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I have a uniden pro505xl and a cobra LTD 25 classic both radios are "am" and 4w, ive got a 6.5m long 27mhz antenna im going to put on my roof, does anyone have an idea on the distance TX and RX?

TX Depends on terrain/buildings trees ,hills and if used at night , RX "can" be hundreds of kilometers .

depending on the sunspot cycle, you can work internationally. You can work interstate more regularly depending on skip conditions. I was receiving a couple of stations from Hawaii stations on my scanner just a couple weeks ago. As for local comms it really is local probably less than 50km reliably especially in the suburbs where there is a bit of noise on that band. SSB operation will yield better results in general. I think you can transmit 12w ssb. But I see your radios are am.

Im hopeing the antenna will help being 6.5m long

What type of antenna is it. If its approx 6.5m long I can only assume its a 5/8wave antenna. All I can say from experience is mount that sucker as high as you can. I used to have mine mounted approx 5m higher than the roof of my house and it did the job quite nicely. I had a station master antenna like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwhBX8QFc94

i had one of those station masters myself back in the day and boy did i get out

yeah they were quite good. They are still available. The 5/8 ground plane was the king of the vertical antennas. A girlfriend I had in the 80's had one and it was a great antenna. I did end up with a 3 element yagi beam as well as the station master, and the beam was really good for long distance. Those were the days. Does anyone still use the 27mhz band in Melbourne or Australia? I'm in the SE suburbs of Melbourne and back in the day the airwaves were saturated with users either on channel 11 am or 35 LSB. I hear a few international stations every now and again on the scanner but no locals. Mind you I only have the scanner.

yep the 3 element beam was the go to great for skip long live the 27mhz days

Plenty of activity on 27MHz. I've listed in a few times and you can generally grab someone during the busy hours (early AM or after work onwards)

Same idiots around thou just like 477

I listen to a bit of the uhf cb every now and again. It is absolutely saturated with idiots on the repeaters. I hear a few stations simplex every now and again. It seems like it's come full circle. 27dregs used to be full of morons but it seems that uhf wins out on the idiot count now. Of course there are still some good people around and I am generalizing.

Had a look at the antenna and its a station master, and i will be on 27mhz very soon as im in the process of getting the antenna mount and the cable setup to the radio.

Phantom wrote:Same idiots around thou just like 477

redstar wrote:I listen to a bit of the uhf cb every now and again. It is absolutely saturated with idiots on the repeaters

Hmm yes it's too unfortunate... actually quite disappointing sometimes.

However I did manage have a great conversation on a local UHF CB repeater the other night for a solid hour. No buttoners or halfwits even tried to ruin it. I was very impressed. There are still some good people on CB to be found.

Cheers,