I know it wasn't "needed" but i wanted to do it any ways. The T90 connector is better design to prevent plugging the power cord in backwards, unlike the 3-pin power connector.

TrucksCBSales does sell ($50) upgraded power cord 10AWG and T90 connector with wire already soldered on it. I'm cheap and wanted to do it myself and learn.

It's not a simple de-solder the 3-pin connector and solder in the T90 connector. You have to make a choice, widen the metal screw holes or narrow the plastic screw holes on the connector. I recommend replacing wire going from the connector into the circuit board. It wasn't that hard for me to do. If your patient and pay attention, you can do it too. The circuit board holes fit like 14AWG wire. I did trim some metal off the heat sink inside the radio to give it more clearance from the connector and wires coming off it. I put heat shrink over the connectors too.

Little birdy told me that Stryker Radio plans on upgrading the power connectors soon. Might not happen until next year. This upgrade is overdue. No idea which connector they will go with. T90 would be my choice. It could be T60 connector and be like how the 497hpc power wire comes out the back. Cheapest option would probably be like the 497hpc.

I've never had one and I drive a company van all day. I'd love to try it out and I'd need a radio that isn’t permanently installed. One With a magnet antenna that i cound take out of the van at the end of the day and/or week. Do you guys have any recommendations for a radio that would work? Thanks for the help!

CAC093-061734-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
Local Area Emergency
CA Siskiyou County
Relayed by National Weather Service Medford OR
1134 AM PDT Mon Oct 5 2026

...SILVER ALERT
MSPD is searching for a missing woman DIANE EVANS...

The following message is transmitted at the request of Siskiyou
County.

MSPD is searching for a missing woman... DORTHA "DIANE" EVANS...
79yrs old... white female... 120lbs... 5`5... yellow sweater and
yellow checkered pants.  Last seen leaving the area of 1020
Kingston Road on foot. Check your cameras for sightings.
She has dementia & no phone. Reported missing on 10/01/26. If
seen... call MT SHASTA PD at 530-926-7540

MSPD is searching for a missing woman... DORTHA "DIANE" EVANS...
79yrs old... white female... 120lbs... 5`5... yellow sweater and
yellow checkered pants.  Last seen leaving the area of 1020
Kingston Road on foot. Check your cameras for sightings.
She has dementia & no phone. Reported missing on 10/01/26. If
seen... call MT SHASTA PD at 530-926-7540

&&

LAT...LON 4132 12232 4132 12229 4129 12229 4131 12232
      4131 12233

$$

17912252530001398617043/182001 10.0.100541

Been out of the CB game quite a few years. But with more traveling coming up would like to get another CB in my truck. What’s the latest and greatest if you were starting back up and we’re going to buy everything new that’s out today? Radio antenna bases all of it.

Morning folks I’m curious is there an SWR meter with no frills I can purchase to check my cb’s SWR’s?
Seems everything is made in China these days.

The wonders of skip lol

Edit: Spanish!

Hi! :3 I'm new to the CB radio world. I've been wanting to buy one for a few months, and I finally found a President Jimmy for very cheap at a garage sale!

But, it seems to have a display problem with incomplete segments on the channel display. Does anyone have a solution or advice on how to fix this?

I've already tried cleaning the circuit board and reflowing/resoldering the joints between the main board and the front panel 🫠, but nothing changed.

Thanks in advanced for your help :3

Hi everyone, first time posting. I purchased the Randy 3 not too long ago and I’m looking for a holder for it in my 23 wrx (manual transmission). I have a cup holder mount which interferes with my arm whenever I shift to the point where the radio dislodges whenever I shift gears. Just wanted to get insight as to what type of holder I could use in my car. For reference I do have the official president Virginia antenna mounted to the top of my wrx but I’m looking for a holder for the radio that can we mounted out of the way from the cup holders and not blocking the field of view for the windshield if possible. Any suggestions would help! Thanks again!!

Just a photo of the radio station I've set up since the begging of this year... Has been a work in progress and evolving since day one. After 40 years away from CB and radio in general I got back to the hobby. I now live in the mountains in a privileged location for radio and decide to explore again the DX capabilities of the 11 meters band... With the current technology has become quite cheap to set up a modest CB station and thanks to the Chinese we now get more capable and powerful transceivers. It's been amazing to discover all the changes and Internet applications possible nowadays, from voice to digital modes like FT8 I already contacted 74 divisions since February this year, far more than I got back in the 80's when I was a CB operator in the city of Lisbon/Poertugal. Depending on the propagation it's quite a challenge to explore the CB band. I'm also doing my Ham Radio operator licence next year after enjoying a bit more what the CB/Freeband offers before we get back again on that solar nasty 12 years cycle that ruins the band...
Feel free to contact me on frequency... My international DX call-sign is 31PT55 or station Delta-Bravo on local contacts... I'm normally always on QSY at 27.265 for FT8 contacts and on 27.555 for SSB voice DX hunting...!
Have fun on the air waves...!
All the best... 73

Hungary to Portugal, with a Stalker IX and a copy of an SPT-500 base antenna. ~2200km. I guess skip is just as effective as people say.

