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cobra 29 classic cb

KansasTwister

KansasTwister

1/2 ton status
Joined
Jun 19, 2009
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Location
Lawrence, ks
Would you buy it at 40 bucks? guy said he used it for a month while trucking, just sitting now, keeps being posted cheaper and cheaper. Anyway to test it? (12v battery like ive tested radios or what?)

Im new to the cb world, and ive seen some good reviews on them, never had one so figured the brotherhood could school this young lad.
 
I owned one years ago and i liked it. I unfortunately don't have it anymore since someone decided they wanted my blazer and everything in it more than i did and it was stolen.
 
4X4HIGH said:
I owned one years ago and i liked it. I unfortunately don't have it anymore since someone decided they wanted my blazer and everything in it more than i did and it was stolen.
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Someone stole the gas cap off of my rusted out 77 c10 longbed, wasnt anything fancy just factory painted blue gas cap. Id love to have 5 minutes alone with the guy, so i know how you must feel. Im glad nobodys tried to steal my camaro, kinda hard to serve a jail term when your swiss cheese laying in a morgue. Hopefully the insurance gave you more or less the phyiscal cost of the truck, even though you can never buy back the memories.

Would i still need a speaker for it too? and also an antenna, if anyone has anything within a decent price range they would recomend. probably going to mount it at front of bed infront of my toolbox, so preferably not too much higher than the top of bed to cab, although i know it will sacrifice range. Ive also got a hole cut by po in front fender where he evidently had a cb antenna mounted, and one where the stock radio antenna was on the truck that gave my 77 the front clip on the top passenger side fender.
 
It has it's own internal speaker but don't key the mic without an antenna on it. Otherwise, just hook it up to 12v and it should be fine. I have one and it's a decent radio. $40 is reasonable. I wouldn't sell mine for that.
 
Good radios, I own 2 of them. Ive had one for 16 years still works great, more important is a good antenna and coax. $40 is cheap if it is as he says... A reman cobra 29 sells for about $80, $119 new. Take it to a cb shop and have it peaked an tuned and have them match it to a good antenna that they recommend and it will last a long time and perform well. A single Antenna will work better than dual antennas, dual antennas have to be a certain distance apart from each other to function properly, has something to do with wave length.
 
Good CB, Id jump on it for $40 in heartbeat.
 
Well i own it

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Looks brand new visually, one spline in the wire im still shaking my head at, came with a nice wooden one with adjustable volume on the back, and what looks to be a new galaxy as well.


Few questions (Rather have them here than the cd section cause this area gets more traffic)

1. How would i wire a PA speaker into this? It has the function.

2. If there are no local cb shops close by (none within a half hour) are there any ways to set up the antenna and tune it myself?
 
4X4HIGH said:
IIRC there is a provision on the back on the unit to plun in an aux speaker.

Go buy yourself a Wilson 5000 Trucker antenna and it comes with instructions on how to "tune" the antenna to the radio.

http://www.wilsonantenna.com/t5000.htm
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Just looked again and saw the jack :D im a little special right now i guess, 2am and just spent the last two hours trying to give my buddy relationship advice on his crazy fiance. I saw the jacks for the external speaker and the pa, i saw them before but didnt think they were anything, but its stamped on the back.
 
Make sure you adjust the antenna so the SWR (standing wave ratio) is less than 3:1, a 1:1 match is best,but near impossible to attain..you'll need an SWR meter,that can usually be had for 15-20 bucks at a CB shop or Radio Shack..if you wish to test the transmitter without an antenna,you can use a #1816 light bulb in place of an antenna as a "dummy load"...if the bulb lights up fairly bright with the mike keyed up,and it gets brighter if you speak ,its modulating OK..looks like you may have an "echo" mike,Galaxy made some nice "pirate" CB's back in the day!..
 
diesel4me said:
Make sure you adjust the antenna so the SWR (standing wave ratio) is less than 3:1, a 1:1 match is best,but near impossible to attain..you'll need an SWR meter,that can usually be had for 15-20 bucks at a CB shop or Radio Shack
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The radio has one built in already.
 
Did you get the book with the radio? If you did, it tells you in there how to use the SWR meter function. I can't quite remember how it works. Otherwise, I'm sure you can find the info online somewhere.
 
nope no booklet, im gonna try to find it online. I thought radioshack sold cb radios, would those work in this application and be reliable? That or the walmart brands :haha:

Im in no rush to get it done, looking at buying another truck, but just got paid so im kinda trying to conserve money but i doubt it will happen lol.
 
Good radio! I've been using one for 5-6 years now. Its one of many cobras' I've had. Never had a problem with any of them.
 
KansasTwister said:
is that the green/red looking thing on the upper left?
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Yes. The way you calibrate the SWR is by moving the switch that says S/RF SWR CAL to the SWR position and then whatever channel you're on you will key up the mic and then turn the SWR CAL knob until you get the lowest reading possible on the meter on the SWR line. Ideally you would calibrate for whichever channel you're on but some people calibrate it whil on channel 20 which is half way through a 40 channel CB and then whichever channel you use it is close enough.

You also need to calibrate the antenna in a simliar manor.
 
4X4HIGH said:
Yes. The way you calibrate the SWR is by moving the switch that says S/RF SWR CAL to the SWR position and then whatever channel you're on you will key up the mic and then turn the SWR CAL knob until you get the lowest reading possible on the meter on the SWR line. Ideally you would calibrate for whichever channel you're on but some people calibrate it whil on channel 20 which is half way through a 40 channel CB and then whichever channel you use it is close enough.

You also need to calibrate the antenna in a simliar manor.
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Close but not quite on the calibration. Set channel to center of band (channel 20). Switch to the cal position on the s/rf swr cal. key up and adjust the swr cal knob until the meter deflects all the way to the "cal" position. while still keyed up switch to the SWR position. This will tell you the SWR reading. As stated previously 1:1 is ideal I would not operate the radio in transmit for long if the SWR is over 2:1. You change the length of the antenna to adjust the SWR.

Hope that helps.

Oh, here is the link to your manual:
http://www.cobra.com/downloads/manuals/29NWST.pdf

now, go get your ham license :D whole new world.

Cheers,

Rufus
 
That will be a good radio . You need to tune your antenna with an swr meter instead of relying on your built in calibration on your radio. 1:1 ratio is optimal as stated but you should be able to reach 1:3 to 1:5 easily with a good antenna

I'm not an expert by no means but have been fooling with radios for about 15 years so i have a little experience
 
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