My First CB Radio Contact

[Angler]

I finally got everything set-up on my first cb radio and made my first contact. Yesterday, after installing the antenna and hooking everything up, I made contact with "Capt. Walker" and chatted with him for about five minutes. I was hearing him very well and he said I was blowing him out of his car. What a relief! I am a total newbie with cb and I was very worried about doing my set-up right. That first contact was a great feeling and I would like to thank everyone for all the info on this forum that I have been trying to understand.

Cobra 142GTL
Imax 2000

 

[Superidgit]

I finally got everything set-up on my first cb radio and made my first contact. Yesterday, after installing the antenna and hooking everything up, I made contact with "Capt. Walker" and chatted with him for about five minutes. I was hearing him very well and he said I was blowing him out of his car. What a relief! I am a total newbie with cb and I was very worried about doing my set-up right. That first contact was a great feeling and I would like to thank everyone for all the info on this forum that I have been trying to understand.

Cobra 142GTL
Imax 2000

WTG!!

I am sure you will make many many more. Have fun!!

 

[mackmobile43]

awesome, enjoy

Was it a local contact or long distance/dx?

 

[Needle Bender]

I finally got everything set-up on my first cb radio and made my first contact. Yesterday, after installing the antenna and hooking everything up, I made contact with "Capt. Walker" and chatted with him for about five minutes. I was hearing him very well and he said I was blowing him out of his car. What a relief! I am a total newbie with cb and I was very worried about doing my set-up right. That first contact was a great feeling and I would like to thank everyone for all the info on this forum that I have been trying to understand.

Cobra 142GTL
Imax 2000

where are you located? if you put up a simple horizontal dipole of wire stretched across two points as high as possible you should work dx even better then your vertical in the direction broadside to the dipole. just attach the coax center to one side and the sheild to the other and make each side about 8 feet 7 inches with an insulator on the ends

 

[Angler]

awesome, enjoy

Was it a local contact or long distance/dx?

It was a local contact. When he answered me he said he was about nine or ten miles south of me and I talked to him until he got to his destination which was a few miles from where I am.

 

[Angler]

where are you located? if you put up a simple horizontal dipole of wire stretched across two points as high as possible you should work dx even better then your vertical in the direction broadside to the dipole. just attach the coax center to one side and the sheild to the other and make each side about 8 feet 7 inches with an insulator on the ends

I am in the northeastern lower peninsula of Michigan almost on Lake Huron. I don't know if you are saying I should put up a different antenna or just add a modification to mine.

 

[Needle Bender]

I am in the northeastern lower peninsula of Michigan almost on Lake Huron. I don't know if you are saying I should put up a different antenna or just add a modification to mine.

addng a horizontal wire dipole to your arsenal. it's a cheap and easy way to increase your dx-ability. if you stretch it north-south then you will have good performance east-west

 

[mackmobile43]

It was a local contact. When he answered me he said he was about nine or ten miles south of me and I talked to him until he got to his destination which was a few miles from where I am.

Even better, good show

 

[Frylock508]

Thats an awesome set-up. Can't go wrong with a 142. Used one that was fully worked for years. Good luck!
Btw, In my neck of the woods that antenna is the latest and greatest.

 

[Angler]

Thanks Guys,
I hear people talking with each other and I think they must be using very powerful radios. I heard a couple guys talking and they mentioned Mississippi. They sounded southern but I couldn't make contact with and didn't really expect to.
Anyway, I'm just happy being able to talk locally. Now I can relax a little bit and start tweaking hear and there as I learn more about radio. I almost bought another camera today so I could post pictures of my set-up. One of my daughters "borrowed" my brand new camera on Halloween and still hasn't returned it. I guess I should have just went ahead and bought it.
Back to research.

 

[Angler]

Thats an awesome set-up. Can't go wrong with a 142. Used one that was fully worked for years. Good luck!
Btw, In my neck of the woods that antenna is the latest and greatest.

I feel very lucky to have found this radio. I bought it on ebay and it's brand spankin' new. It's still on there I believe. The item# is 190565363959. I'm so glad I chose this antenna also because of all the good things I've read about it. I still don't know very much about radio but I wouldn't have been able to put together this wonderful set-up without this forum. I couldn't even imagine trying to do this on my own. As soon as I can get another camera I'm going to post pics of my radio bench and antenna.
Thanks again to everybody.

 

[mackmobile43]

Beautiful rig. cobra 142gtl selling used but appears unused LOOK ! | eBay

 

[Robb]

I can remember my first contact when I got back on the radio after some fifteen years of being off it. It was someone that I used to talk to as a regular. We talked for over an hour and caught up on the past. He was surprised as I was.

Congrats for you getting on the air.
Might get some friends interested too.
You can now help them out as well.

 

[Angler]

Beautiful rig. cobra 142gtl selling used but appears unused LOOK ! | eBay

Thank you mackmobile43!

 

[Angler]

I can remember my first contact when I got back on the radio after some fifteen years of being off it. It was someone that I used to talk to as a regular. We talked for over an hour and caught up on the past. He was surprised as I was.

Congrats for you getting on the air.
Might get some friends interested too.
You can now help them out as well.

Yeah, Robb
This guy that I contacted said he just put his old cb back in his car after being off cb for 23 years. I thought that was a good omen for both of us. Not as magical as your first contact but memorable none the less.