I picked up a Midland 3001 CB for a tenner a couple of days ago. Untested. From a local second hand shop.

Was pleasantly suprised to find it actually works, after connecting it up to a 12 v adaptor. Unfortunately, I don't have any antenna for it, and spent a bit of time this evening experimenting connecting it to the TV aerial in the loft. However, just static across all 40 channels. I'm not sure if this is the antenna not being suitable, or a complete lack of people on CB radio! (By the way, this is in Dorset UK).

A few quick questions for someone almost completely new to this:

1. What is the general chat channel? What is the emergency channel? Any others of interest?
2. Can I make my own antenna out of any old bit of wire? On the back of the CB is a 1/2 inch screw fit jack for the antenna, with a central female port. With a homemade antenna, is this a case of a long wire connecting these two parts (i.e. the female port and the outer threaded part).

(My previous experience of CBs was in the 80s, where my childhood friend had one in his room - he had an approx 3 ft commercial aerial in the loft of his bungalow - nothing very sophisticated - but we had people from probably a 2 mile area+).

Hoping the answer to these questions is not "CB frequencies have now been reassigned for 5G" or something dreadfully depressing like that.

THanks!


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01202 929659 9 pm - 6 am.

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Re: CB experiments
By: Ginger1 to All on Mon Feb 03 2025 21:37:03

Hi, Ginger1.

However, just static across all 40 channels. I'm not sure if this is
the antenna not being suitable, or a complete lack of people on CB radio! (By the way, this is in Dorset UK).

I picked up a CB a couple of years ago having not used one since the 90s. What I noticed was:

1 - The modern world does not help you at all. Where the noise floor used to be basically zero across the band, there is now S3 - S9 of (man made) interference on every channel. Half the people I used to chat with were S5 or below so, all things being equal, I would no longer be able to hear them nowadays.

2 - There are way fewer people on nowadays

3 - I get *nothing* from my house at all

4 - If I drive somewhere high then I can often pick up / join in on a few conversations with a 6ft aerial on my car, however it's very time dependent. Most commonly there is either nobody on or there is only one conversation going on, albeit with 3-5 people in it.

Regarding an aerial - you can use anything to listen (to varying levels of success) but you will need a properly tuned aerial to transmit. I would definitely get a CB aerial if you plan to use this thing. Controversially I would say it doesn't make *that* much difference which one you get, it's more important to get it up high and preferably away from houses. You'll also need a SWR meter to tune it correctly. It's going to be more than a tenner but doesn't need to be crazy money.

BobW

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On 03 Feb 2025, Ginger1 said the following...

I picked up a Midland 3001 CB for a tenner a couple of days ago.
Untested. From a local second hand shop.

nice looking radio. only FM though so you won't be able to talk to anyone on SSB around 27.555 .. not that i'd condone such things (he he he)

of people on CB radio! (By the way, this is in Dorset UK).

check out "Fred In The Shed" on youtube. he's got some decent videos about CB over there.

2. Can I make my own antenna out of any old bit of wire? On the back of the CB is a 1/2 inch screw fit jack for the antenna, with a central
female port. With a homemade antenna, is this a case of a long wire connecting these two parts (i.e. the female port and the outer threaded part).

https://www.westmountainradio.com/antenna_calculator.php

i don't know which channels are popular in the UK (or if they even match in frequency.. you'll have to look it up) but let's say it's like the US and you want channel 19. so you cut two wires around 8ft 7.3inches (sorry m8 lol) ..

get a run of coax cable and one of these (will have to poke around to find local, but so you know basically what it looks like. you can get fancy ones too..):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/195847908990

your two ~8ft wires connect as shown to the wingnuts and your coax between that and the radio.. hoist it up somewhere so it's like a big T in the sky (or pretty much any way you'd like.. if you can hang one end from a tree and another angles down to a stake or something that's fine. just avoid running the coax and the the 8ft wires too close or parallel if you can)

for coax, i often buy cheap-o 50 ohm BNC cables .. often even real RG58 for significantly cheaper than what they sell HAM/CB stuff for.. i just have some BNC-PL259 adapters.. they look like this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/404361564377

sure there's a risk the cable sucks/is fake, but ~$20 for 50ft isn't bad.

hopefully your $10 investment didn't just turn into more than say.. $50 or so. if you find a local radio shop i bet you could get that down further..

meh, for that matter you might be able to find a CB dipole on ebay for cheap, like this one from your neck of the woods:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/126286973227

and some ready to go coax for $50-60

and here's why i went through the rigamaroll:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/226367144269

they go up from there.. a bit much for a lark.. especially if you're in a quiet spot

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Re: CB experiments
By: Ginger1 to All on Mon Feb 03 2025 21:37:03

I picked up a Midland 3001 CB for a tenner a couple of days ago. Untested. From a local second hand shop.

I've still got my brand new (when I bought it) Superstar 4000 in the loft.

Not had it up and running since I moved house, but its on the list of things to do.

Problem is, the computer equipment doesnt like the CB and the CB doesnt like the computer equipment :(

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