It is a 102 inch steel whip on a spring mounted to a roof rack grounded to the body of the vehicle. Tested ground with a multimeter. Should the roof rack be a sufficient ground plane or should i look into a ground plane kit for the antenna?

Swr is about 2.5 on channel on and 1.5 on channel 40

Edit: Despite a lot of silly comments making jokes, which I think is a disservice to the hobby anyway, there were some kind comments with very good suggestions. I'm very grateful for that.
I haven't tested it yet, but this antenna was suggested and seems to be exactly my use case (thanks u/killrade), I'm buying it now (October 3rd), but it will take a while to arrive in Brazil. As soon as it arrives, I'll try to test it and bring the results to this post.

Thank you very much to those who dedicated enough time to check that I only wanted a minimally viable COTS antenna for reception in the CB band, and not to transmit to the other side of the world...

--------------------------------------

Original post:
Hi everyone,

I'm looking for recommendations for a CB antenna no longer than 30 cm.

And before the usual replies start:

Yes, I know you can't change physics.
Yes, I know CB is in the 11 m band and that a proper antenna is around 2.4 m.
Yes, I know anything much shorter than ~1.2 m is considered "useless" for CB.
Yes, I know about loading coils, efficiency, ground planes, SWR, radiation resistance, etc.

I genuinely don't need a lecture about that.

To be completely honest, I probably know more about the antenna theory behind this than the average person here. My thesis was in satellite telecommunications, including the development of a ground station and an onboard communications system using SDR.

I just want a damn antenna that works reasonably well enough for my specific use case.

My goal is to have a CB radio in my car mainly for listening when traffic is backed up, which is pretty common on the roads I travel every week here in Brazil.

My priority is discretion, not transmission performance. I'm perfectly aware that a 5 W CB radio isn't going to do miracles anyway, especially with a tiny antenna.

For actually talking to people traveling with me, we already have VHF/UHF radios — and yes, we have the proper licenses to transmit on those frequencies.

For CB, I already have a proper base station at home.

What I want from the car setup is simply to listen to truck drivers farther ahead in traffic and get some situational awareness:

• Why is the road blocked?
• Is there an accident or some other problem ahead?
• Is it worth taking another route?
• Is it worth stopping at a gas station/rest stop, getting some food, etc., and waiting for traffic to clear before continuing?

So I'm not trying to build a 30 cm miracle antenna that outperforms a quarter-wave whip. I just want the best practical option within that physical constraint.

If that means using a short loaded antenna, fine. If a small magnetic/electric loop or some other unconventional solution makes more sense for receiving, I'm open to that too. If I need an LNA + band-pass filtering on the receiver side to compensate for the poor antenna efficiency, also fine.

What I don't want to do is model/optimize an antenna in HFSS or order five different antennas from AliExpress, wait 1–2 months for each one, measure them on a VNA, install them in the car, discover that the advertising was complete bullshit, and repeat the whole process.

So, with all of that out of the way:

What compact CB antennas (≤30 cm) have you actually used, and which ones would you recommend specifically for receive-only / mostly-receive use in a car?

I'm much more interested in real-world experience than in hearing again that 11 m antennas are supposed to be 2.4 m long. I already know. 😄

Hello everyone. I'm a otr driver and I just bought my first cb radio thanks to all the pilot points Ive saved. Radio is a roadking rkcbfm. I was wondering how do I set it up? I heard I can burn out the radio? I looked up how to calibrate it and I did that. I just don't want to burn it out seeing how it was 150 bucks. Can someone also explain what the am/fm switch is and which one I should have it on?

First off, I'm an amateur that mainly uses the CB on long drives. I like being able to hear if there's something going on ahead of me on a freeway when I'm driving out of state, and if I see something on the other side of the freeway, letting truckers nearby what's going on. I usually get roughly 5 miles of range.

Recently I've stopped being able to hear anything from it. I've asked for radio checks (in a very populated area) and got nothing. Even channel 6 is silent. The video shows my SWR readings, and pictures below will show my antenna setup (which I'm assuming is the problem). Any advice?

Power is from cigarette adapter, cord really short so I couldn't thread it all around the headliner

10-4! ;)

Really curious where or if there are any outliers? Site placement, CPE, etc. How are you evaluating interference and band usage for build priority?

If you are near a WebSDR that hears your signal, you can be heard anywhere on earth day or night! You can actually communicate with another station thousands of miles away that is in the same situation!

Anyone have any idea about this noise on 16 and 7?

https://reddit.com/link/1wss7gd/video/296ovocw1csh1/player