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When you want to choose a cb radio, there is one thing that you want to keep in mind. The thing that you need to keep in mind is that no matter what the price is, you will only have 4 watts transmitted of power which is set forth through the FCC. This will tell you that the cb radios that are 50 dollars and are bare bones are just as nice as the ones that are 200 dollars and are plated in chrome. Many of these cb radios will have a unlimited number of features and still all of these are still going to put out the same amount of transmission.
What will make the difference between one and another is that the features are going to be the difference in the higher priced radio and the lower priced radio. Some of the radios will come with different settings and features and others will come with just the basic settings. Some of the basic settings and features are going to be explained here.
The squelch is going to be one of the things that you will look at when it comes to the radio. This will be the control that will be the break point in which it will output a signal. What this will do is keep the operator from having to listen to a large amount of static when the cb is on and active. This will activate when there is a transmission being received from the operator as well as when there is someone speaking on it. This is a standard feature that comes with all cb radios and the higher priced radios will just have more of a control on it than the basic.
The RF gain is the other feature that you will be looking at. This is going to be based on the signal strength of the radio and will be used to block out the faint transmissions which will eliminate the background noise that you will get with your radio. This can also be used to help you to pull in a better signal from weak signals so that you can hear better.
The PA capability is the other feature that you will want to look at. The cb radio should be used as the public address system but has become a thing that most truckers can not live without when on the road. This will help them keep in touch with one another and keep up on the traffic situations when there is a long lane of traffic and you need to know what is going on in front of you. This will also help the truckers to keep up with the traffic situation as well as any alternate routes that can be taken to avoid all the traffic. The PA capability is going to require that you have a horn which will be sold separately from the radio and will need to be mounted up underneath the hood of your vehicle or on top of the vehicle.
There are a number of other things that you will want to look at when you are looking to choose a radio such as the automatic noise control and the weather capabilities. This will help to make sure that you are kept up to date on any weather situations that might be headed your way when you are driving. The instant channel control will help to make sure that the truckers can use the most popular channels which are already programmed into the radio such as channel 9 and channel 19. You may want to choose a cb radio that has a nightwatch or backlight display. This is usually only available in the higher priced radios but can be available on some of the cheaper ones if you look around first and do not purchase the first radio that you come across.