Zugzub

Zugzub t1_ja549cv wrote

There's no way that thing has a 10 mile range.

With a good external antenna it might on a good day hit 5 miles.

With the supplied antenna more like 2 miles.

Antenna quality and proper tuning of the antenna is everything when it comes to range.

As far as wattage goes that's 4 ways pep. Cb radios are AM, amplitude modulation. When you speak into the mic and observe power out put it will vary as you speak. Initially it will swing to 4 watts. But then the modulation limiter will kick in and you will see around 2 maybe 3 watts.

You can remove the modulation limiter. Usually by clipping a diode or removing a transistor. At that point depending on the final output power rating of the final transistor you might see 6 to 8 watts.

A Cobra 149 or Uniden President grant radio could hit 29 to 25 watts once modified.

And a full wavelength in the 11 meter band is 32.125 feet not 40.

As for antennas, you can get a half wave antenna that's only 3 foot long, that's accomplished by winding 16 feet of wire around a fiberglass rod.

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