying to meet up or gets split up and they can't reach each other on their handhelds. It is, admittedly, something I don't strictly need, as it's probably 75% me being a radio nerd, and 25% trying to find a fun and/or practical reason to have and use them.

I would like a cb radio for a road trip.

I am curious how well a handheld radio would work on the highway and some recommendations. Thanks.

I have a CRV and If I use a Mag mount I can't get the antenna in my garage.

So I'm wondering about mounting using a hood mount or something like that. My question is, if I use a hood mount I need a ground plane (not electrical but radio wave wise) is it the case that if I attach the antenna to the body of the car it will use the shape of the car as a ground plane? I'm imagining that it's not going to be as effective as a mag mount on a roof?

I'm not without some experience (Ham general license) but that doesn't mean I know everything and I am certainly still learning so much everyday. I'd love to know your opinions and experience. Thanks.

Tomorrow i'll finish my CB dipole, i got coax and connectors that i attached myself and other stuff (sorry english isnt my native language) and so on, but i have a few questions. How high do i put it, in what orientation do i put it for local or skip contacts and in what shape? ive heard inverted V works best..

Well I moved from Florida to the mountains of NC and my conditions took a shit. Back in Florida if the sun was out, you could go on 27.385 and it would be a madhouse of stations. Keep in mind my antenna was only 22 feet off the ground. Up here in NC it’s dead. I understand we’re on the down turn of the cycle but them web SDRS Down south are rockin and rollin compared to my receive. You guys in the mountains got any tricks? I feel spoiled getting the chance to experience the solor maximum down south.

Hi guys I need a bit of advice, i have a Anytone ARES11 and would like to run it through a SDR switch box but i need a PTT female jack at the back, now? could I connect the ground and TX wire from the panel of the radio and solder x2 wires to a jack for the SDR PTT without hurting the radio? Cheers All 73

Hi!

These last few weeks have been interesting!

We have seen the return of Fine Tune CB Shop's number one antagonist jamming channel 19.

Yes, It's "Walkie Talkie Jockey" and he is back. Playing music, raising cain. Same story, different day. This way we get to hear the Fine Tune CB saga all over again on channel 19. He was also making fun of Fine Tune CB for having to issue more refunds, as forced by the state of New Mexico.

And of course He was also an antagonist of DX Radio Shop. Remember when Mr. Soura was going to be flying to Texas to sign papers on Mr. Neely? (Walkie Talkie Jockey)
Perhaps he missed his flight. Walkie Talkie Jockey is supposed to be in jail, after all.
He was signing papers for him to be arrested. That never happened.
I think "204 Ground Control" was another one that Mr. Soura here was supposed to have arrested. I don't think the system works like the think it does.

Of course, we are hearing this now with SLC Radio and Cables.
Like Mr. Neely, he is also supposed to have been arrested/jailed/have restraining orders/lawsuits pending against him. No proof of any of it. Just his word on a livestream that he has bodycam footage of a process server getting some negative reaction out of SLC radio and cables. He won't show any proof of this stuff. But, the clerks at the Wayne County counrthouse did help me navigate the "NYSCEF" system which was certainly .... "revealing".

He is also moving some of the more controversial repairs - like some of the ones below - into a higher "tier" and even into the $99.99 a month tier. I am sure it's not to "hide" them after all, but if you want to watch some radios get serviced poorly or not at all, you are going to have to pay him for it.

And, as always a common thread these days, all roads with the jammers, and misbehaving CBers seem to lead to DX Radio shop and his myriad of throwaway shill accounts like RadioTech101 and VictorHernandez, as an example. Just read other CB shops' youtube comments and you will find a common thread.

Now we can get into the things that should make anyone stop and think before even looking in his direction. We really need a PSA on this subreddit like we had for Fine Tune CB.

Mr. Soura. Wow. all trouble revolves around him. He has started talking about the "sponsors" again. Thanks to my sponsors! - Never names a sponsor. If they were being sponsored you would think they at least demand a banner, mentions, the "sales" pitch. What this means? No sponsors. It's not real. Then there is the constant ranting about "SLC" or "New Hampshire". Advertisers don't want him complaining about a rival shop. THEY want to be mentioned, and he never EVER mentions one! They also do not want controversy, and every single video and post he produces has a controversy in it.

