Cant say if the newer ones are any better Have really been on the air for 15 years or so Any way this was one that was in the wifes truck my old one is down in the shop.
The old 23 Channel units were authorized to radiate up to 7 watts, when they went to the 40 Channel they cut the power output to 4 watts. "Better" is a relative term. Have a couple of 23 Channel CBs that outperform some brand new top of the line units in both transmit and receive. If that radio Carl has is good, it will serve you just about as well if not better than anything they make now (assuming "legal" radios, start adding bi-linear amplifiers and all bets are off).
My recollection was Part 95 was changed around '76 or '77 to limit to 4 watts when they also changed/expanded from from 23 to 40 Channels. I could be wrong, usually am. My '76 Ranchero had the Ford AM/FM/CB option and it was a 23 Channel unit that according to it's operating manual was 7 watts RF at the antenna out and an "enthusiast aquaintance's" power meter measured it at 6.997 watts at the RF/coax connector. That radio still out performs the 3 40 Channel CBs that I have. Receives better and transmits a stronger signal. Don't know, maybe it was an illegal radio even then.
‘Breaker one-six, breaker breaker!!!’ I've got a vintage Cobra (or Midland, or whatever was the most popular back then) in the shed somewhere, complete with cigarette lighter plug and magnetic antennae base. I’ll dig it out this weekend to see what I got and what it's worth. Back to the technical discussion…………
I've run CB and other Amateur radios in all of my "Intergalactic Highway Cruiser Class" cars (the ones I will drive across country, which is about all of them) since I was old enough to have a license (when/where they were needed -- my Ham ticket is lapsed and I don't know that I want to renew it, not much interesting out there these days and I can still just listen...). Midland's ad was deceiving until they reworded it by order of the FCC and even now it implies to the novice/naive something that isn't true. I'm pretty certain that the radiated power was reduced at the same time the CB band plan was opened up to 40 channels. At least that is my recollection and while I could be wrong I'm pretty sure it is now lower than it once was. Either way, a 23 channel is just about as useful as a 40 channel nowadays - I haven't heard anyone much at all on any channel in a long, long time except of course the filth on 19 in city areas. In my recent drive across country even the truckers were largely absent from 19 except for a very few. It isn't like it once was where you could coordinate with about any all truckers during your trip and in town had neighborhood channels and folks chatting. Cell phones and internet have made it pretty superflous. Now is a good time to get back into it for those that have someone on a channel (besides 9 or 19) to talk to.
I got into CB radios about 1969 when I was in the 7th grade. It was great back then because there weren't very many people on the radio at the time. It was all really polite and the language was clean. "Breaker" really meant something in those days because you didn't just try to talk over someone else who was already using the channel. I remember one guy in our neighborhood (west Tennessee) could talk to his brother in New Mexico when the skip was right. My first radio was a used Heathkit crystal radio, and it was putting out plenty of power from what the other CB'ers said about it. I seem to remember too that the power was cut when the CB craze hit in the mid-70's. It just wasn't the same after that - not because of the power but because of too many people and not enough courtesy.
Talk of 4 watt limits above makes me wonder what happened to ssb -- is that not being used on CB these days? I guess it depends on people having receivers for it.
SSB is permitted up to 12 Watts per part 95 >72 ++++++++++++ Well -- my ancient ham knowledge tells me that's the same amount of input power to the final amp as a 4-watt conventional [double-sideband + carrier, AM transmitter]. Are common CB radios capable of receiving SSB? 12 watts would potentially get you quite a bit of range on 10 meters with a decent antenna.
You have to have a SSB unit. On the plain jane radios when you hear an SSB unit it comes out as a cross between interference and Donald Duck. The SSB units are quite a bit pricier than AM CBs but you can get them. Most of the old time SSB units were base stations but they did/do make mobile units. There aren't a lot of folks up on the CB bands these days and fewer on the SSB. For the enthusiasts that have them they are good units -- but sun spot cycles being what it is this isn't the best time for shooting the skip.
