the talk back and echo board are something you wont be using, at the extremely low setting theyre used so you can hear your voice as you talk to verify that your amp or sideband clarifier on other radio models - arent making you sound like donald duck
at higher settings theyre just extremely annoying
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the 29 lx limited edition is one of the nicest narrow profile radios there is in my opinion, and i am not a cobra fan, ive always ran galaxy radios - it has most of the functions of my galaxy 979 which is a MUCH larger radio
the volume, squelch, and RF Gain are the 3 most important knobs on any 2 way radio and most small profile cb radios omit the rf gain which lets you turn down (or up) your receiving signals power
for example, fully turned RF knob in one direction , and the radio will let you hear all of the signals it receives, the strong ones and the not so strong ones, at this setting the radio will make all sorts of static racket whether anyone is talking or not, fully in the other direction, and only the very strong signals will be heard, like someone sitting DIRECTLY next to you (maybe lol..)
you can limit the amount of static or electrical racket from your jeep that comes through your radio using the RF gain, somewhere towards the low side of the middle setting and the static you hear will be at a low pssssshhht, rather than RAWWWRRPOPSSPSHHSHSHSHHSHHTHSHSHHTHSHHTTTTttTT!
The squelch on the other hand, is the other important one, all the way in one direction and the speaker will stay active no matter what, this is the setting i start my tuning at with the RF Gain, then i edge the squelch over JUST until the speaker goes quiet , then.. assuming your friends radio is working correctly, and your antenna and their antenna are jiving , and brazillian pirates arent jamming your ships boat dock, you will hear your friends talk and then the radio will shut up - basically a perfect scenario, simplex voice conversation
as long as your in close proximity to someone, and the atmosphere isnt doing crazy stuff, this scenario is typically easy to achieve
but occasionally (which are actually the conditions i enjoy playing with) you wont hear your friend, youll hear someone in australia like they're right next to you.. or when messin around with your radio, all of a sudden youre hearing people in IL talk when youre in NC, and sometimes (SOMETIMES) vice versa
cb's are a odd band, they do some funny things sometimes, they do it cool things sometimes, and they do some annoying things sometimes, but they're cheap, they typically work at least as good as a high end GMRS radio and you're allowed to be on any of the 40 channels, unlike some of the channels typically included in GMRS radios which you aren't supposed to be on without certain licensing
now if it's just me and one other person in a 2 car road trip, i use motorola gmrs two way radios with privacy codes and headsets, they typically maintain a 2 mile non-line of sight range and a 10-20 line of sight range, with the privacy codes there is very little interference at all and with the vox (voice operated transmission - it keys the mic when it detects your voice) they work pretty much like a cell phone would in terms of a conversation, except theres no cell phone signal loss when you hit dead zones, or tunnels, as long as youre in range of the other person youll hear each other - worked extremely well when i was driving back and forth from chicago to NC and such with 2 vehicles - my gmrs radios also have a weather band (which some cb radios also will have - or aftermarket car radios for that matter) and since you dont always know what everyones got at jeep meets i usually bring a few gmrs radios as well - work great for spotter to driver comm's and can just re-hand out the radio as different drivers cross an obstacle
i know that was a lot of babble but i get chatty sometimes
dont tell my other galaxy buds, but... i'd actually like to replace mine with a 29 lx le , i havent been using the sideband on mine for about a year now