Lately he has been extremely paranoid about his viewership numbers. When someone posted some numbers and how they came to the conclusion, his rebuttal was to do it the same way, for a different range, so his number looked better. He even had to go live and make an entire video about his numbers, for "Jerry's sake" - because somehow "Jerry" may have been upset about it or "Jerry" needed this video for emotional support, which is downright STRANGE! In other words, he didn't have a problem with how it was done, since he did his the same way after all, he just decided to do what anyone that is trying to be manipulative does... move the goalposts, Just like with the degrees that are now diplomas, but its only one, so it can't be diploma"S" - and its a (single) certificate of participation. It says that right on the thing. He has only ever displayed one, that he calls diplomas - plural. The second one is invisible, I guess. Basic english escapes some of us.

I love the security door that leads into into a vestibule that's literally a fire trap - and he can't stop talking about how great it is. Heaven forbid they have a fire in that place and can't get out. It's going to have a biometric access system, on a plain wood entry door, with a giant glass window... to stop a thief. I bet there is no permit for any of that work, because it would probably not pass. He has a circuit panel thta's up real high.. and looks questionable.... from the NEC:

"240.24(A) Accessibility. Circuit breakers and switches containing fuses shall be readily accessible and installed so that the center of the grip of the operating handle of the switch or circuit breaker, when in its highest position, is not more than 2.0 m (6 ft 7 in.) above the floor or working platform,...."

The way he operates, rules for thee not for me. Some of us do have degrees. Real ones. Beyond "participation" .....

Now, Radios that were .... well, read on.

1. He nearly destroyed a Uniden PC68 with a used bad part from his junk pile.

He did some strange juggling with charging $20, then discounting the $20 for a diode he caused the failure of (by his own admission), and then somehow tries to assign some blame to "trolls" in a really weird almost 10 minute speech about the diode and his label that he writes the $20 discount on to "prove" it, so "trolls" would photoshop the label onto other radios - some paranoia he was having at the time. It was done with such "brio" or vivacity, that he is a great guy for charging $20 for a diode (whoa) and then discounting the $20 for the same diode, but he really didn't have to do it. It was like a game to him. I found it extremely disturbing.

2. The "Yaesu" phone call.

Where do I even start with this somewhat dubious call. If you pay close attention he gives the caller a go ahead signal to make the call. Same situation as the "NJ Kid" with the Galaxy radio that a transporter was used on. An awful lot of clearly scripted dialogue. Caller says Yaesu watches his videos, Yaesu only recommends him, Yaesu says he is "certified", etc etc. There was more praise of DX Radio Shop supposedly from Yaesu and this "customer" than there was dialogue about the actual radio, who he was, and where he was all combined.

3. The Bearcat scanner. Same video the above call came in on.

Happens to be a supposedly "new unused" scanner, already programmed for his area - said it was a "local" customer, and has a specific pin de-soldered on the audio amplifier. Cleanly de-soldered. you could tell it had been soldered up until recently. he went right to it. Real obvious. The livestream was even titled with the issue before he even opened it, which means he did, then closed it back up for the stream. He already knew what the problem and solution were. He just sat there and scraped at the board in random places until the call above came in.

4. The Stryker radio that has some problem that I am not sure about. It was also for sale.

The signal meter was showing signals when it was not connected to anything, but it had a "professional" alignment done. Something was and probably still is wrong with that radio. Might be sold by now, and will have to be repaired by someone else.

5. The "President Richards" - which by the way is a President "Richard" not "Richards".

You can tell when he reveals something that he realizes he should not have. He makes this really strange claim that a cable that is in a locking connector came out of that locked connector with no damage, because somehow the short the customer created did that. Shorts now unlock, and relock connectors., I guess. When he starts to stammer and search for an excuse pay close attention because he did something he should not have, or showed something he should not have, which gives me a perfect segue into the Galaxy 88.

