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I agreed to do the review as long as I didn't have to install the kit in my TJ. The kit would contain the 3-way antenna mount and I honestly didn't need another antenna mount (nor the associated mounting holes) on my TJ. RCR agreed to my suggestion that I find a CB-less TJ in the Phoenix area that could use the Cobra Off-Road CB Kit. We agreed that I would help with the installation (along with the TJ's owner) and I would do the product review. The kit was shipped the following day.
Now....the only thing that remained was to find a recipient for
the Cobra kit. Most (all?) of the folks I routinely wheel with have a CB
in their Jeep so that list wasn't going to get me anywhere quick. A friend
of mine, Bob, had recently lifted his '01 TJ and had ran a few trails. I got in
touch with him and discovered that he was indeed looking to put a CB in his rig. He
had been looking at the Cobra 75 the previous week and so was delighted to hear
that the off-road kit I was providing was in fact the same radio. We
agreed to hook up within a few days and get it installed.
Similar to the Uniden Off-Road CB Kit, the Cobra kit comes with everything you need to get yourself up and running. Along with the Cobra radio came the 3-way antenna mount (as previously mentioned), SWR meter and patch cable, a 4' Wilson Flex, Fire-Stik coax cable, and an external speaker. As with the Uniden kit, you can choose from three different antenna mounting solutions. I had previously told RCR that if they were bundling a kit with the Cobra 75, they needed to included an external speaker. While the radio works well in an enclosed vehicle, running a Jeep down the highway with half doors and big tires makes for a lot of background noise. The small speaker in the Cobra 75 isn't up to the task. (This is a common complaint found in the on-line Jeep forums.) I was very happy to see they had remembered our discussion and included the speaker. It means one less trip to the local Radio Shack or truck stop to find a suitable external speaker once the installation is done.
Since the off-road kit is comprised of several components, I've done
write-ups for each part of the kit. This will hopefully make it easier to
find exactly what you need or if you are new to the CB game, just start at the
beginning and work your way through to the end.
FireStik 3-Way Antenna Mount Installation
Cobra 75 WX ST CB Radio Installation
Wilson Flex-4 5/8 Wavelength Antenna Installation & Tuning