Low power and poor sensitivity right out of the box new Cobra 29 Nightwatch 

No need to stress the radio for 1/2 S unit on the meter. The legal 4 watt carrier doubled to 8 watts would only yield 3 dB gain wich is 1/2 of an S unit. 8 watt carriers on most finals are not great and reduce the life of the transistor for almost no tx gain. I never set my radios to 8 watts. If you want noticeable tx power, run a linear or a black box 10 meter converted radio. 73s

@@pulsarcb If that's true then tweaking from 3.5w to 4w would make no difference at all so why bother? I never had any trouble with my 8w radios either.

​@pulsarcb you fix radios for subs.

@jerrywilcox9890 I fix radios for anyone. I have customers from all over, even other countries.

@@pulsarcb hardly anyone fixes them over the road anymore.my cobra 29 I just bought for my truck sounds and works like crap.

The 19s are not known for mind blowing performance. Mostely used now in offroad communications like overlanding. Used to be big in construction sites, scrap yards, transfer stations. More local type situations. A 29 in any version would be a big step up.

Stick with a president radio, if you need a radio as small as the cobra mini, the president Bill 2 will serve you well

@@bobdillashaw4360 I only got the mini because of the price. Free 99. They need amps. Idk why amps are so expensive. To hell with the kits too. Junk. They sent me one with a bad and used fet, the other didn’t have switching, neither had a filter which tbh, idk if it would have helped. Wish them chips weren’t so damn expensive.

try adding a 5 foot francis whip with a ball mount or mirror mount you will be shocked

@@BOB12349307 i have that. I cant get past 3 miles. I wonder if i can mod it. I have three lol. I also made a dipole for it. Quarter wave each side. Its pretty huge. I get great reception with it. Best swr of any antenna I’ve ever used. Location not great but ya know. Its wild tho, such expensive radios and they don’t even match a 20 dollar baofeng. Or however it’s spelled. I bought two 100 watt amp kits. Both had used broken fets. Then i bought two new fets and they were fake. Now im scared to buy those cheap 100 watt amps they look like red power inverters. Maybe I could justify it by doing a detailed review. I thought about making my own but the fets are damn expensive so im trying to find the cheapest chip at 50mhz. I wont need all 50 but itd be nice. 50-100volts, i can use my 48 volt battery charger lol. I noticed something strange tho the other day. I touched a neon indicator lamp to the antenna of my cb and it lit right up like what? There isnt high voltage on that antenna is there? And I’ve always wondered if its better to transmit with high voltage. Like, is it better to step up the voltage before modulation or just modulate the 5volts? I hope I remember this, would make an awesome video