7. A Galaxy 88 and the "+10Khz" button, and banning the user that DARE ASK about it.

It's clearly established, documented, undisputed, and well known for decades, to the dawn of the internet that these Galaxy "+10Khz" switches do exactly as they are labeled to do. I could not find a case where it did not do this. They add 10Khz, or go up one channel. He had a radio that worked backwards. He was acting very strange, demoing how this particular 10Khz switch worked. No other feature just straight to that. It would actually go down 10Khz, not up. By the time he stopped talking about it in every single video and post (other people still are) he had SEXTUPLED down on this being normal behavior. He screwed up this 88, which remains screwed up.

NOTE: When this stream was live, near the end, after 7 minutes, he got a text message, obviously because someone in the live comments asked about why the 10Khz was backwards. I was watching it live, and I saw the question. The text message jingle on his phone came around 30 seconds later. He glanced, grabbed his mouse and deleted the question and I would assume, banned the user. I watched the comment disappear on my screen. It was not a "starred" or "member" account. He then hustled to end the stream quickly - I would say less than a minute. One of his fastest endings I believe. This is the second time I have seen him initiating something in the reflections from his own service monitor.

Anyway, we can see how the "nightmare" 88 repair ended up based on this and he had to "shotgun" that one, so we segue into .....

6. A Galaxy 88 he dubbed a "Nightmare"

On this radio he performs "upgrades" - the same thing that he attacks others for. He upgraded the frequency counter module, and a second board with 2x DIP packages that I see are 4-Bit adders. He said that there was a board with "newer, more stable" chips that he installed. I found 2 versions of that board, both used the same MC14008 4-Bit adders, one being a DIP and the other an SOP. Neither is an "upgrade" to the other. He later calls it an "EEPROM". Then he points at "shorted" trimmers. To have two of them in one radio is like winning the lottery. He says these two, with a bad mixer, was causing the radio to "key up" when he switched to sideband mode. He then says it had problems with SSB receive, so he replaced a 455Khz filter, which is used exclusively in the AM/FM signal path. What is so bad, is these two boards he replaced that he admits had nothing wrong with them, and not for free. Also, he NEVER EVER showed or did any videos on these two 88 radios. He never showed his work. but, to be a "honest" and "certified", and [insert whatever other bs corporate buzzwords he uses] , you have to live stream your work. Where are these radios? Just absent. do as I say not as I do, right? Comment, and video deletions are also quite common still.

8. The WORST OF THE WORST. The President Lincoln II

This is by far, I think the worst so far. But, we have time left in 2026 for him to surpass this one. Actual physical damage to a working radio rendering one of its features (the 11M mod) destroyed. Then, in some kind of retrocausality, the customer, that was nowhere near him, likely in another state, somehow caused him to ruin the radio. Customers fault. He caused me to do it. It was working, now it isn't. He doesn't need it, he has plenty of radios.

All stuff he said live. Complete lack of responsibility.

I want to point out that these radio tragedies occurred in the last month alone.

Another thing to point out is his extreme use of AI now. He pastes AI results from Google searches for his critics into posts, which he says, Google cannot be wrong. I was able to recreate the same results. When I asked a follow-up to get citations, it replied with various social media posts, and gave me the links to ... guess where? The DX Radio Shop facebook page and those exact posts, with the information that it cited. He did the same thing with the 10Khz switch on a Galaxy radio. I also recreated that response, and I also got the citations that it used, and it went to old pages and forum posts where people were having trouble FIXING the 10Khz switch, because it was misbehaving, and like most AIs will do now, try to please the human asking the question, so it tells him exactly what it thinks he wants, because it already knows that he is looking for anything negative on his critics, and it will hallucinate and give it to him. I had to tailor the question to give it the hint that I wanted it to validate that the switch is supposed to do -10Khz, which it gladly did.

As always, BEWARE wolves in sheeps clothing.

I currently have a cobra 29 in my freightlinner cascadia using the trucks stock antenna. I’m looking to upgrade to a better antenna to upgrade too.