New Here, Looking for information on cbs

[Leprechaun]

Hey my name is Jonathan and I currently have a cobra 29 nw wx st in my daily driver jeep grand cherokee. Im interested in turning her up. Im also goin to school for electronics so the soldering shouldnt be a problem, nor the parts i need to get, just where to put them and stuff like that.

Also i have a second jeep that i drive on the road but its main purpose is hardcore off road riding. Im thinking of getting a cobra 25 ltd for that one and maybe making some small mods. Does that sound like a good idea or does anyone have a different idea on what i should run?

 

[BIONIC_TEXAN88]

the 25 sounds like a good fit for the jeep, small yet tunes up well and packs a good punch.

check the mods section here on the forum, you should find what you are lookin for on that 29 and the 25.

 

[Leprechaun]

Alrite thanks, I was browsing through there last nite and found the thread for the cb radio secrets download. I got both of those. I also found some threads about modding the 29/25

 

[Butcher318]

Don't expect much from your cobra 29 nw wx st, they don't call em soundcrappers for nothing. Best bet would be to sell it and get a Uniden 78 Elite, they respond much better to a tune.

 

[BOOTY MONSTER]

http://www.cbtricks.com/radios/cobra/index.htm

go there ,find your radio on the list and see what they say .

 

[Switch Kit]

Welcome John , your 29 is a GREAT a radio , don't mind that ST to much , it's just a extra on the radio that you need not use , you can pretty much forget it was ever there. Other then that, Your Cobra 29 is just as good as any of the rest of them out there with or without the ST feature on it. The radio can be tuned up very nicely and work for many many years there after. also the 25 LTD is another fine radio that will mod up very nicely. Enjoy

 

[Butcher318]

There is a reason that the Philippines built radio's are sought after, because they are made better. It's no secret that Maxon cut alot of corners and the quality suffered.

A Uniden 78 Elite will tune better and out perform any Soundtracker 29 out there...hands down.

One of our local c.b. shops several years ago stopped taking in soundcrappers on trade because they would just sit on the shelf and collect dust. Even the new ones in the box were poor sellers.

Now that we got that out of the way if you don't want to get rid of the 29 then have a shop do a simple 25 dollar tune and then run it. It will work for many years and be ok. Remember, the soundtracker feature will only work when you talk to another soundtracker radio.

 

[Switch Kit]

That's really not what the guy asked Butch , I still say he has a GREAT radio in his Cobra 29 WX ST . I've had a few of them and they all tuned up just like the rest of them and the best of them. The 78 Elite might just be made better or tune better for that matter , but it's just apples and oranges to me. He asked if he could tune it ? IM sure he could with the right know how and the tools of the trade , like you said , I think he would be better off taking it to a reliable radio shop and paying 20 to 30 dollars for a good tune up on it. ST's are ST's , you just don't use the function and I certainly don't think it takes anything away from the performance of the radio as far as TX and RX are concerned and it can surely be a plus having the weather feature on those with all the tornado's that are ripping up parts of the U.S of late or any weather condition for that matter. You have a very decent radio there John , hopefully you have a decent antenna to go with it. Good luck to you.

 

[Butcher318]

I see what your saying Switch, whenever I see ST I go into "get rid of it" mode. You should do a simple test some time Switch. Take a Cobra 25 and Cobra 25 soundcrapper and do your little peak and tune with variable power for both of them. Post pics and put them up for sale here in the sales section like you have done with many nice radio's in the past. With overall condition and price being the same I bet the regular 25 sells first, and then you will have to drop your price a bunch to move the soundcrapper. After that exercise you will sit back and think wow, I darn near lost money on that soundtracker....I'll never do that again.

 

[Leprechaun]

wow thanks guys for the information. I do kind of regret buying the wx st version being as i never use them anyway, but since I go off road and if I hear of a chance that there may be a bad snow storm or thunderstorm I can just park it on a weather channel and listen to see if/when its goin to hit so I know when to start heading home.

as for antennas I do have an 8.5 foot steel whip that I run when on I-state, but for the trail it smacks the trees and flops around too much, so for off road use I tend to use a 4 foot firefly from firestick.

so you dont recommend that I tune the 29 up myself? The only problem I have with taking it to a shop is knowing if they really did anything. It's kind of hard to tell when you talk on the cb, since it varies with weather and things like that correct?

