CB Professionals give me some help!

[nicksfj-40]

My brother got me a Wal Mart Special Cobra CB radio for my 40. I bought a magnetic antenna for it and hooked it up to talk with the radio crowd in good old oklahoma. Thing is I can hear people really well but I cant get anybody to respond to a radio check. My girlfriend said that she could hear me coming through the computer speakers but that was the extent of my transmission. Any ideas? I dont really want to but that SWR thing to tune the antenna But I guess I will if I have too.

[Coolerman]

Go to any truck stop that has a CB shop. For $20 they will tune you rig for you. Of course you can buy a cheap tuner for about the same!

[nicksfj-40]

You think it just needs tuned? If that is the case I will be yackin in no time. Thanks buddy.

[Coolerman]

Just a basic antenna tune will improve your transmission a lot! One thing to keep in mind with a magnetic mount, if you don't use it in the same place as it was when it was tuned you will lose performance.

Don't expect to reach out 12 miles with that setup either. 1-2 miles on the open highway with the tuned mag antenna and maybe 1-5 with a good 1/4 wave. For trail use 1-2 miles is plenty!

The CB shop will tell you that a good 1/4 wave antenna with good coax is the way to go. They may even offer to 'tweak' your CB. This is not illegal but is simply a service they offer where they go through each stage of the CB and tune it for max output and efficiency. Some shops can of course do it illegally

[Kofoed]

try ground the chassis of the radio.

[nicksfj-40]

I changed my antenna to a larger whip and mounted it on my pass door hinge. I am going to have it tuned by a guy but I can transmitt and receive now. As far as a radio check the best way to get someone to talk to you around here is to ask if anybody is looking for a fight. People come out of the woodwork. I am still getting a lot of excess noise when I start my 40. I reground everything from the battery to the frame, frame to motor, motor to firewall. I think a bad ground would casue this road noise but not sure. Any ideas? Or will some of the noise go away when I get the antenna tuned correctly???

[CruisinGA]

I've always had to run a noise filter on whatever CB I put in my 40...

They are a few bucks at radioshack and about the size of cell phone.

It installs in the power supply line to the CB.

[Pin_Head]

Originally Posted by nicksfj-40

I changed my antenna to a larger whip and mounted it on my pass door hinge.

I am still getting a lot of excess noise when I start my 40. I reground everything from the battery to the frame, frame to motor, motor to firewall. ??

Stick on antennas are not good for cruisers because most of the places you stick it don't have a big enough ground plane to make it transmit efficiently.

The noise is probably RF interferance from the ignition. Get an RF filter capacitor for the + side of the coil and use RF suppressing spark plug wires.