General CB Radio advice.

[LittlePearl13]

Well I got it all done and installed. Here's a few pics, but I also am uploading a video on where I installed it right now, should be done uploading in a while, 'll post the link then. Anyway, I think edzaar had some really great advice, so I went with a roof mount mag mount instead of one in the bumper. And to be honest, I haven't tested it out yet, because I can't find an SWR tuner in the area, and I don't want to wreck the radio. Anyway, enjoy!

 

[ezdaar]

Nice install...

Bud, with the tiny 3 watts that radio is producing, you wont hurt it..

But you will see a significant increase in your receive and transmit when you get your SWR's as low as possible..

BEFORE you trim the base of that antenna to lower SWR's (if needed), move the cable around as Cable placement can affect SWR's as well.
Besure to clean under that mag mount requently, as in like every 3 days or so until you get a feel for how long it takes to dirty up.. it will ruin paint fast if you dont..
Also, clean that stinger (steel antenna) with steel wool from time to time..

Now ya just need to take it and get it tweaked and peaked,. while your at the shop see if the RFX75 (think its RFX) mod will work with that radio..
Basically its a onboard 75watt amp that gets mounted internally in the radio..
It works very well! and when you decide its time for a footwarmer (big amp), it will drive it real nice and produce alot of power.

When you save up some pennys. the Lil Will will do wonders for ya and its realy cheap.

Gratz on the CB! now go pick on some truckers..

One term to know is "Lot lizard" this is a truck stop ******. :****:

If you have a lake or river near, get some form of un shielded cable, small chain, wire, etc... Drive near water, hook wire up to vehical chassis ground and toss the other end as far into the water as you can.
This effectively turns that body of water into your ground plane. you will poop yourself when you realize your talking to ppl in cozumel, australia, etc...
We used to back a 4x4 S10 up near the beach and walk out 2 60 foot chain out into the surf.. it was like instantly going from deaf to super human hearing!

Or find a really tall parking garage, with a galvanized metal railing arounf the roof parking..
pick a spot near center of one side.. take some 60 grit sandpaper and sand around the pipe aprox 2" wide.. now wrap that same chassis ground wire, chain cable Tightly around that pipe, and listen to the world. You will be directional towards the farthest side away from you.

If you get brave and have a low bridge over large lake, stop and toss wire over side. middle of lake is AWESOME!!!! for ground plane! just be rdy for the police, they no like that kinda thing.




I am so going home and installing my gear tonight! nuthin like hiding off down the creek drinkin some cold beer talkin smack to the truckers!

Btw, they CAN figure out who you are on the road very fast..
They can figure out what parking lot your hiding in very fast..

Always talk smack in a lot with another vehicle that has CB antenna! that way you have cover when you do your escape.

LOL the joys.. O man!

 

[LittlePearl13]

Hahaha thanks Edzaar x) Luckily I don't need to trim this antenna yet (I think). This one is nice and easy to tune. On top of the spring there's that little cone piece where the antenna sits. This model has a little screw drilled into the side to keep it in place, and in theory I should just be able to loosen the screw, adjust the height for tuning, and then tighten that bad boy up. I'm really excited to get it working. Also looking forward to finding a PA horn so I can yell at all the pedestrian freshman at school! Hope I don't get caught though... I life in California, so I can get in big trouble with one of those.

---------- Post added at 03:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:54 PM ----------

Oh, and here's the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkZcNvBU5bM

 

[LittlePearl13]

Hey Edzaar, looking for some advice. I got my SWR Antenna tuning meter in the mail, and I spent all afternoon tuning it. I wound up cutting almost an inch off of the antenna, and I think my ratio is like 1.1:1.4. I was getting great service, but now I'm not getting any signal at all. I'm going to go out tomorrow and try again, but if that doesn't work, any ideas what the problem could be?

 

[ezdaar]

you cut how mutch off???

bud, check your cables. cutting that mutch is.. well ALOT. Like way to mutch.

you have something bad going on.

Did you zero that meter out?

 

[LittlePearl13]

Yeah, it was close to an inch. I don't mind though; it was this ****** little one the came with the mag mount. I'm going to upgrade to a Firestik eventually. But actually, I took my truck out to the dunes by the beach today, and retuned the antenna. I got it all working again, and better than before! I have it matched at 1.2:1.2 even with as much as I cut. I'm getting great reception, and I'm hearing all 40 channels clearly when in a decent location.

 

[ezdaar]

good deal.. Glad its working out for ya..
now grab some cable and go try it out with the ocean as your ground plane

 

[LittlePearl13]

I would, but I had some issues with it today.

So for starters, I went on a few errands today, and was sitting in the parking lot earlier on playing with my radio, and it was working great. It was doing fine all day, until one of my errands took me up a steep hill and I didn't change gears; my transmission felt like it was doing fine in Auto OD (it's an automatic). When I got to the hill, I started smelling something hot, almost like rubber burning. I stopped and got out, and checked all my wiring, and it looked fine. Just last week I swapped out both my serpentine belt, and my muffler. I checked both of these, and they smelled sort of hot, too. I assumed it was the new parts, and thought nothing of it, and went about finishing my errands. But later, I tried to use my radio again, and it wasn't working. I would flip through all 40 channels, and get static on all. Just earlier today, it was working perfectly fine at a ratio of 1.2:1.2. And it was the same level of static, it didn't change at all. So I busted out my tuner to check, and both channels 1 and 40 were WAY >3. So I found a good spot and tried to retune the thing, and I made no progress. I managed to get it to 1.4:1.4, but I still only get static on all channels, but this time it's a milder static that changes in volume a little through the channels. When I was tuning it though, I tried moving the cable. I also moved the base of the mag mount around to help tuning, but I don't think it worked. And now I've lost my sweet spot on the roof. I thought I placed it in the exact center, but is that the best place for optimal reception?

