Hi I kinda stumbled over this forum. I was reading some threads and I am kinda interested in cb radios but have a few questions. What is cb radio? Is it worth listening to? How much does it cost to get a decent radio?

I would make an explanation, but these links will sum everything up better than I can.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens'_band_radio
http://www.alphalink.com.au/~parkerp/cb.htm

Personally, I would buy a radio capable of receiving ham frequencies, because a lot more interesting conversation will be heard. But, you can still catch some decent road-chatter on CB.
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†Jesus†

are handheld ones any good and can you talk on it?

Handheld CB radios are nearly identical to a mobile or base station, except that they are portable, run on their own battery pack, and normally operate at a lower power and with a smaller, less radiant antenna. These are generally handy if you don't want to mess with wiring power in a vehicle or using a power supply, or if you're needing comms on foot or otherwise outside a vehicle with 12v power.

could you put a better attenna on one? also how is the quality?

You can add a better antenna to a handheld, but again, the idea is portability so you won't put anything huge on it. Generally you'll find extending antennas to be more popular for that sort of thing, since it allows portability when not extended and light weight for carrying.

Sound quality on CB has never been fantastic, but that's a restriction of the modulation. CB uses AM (Amplitude Modulation, what AM radio stations use) and SSB (Single Side Band, a low-bandwidth voice mod that is used by amateur radio on the HF bands). Neither of these will have the same clarity as FM, which is what most business band, police band, FRS/GMRS, and amateur VHF/UHF radios use, as well as your standard FM broadcast stations.

But AM and SSB work pretty well for most voice communications. The FM modes use it primarily for the sound quality and extensibility.

FM on VHF radios, etc isn't the same as broadcast stations. Broadcast stations use WFM (Wide FM), which has much better sound quality.
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†Jesus†

Yes, I'm aware, but I didn't really feel that was necessary for the discussion of AM/SSB quality. Thank you, anyway.

was looking at a hand held. is the range on this any good? http://cgi.ebay.com/Cobra-HH-ROADTRI...QQcmdZViewItem