I got a Radio Shack special with a Firestick antenna....had a friend tune it but dont hear much. Is this normal in the city.....................

I got a Radio Shack special with a Firestick antenna....had a friend tune it but dont hear much. Is this normal in the city.....................
What channels are you listening to? I find channel 19 picks up alot of truckers on the freeway, and channel 4 picks up some stuff around town, but nothing really worthwhile. Have you adjusted the squelch?

Does your CB have a separate RF Gain control? If so, turn it up all the way. Then adjust your Squelch control so it just quiets the background hiss. Setting the controls like this will insure your CB will be set to be as sensitive to signals as possible. :)

Long Beach should be getting plenty of heavily amplified/echo'd traffic on Channel 19. Just be mindful of the "colorful" language used by the teamsters.

Tuning only makes a difference when transmitting, but the tuning process also confirms that your antenna is properly attached.

If you aren't hearing much, play with squelch and gain as outlined above. Also, confirm that your mic is not stuck on the keyed position as most radios are half-duplex. If that doesn't work, make sure your volume is turned up (inexpensive radios have pretty crummy speakers) and confirm that the speaker leads in the radio haven't come loose. If the speaker is too quiet for trail use, you can usually attach an external speaker for not too much money.

the local chnnels in long beach/lakewood are 40, and 17. get on 40 and start ragging on those guys :wave:
just start calling for joe, and you'll get the attention you need. ;)
you'll get the best performance at the top of signal hill. if you cant get out, and receive from there, something is wrong with your radio.
from signal hill, you can slam people like you had a linear while only using 4w. ;)
be sure to check your squelch, and rf gain as stated above.
have fun!
those guys on 40 love the excitement :eek:

Thanks for the tips guys.........I will try the Signal Hill thing

I just got a Radio Shack CB too the other and also a magnetic antenna, I'll find out on Sunday if the set-up works.

^^ i also got that for Xmas, im swapping the anntena for a longer one that i can mount on my tailgate