Anyway, I'm stumped, and I'm getting sick of re-tuning this movable base all the time. Help me edzaar, oh master of all things citizens' band!

 

[psfr311]

i mounted my antenna on the right corner of the rear bumper with a teardrop/gumdrop mount. looks clean

 

[TigerEyz3]

I'm not EZDaar, but the sweet spot on our vehicles is not dead center... it's about 18-24" from the rear brake light.

As far as your tuning issues, sounds like you might have a bad ground situation on your hands - since you mentioned that the SWR changed and that the static changed with RPM.

I currently have a roof mount (yes, I drilled a hole) with a Wilson1000. However, prior to that, I ran a Li'l Wil (magnet mount) which worked very well until the antenna coax was compromised - inadvertently sliced the shielding and deteriorated the signal quality. This is also a significant reason why I switched to a roof mount - no worries about coax degradation from the elements or mechanical wear from door.

 

[the big blue bus]

so i have the cobra 19 mounted on the ash tray door in mine. the antenna is on the left rear. i have a 102 whip and a crappy spring. i want to get a good whip spring but right no i dont get the best reception. i barely use it but when we are all convoying id like it to work better. i dont know it its the bumper has a bad ground? or that my radio needs to be tuned somehow? my other buddies have the tunable cobras but for 30 bucks the 19 works for me and has the pa function too. would a ground strap from where my stud is mounted to the bumper to the chassis ground where the lights ar grounded help aid in reception? would the taller spring help too? sorry for all the questions. wlill get pucs of my install tomorrow

 

[LittlePearl13]

From the experience and knowledge I've found out about, the bumper is a bad place for it. Every antenna uses the piece of metal it's attached to for the ground plane. The better the ground plane, the better the reception. My ground plane is my entire roof. A numper mounted one just uses the bumper. This is bad because it a) is much smaller = worse reception b) covered in plastic up top = worse reception and c) the antenna is mounted low, and askew. If you look back to one of Edzaar's links, you can see how that can negatively affect the antenna's signal. Basically anything that is around the antenna's lateral plane will disrupt it's field. My antenna was mounted right behind my light bar, and once I moved it back so it was as far away from roof racks and stuff, my reception got even better. Another reason you probably have not-so-good reception is the ****** spring. Anything that you put between the antenna and the other end of the coax cable (where it plugs in) will weaken your signal a little more. This includes springs, disconnects, etc. You were asking about tuning it: yes, you should tune it. n fact, everybody should tune every radio before the really use it for even mild functionality. Don't bother buying a 'tunable' radio or an antenna with a tunable tip. My friend has one, and the limitations of his tunable antenna prevent him from getting the right SWRs. How you want to tune the antenna is with an SWR tuning meter. All it is is a little box with a meter and two coax cable connections. One is where you plug in the antenna, and the other is where you plug in a short jumper coax that you then plug into the radio. You can buy one on Amazon with a jumper for like under $20. Let me know if you need more help once you get this stuff. Or Edzaar, haha, he knows more than I.

But still, I know more about CBs and how to make them work well than all the trucks you see driving around with a firestik mounted up all jammed between the cab and the bed and don't tune them -_- Putting them right behind the rear window on a pickup in the least functional place for it. Anyway, hope this helped. And if you need some real solid advice on your specific setup, hit up a local Radioshack and they normally have at least one employee who's an expert on CBs who can help you a lot. My guys saved my ass and helped me get a really good setup going on. I've got a cheap radio, and a cheap mag mount antenna, and I still get really clear reception up to San Jose, CA... which is almost 200 miles from where I live.

 

[rushr]

It's been a long time since I've been into CB Radios, probably about 13yrs or so...I still have my old Galaxy Mirage 44 though, I may have to look into putting it in the Yukon. I also have a small Super Star 250 Amp, but I'm unsure if it still works. My Galaxy started out as a Ham Radio, but it's been clipped and now has over 700 channels if I remember right. I had it set up as base unit in the house, talked from Arkansas to New York and Colorado depending on the time of year off of radio power alone. I used to go by Arkansas Outlaw...lol

 

[the big blue bus]

i dont want to buy a new antenna and moutn in on the roof i know it would work better but ive allready got the whip on bumper and dont want roof mount hitting braches and stuff all the time. if i run a ground cable from near the mount to the frame ground i think it may help. also i want to get the 6" spring for my whip and take the crappy one off

 

[psfr311]

i have a 5 foot firestix antenna mounted to the passenger side of my rear bumper with a "gumdrop" mount. havent had a single problem with it.

 

[LittlePearl13]

Even though you may have not had problems, but if you ever find a handheld cb, you should test it on your truck and see which directions it transmits best. (hint: it will be rear corner)

Big Blue, if you go that route, make sure you retune the antenna. Changing the size of the spring changes the tuning.

 

[the big blue bus]

mine not tunned now dont really know how youd tune a whip

 

[LittlePearl13]

Mine's a whip too. Normally at the bottom the antenna part (just the thin piece of metal) is attached to the base, and normally there's like a little cone to adjust the height. you just change the height of it in the little cone, and if you don't have enough room, then you cut the bottom of the antenna. Just by like a millimeter or so. It's not to hard to do, it's just tedious.

 

[the big blue bus]

mins all just one piece. 102ss whip from radio shack

 

[LittlePearl13]

Those should be tunable...