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Thread: Bad Mic? Question about a Cobra 19 Ultra III Setup

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    Bad Mic? Question about a Cobra 19 Ultra III Setup

    Hello all, I'm fairly new to CB radios and bought a Cobra 19 Ultra III at Wally world and a mag mount antenna. I was receiving chatter and was fairly happy with it besides not getting a lot of range on it. Unless I was on the interstate, or near by it (say 2-3 Miles) I didn't hear anything.

    Got a couple of Mic checks out of it and some people reported back that my Mic sounds bad. Others said I sounded fine. I thought maybe I wasn't broadcasting very strong and the closer the recipient the clearer my signal was.

    I bought a cheap SWR meter on Amazon to try to tune my cheap mag mount antenna. (This one specifically: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ULN610...p_mob_ap_share) and the SWR read extremely high (like 4-5). I don't know if these SWR meter reads correctly but I tried to get them both at the same SWR and lengthened the antenna some. Sort of got a better signal, but again through a radio check they said it sounded bad.

    So this weekend I installed a 4' Firestik II, Firestik heavy duty spring, and a 9' Firestik ring cable on a mount made specifically for my truck. Grounded the mount hooked the antenna up to the radio and brought that little radio to life! I can pick up signals further out than before... Maybe close to 5 miles or so now. Tuned it with the SWR meter, and both 1 and 40 is reading at 2 (again not sure this meter is accurate, just trying to get them close).

    So in this case, do I need a new Mic or radio? I thought about getting it peaked and tuned at a local shop but have yet to do so. Thoughts?

    Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

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    Here are a few pics to get a better idea about my current setup

    Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

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    For starters...The Cobra 19 III is what you would call a "starter radio"...Good to get into CB, but not all that great on receive or anything else...Just a bare-bone radio.

    If it were me, I wouldn't waist allot of money on it having it peaked and tuned, there's just not allot you can do with that radio...The people who said it sounded bad, could have been because the SWR was so far off with the first antenna, but could be the Mic too...The Mic's Cobra uses now days are just shy of being junk.

    If it were me, and your planning on investing more money into the set-up, first thing I would do is invest in a better quality radio...The Cobra 29's are decent radios if you want to stick with the Cobra line...Galaxy makes some real good radios and so does Uniden but your going to pay between $100 and $200+ for one...If you want to stay in the same price range as what you payed for that Cobra, check out the Uniden 520XL...much better radio than the Cobra 19's, about the same size and features, but better receive and can be tuned-up pretty good...The Mic that comes with the 520 is less than desired...(thing is tiny) Good power Mic or noise cancelling mic would be a good idea for the 520.

    Your antenna set-up looks like a winner, so I would leave that alone and just get a better radio...If you need a small size radio like the Cobra 19 III that you have, but want something better, check out the President McKinley, or one of the other President line of radios, they are small size, but are like night and day better than that Cobra... Another radio that I hear is very good, and in a small case is the "Anytone AT6666"...It also gets good reviews.

    I would suggest the Stryker radios, but I've been reading allot lately where they are having issues with the CPU and lots of radios heading back to the manufacturer for warranty repairs...
    Last edited by JesseJamesDallas; 03-04-2019 at 04:59 PM.


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    BOOTY MONSTER (03-04-2019)

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    Quote Originally Posted by JesseJamesDallas View Post
    For starters...The Cobra 19 III is what you would call a "starter radio"...Good to get into CB, but not all that great on receive or anything else...Just a bare-bone radio.

    If it were me, I wouldn't waist allot of money on it having it peaked and tuned, there's just not allot you can do with that radio...The people who said it sounded bad, could have been because the SWR was so far off with the first antenna, but could be the Mic too...The Mic's Cobra uses now days are just shy of being junk.

    If it were me, and your planning on investing more money into the set-up, first thing I would do is invest in a better quality radio...The Cobra 29's are decent radios if you want to stick with the Cobra line...Galaxy makes some real good radios and so does Uniden but your going to pay between $100 and $200+ for one.

    Your antenna set-up looks like a winner, so I would leave that alone and just get a better radio.
    Thanks for the advice.

    What is a good CB for a compact space? The thing I like the most about the Cobra 19 is that it fits nicely under the dash without drilling any holes into the dash.

    Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

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    My President McKinley... The radio is the same size as most aftermarket stereos, so they can be mounted in the dash fairly easy, or can go under the dash...




  7. #6
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    This is a Uniden 520XL...about the same size as the Cobra 19 III, I had this one in my old Suburban's cubby-hole.



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    jmb2011 (03-04-2019)

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    Quote Originally Posted by JesseJamesDallas View Post
    This is a Uniden 520XL...about the same size as the Cobra 19 III, I had this one in my old Suburban's cubby-hole.

    How did this one perform or how much better is it than the one I have?

    Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

  10. #8
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    Another radio to stay-away from is the Uniden 680...It's a small radio, but is total junk...I had two of them and both got to where they would change channels for no reason when you mash the button on the mic...Plus, if anyone was within 2 miles of ya talking on a different channel, they would bleed all over the channel you were on...radio had poor channel rejection.


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