I have a ranger cb radio and it just started where I could not hear anyone. I turned the volume all the way up and can hear people if they are close to me but not far away. The needle doesnt move when I tx or rx. I can talk out but it is coming and going

It sounds like something has gone bad in the receive section of the radio.

It could be the RF gain knob is no good.(make sure its turned all the way up.

It could be a resistor on the board loosing value in the receive section. If your radio only has 1/6th watt resistors, its very likely.

At any rate, if its not something simple like a bad RF gain knob, or that you just don't have it turned up, then its going to need a tech.

Unless you have a schematic and service manual and have time to trace it down.

Some things you can try..

Double check all the usual stuff, no matter how simple. Coax, antenna, grounds etc.

then, you can open the cover of the radio, look at the wires connected to the RF gain knob. Should be 2 wires. If you have a soldering iron, you can unsolder them and hot wire them together. this will make your RF gain full.

If its not working after that, it needs a tech to find the bad part.

If you turn off the radio, and disconnect the power wire for a long period of time, and then hook it up and turn it on and the receive is there for several minutes and fades away, its most likely a bad resistor. When it gets warm from running, it looses value.

It could be a resistor loosing value, a cap unloading when it shouldn't. It needs some one who knows how to trace this stuff down on the board.

My best guess without having the radio here with my meter is that a resistor has gone bad. its been known to happen especially if the radio has really small, 1/6th watt resistors. Depending on when it was made, it may have them.

the other thing that could have happened is that if a big radio keyed up next to you, with a lot of wattage, it could have blown the receive.