My mom got an old CB at a garage sale for like 50 cents. No antenna, but it came with a microphone and my ps2 power cord fits it.

It's got 40 channels.

Theres a delta tune dial, with a - 0 and + setting. What does this do?

What can I use for an antenna for this? I tried some speaker wire but I didn't get anything.

What does the PA mode do?

How far away should I be able to get signals, and what kind will I be able to get? Can I get police band? Truckers? I live near a major road where a lot of big trucks go by, so I'd expect to get something.

What can I do with this thing?

You can get truckers. You can go to the radio shack and get a cheap antenna or just use 7.5 ft of speaker wire. The truckers will be on channel 19

Yay for truckers!! Why 7.5 feet? Is it the wavelength of CB?

It's a simple quarter wave antenna (http://www.gordon.army.mil/stt/31U/hf/longwire.HTM).

what will be my distance for sending/receiving? Do you think truckers will be cool about talking to me on the radio?

It depends on the radio, conditions, ..etc.

The truckers will be glad to talk to you.

Ask about the "lot lizards".

very cool. I hope it doesn't end up like that movie joy ride, I wouldn't be that dumb though. Truckers are awesome.

If you are female they will definately talk to you.

I made the antenna from speaker wire and I put it on channel 19, I got a few voices every once in a while, I could make out a bit of what they were saying. I don't know if they could hear me or not. The squelch killed off their voices if I turned it up enough to kill the static too. I had to turn it up really loud and get close to the speaker to understand them.

Any suggestions?

The antenna hookup is coaxial, like theres an inside and an outside hookup. I've got the 2 wires in the speaker wire hooked up to separate parts.

Use only one wire on the center tap.

One conductor, and run it vertically.

Don't let it touch any other metal.

Ground the outer conductor.

How did u connect the wire to the cb??

quote:Originally posted by [failure]:

How did u connect the wire to the cb??

Use a PL-259 connector crimped to RG-58U coax cut to whatever length you need.