CB (cobra 19) / SWR ???

Any CB can be tuned. Some more than others. The plan when you get a cb tuned is to get the lowest dead key possible and the highest swing the radio is capable of. You had swr??? but nothing about the swr. A 4ft fire stick probably will not get you the ideal swr's. You need 18ft of coax to start with and a 8 ft francis in my opinion. I firmly believe that I have one of the very best cb shops in the world here locally. The name of the shop is T.C's Radio in Watha NC just off I-40.His number is (910) 285-5841. He can answer any question you have and may allow you to ship your radio to him. Or allow you to purchase a tuned radio and he ship it to you. He deals cash only! If you call ask for "T" thats what his friends call him.

Everything you said about tuning the antenna is correct. But a CB can be tuned. They are all turned down to meet FCC regulations from the factory. That radio could probably do around 20 Watts. A higher end radio like a galaxy for example can do just over 50 Watts. The trick is to have a good radio man that's knows what a CB was designed to put out and not turn it up past that.

I'm not wanting to start an argument here. If the 18ft is a myth why have I had a 2.5 swr with 12ft of coax and switch to a 18ft coax and my swr drop to a 1.2? I will admit its been about ten years since I was serious into the whole CB thing. So if I was wrong I apologize for mis leading someone. I will Look into the link when I get home and can use my computer. My phone is struggling today.

What the article said on the 18ft coax myth makes perfect sense. So I admit I may have been mis informed. But one thing that he said in the arcticle was that if someone asks him how much coax to use he says enough to get from the radio to the antenna. And then at the end of the article he talked about the deduction that needed to take place off the 18' to compensate for the always imperfect coax to obtain the perfect length.