 

[bushwacker]

With overall condition and price being the same I bet the regular 25 sells first, and then you will have to drop your price a bunch to move the soundcrapper.

Thats definatly true. I've ran into a couple of problems with the new 29 and 25's... the stock 2078's are pure junk... the 2078's in the older radio could be peaked up to some decent power... but these new ones short out with a basic peak and tune.Now I won't peak up the power without switching to a 1969. Before I would turn up the power a bit for a customer and keep the 2078, not any more... anytime I increase the power in one of these I swap the final.
One of the good things I've noticed about the new 29's is they now come stock with a 2314 driver insted of a 1957.

Once the final is changed, they stand up to a good amount of power pretty well.I havent noticed a difference with output power between the 2 types... they seem to peak up the same.

The new cobras do not have the same audio quality of the older ones. There was a certain quality to the audio that sounded more powerful... its hard to describe. The new soundtracker seem to lack that "what ever it is" that made that audio sound stronger...its definatly a quality that can be heard. The new soundtrackers just don't have that with the soundtracker off.... with the soundtracker on you get a more sharper audio whick will help cut through a bit. But they just don't sound the same.

100% modulation is 100% modulation... but there was some audio quality that made those older ones sound more powerful.

The new ones are still a good radio... but the older ones had this real "growling audio" that made the audio sound really powerful. Its just not there in the new cobras

Regardless, Leprechaun is starting out with some good radios.

 

[bushwacker]

Hey my name is Jonathan and I currently have a cobra 29 nw wx st in my daily driver jeep grand cherokee. Im interested in turning her up. Im also goin to school for electronics so the soldering shouldnt be a problem, nor the parts i need to get, just where to put them and stuff like that.

Also i have a second jeep that i drive on the road but its main purpose is hardcore off road riding. Im thinking of getting a cobra 25 ltd for that one and maybe making some small mods. Does that sound like a good idea or does anyone have a different idea on what i should run?

Sounds cool.... get a really good antenna..you will find lots of topics about antennas here and which ones are good.
For mods for these radios... check out DTB's website
www.dtbradio.com
He has some good power mods for those radios.

 

[Switch Kit]

IM not picky and I've owned and heard to many of them to say they are not good radios. If you don't want to go to a shop John , yes you could get a bit more out of the radio , if you don't have meters and dummy loads and all the tools of the trade and you want more out of it , you can bring up L14 It's in front of the final , you can "slightly" open up the springed coil at L12 and then you can turn VR4 up all the way and then back it off about a quarter ,that's for more audio. This wont be a perfect tune up , but it will go up and be louder , If you don't want to mess with the power pots (L14 and 12 ) just turn up VR4 and back it off like I said, this will give you more audio and more pep (watts) swing to the radio automatically. That's it. IM not going to get in a pissing match here. You have a fine radio John as I said for the third time. If you have that big black round stock mic that came with it ? they are really lousy stock mic's ,(as far as IM concerned) do yourself a favor and get something else , anything would be a step up from those.(being in a jeep ,I could highly reccomend a Astatic 636 or a RK56 NC mic ,you would be looking at about 30 to 50 dollars ,the 636 being the cheaper of the two but still a fine mic for your situation) As far as taking it else where to have the work done , ask questions , get refferances and see what others have to say about them. Good luck to you.

 

[Leprechaun]

Thanks, any recomendations on websites to go to for ordering the 25 or sites for parts to tune them?

And what does everyone think about my antenna? I use the 4 ft firefly most of the time, sometimes I stick the 8.5 steel whip for fun

 

[Switch Kit]

if your going to do it yourself for what I suggested , a jewelers screwdrive will work , you can do a Internet search on the Cobra 25 and you will get a lot of options on that and most folks will tune them for you at cost. IM sure your antennas are OK , just depends on whom and where your trying to talk to . Question is ? How deep into this do you want to go ? and how much money are you willing to spend ? not to forget shipping costs on top of everything else if that should be the case.