CB radios were all the rage when I was a kid. My dad had one in his 1974 Toyota Hilux. and I had one in my bedroom. But now? With all of the plastic on modern car dashboards, I wouldn’t know hoe/where to mount one.
‘Today’ added because Discourse needs 10 characters, not nine.
I have a handheld CB unit and a magnetic external antenna because it was required for off-road training (GRMS doesn’t have sufficient range) but it kind of sucks, and for any real comms I would use ham. A lot of the dedicated overlanders have elaborate ham setups which include IP-over-ham or NPR-70 to sent text messages and email (text only) in addition to voice comms. On a Tacoma it gear is mostly mounted under the center dash, with handset and display on the ceiling (through the headliner) or in the center console.
Stranger
The Great Pumpkin, KBA1001 from back in the days when you were supposed to get an FCC license (no exam needed for CB license), circa 1976.
Now is a good time to ask the question that has confounded me for decades.
I still have my old CB. Sometimes I take it on road trips and listen. And truckers must be using some kind of device to distort their voices. They all sound like they are standing in an infinite echo chamber. I can’t understand a damn thing they are saying. Every once in a while, I can hear someone speak “normally” so it isn’t my radio.
What are they doing? And more importantly, why?
I was totally surprised to see that one of the most popular C B radios available now is the 40 channel version of mine, The Cobra 29LTD Classic:
50+ years on and it doesn’t look that different than mine:
I have a CB radio. I got it years ago while helping my Uncle Max go through his things. It is compact and looks cool. I have never used it because it was designed to be plugged into cigarette lighter and run off a car battery. Even if I had a license and car, they don’t come with cigarette lighters anymore. It should be relatively simple for somebody to rig something so I can just plug it in to a standard outlet. That somebody has more skills than I do.
Here’s a picture of a 1999 Jeep Cherokee dashboard, like mine.
Obviously, a CB can’t be mounted under the driver’s side. There’s no room on the console. The glove box opens downward, and there is not a lot of room.
The good thing is that I have no need for a CB radio. 
I regret I have to report the death of local ham radio. Nobody much wants to talk anymore.
Most if not all cars come with a 12v automobile auxiliary power outlet for powering accessories like phone chargers or dashcams. Here is a selection of converters depending upon the current the radio requires. You can buy amplifiers to increase the range and quality of the signal but they are illegal (although nobody really seems to be monitoring CB channels) and you increase the amount of crosstalk between channels.
Remove the glove compartment and mount the CB up in there, or mount to the ceiling if you want to be a real stud. If you want to be stealth, put it under the passenger seat or mount on the backseat with a handset that will let you switch channels and adjust squelch. Operators with big ham rigs often mount them in the back seat with a control panel and handset accessible from the front; there are even Bluetooth adapters and Bluetooth enabled receivers, and there are even iPhone and iPad apps to interface and control a receiver, even offering software-defined radio (SDR) functionality.
Amateur “ham” radio has many more applications than just chatting. It is still quite useful for SAR and disaster response for use by responders who cannot access “official” government frequencies. Unfortunately, many states seem to be trying to shut that use down because they don’t want to deal with the interoperability issues.
Stranger
Thanks! These things seem to be considerably more money than I thought. I cannot look up the specifications of the radio. It is still packed away somewhere.
Have you considered listening online?
There’s an overhead console.
There are a few smartphone apps for you to listen and talk to CB users
I’d be willing to bet that the smallest cheapest AC to DC converter would more than suffice for a CB.
How are you going to reply online? I assume some might like the challenge of constructing antennae and transmission equipment and appropriate modulation that are actually capable of long-range two-way communication, however.
Similarly, CB radios are not going to be very interesting/useful if nobody is on. Also may want to know what, and if, emergency frequencies are being monitored in your area (CB, HF, VHF…)
That link contains active repeater frequencies which happen to have streaming audio; anyone interested in having conversations rather than just listening could try tuning their set to one of those.
Yeah. After a long day of back to back Zoom calls, the last thing I want to do is get on a lower quality Zoom call. I almost exclusive use digital modes these days. I have a very compromised antenna situation thanks to a yard full of very flexible palm trees so working voice is frustrating anyway. Digital cuts through.
