CB overheating?

[petrotk40]

I bought an old cobra 19 dx II with k30 antenna off Craigslist the other day for $20. I've got it all hooked up but the radio seems to be overheating. Is this possible? Any ideas on how to fix it? Will tuning my antenna with a SWR meter alleviate anything?

 

[1911]

I bought an old cobra 19 dx II with k30 antenna off Craigslist the other day for $20. I've got it all hooked up but the radio seems to be overheating. Is this possible?

Yes.

Any ideas on how to fix it?

Fix and/or replace the antenna. Either the antenna is not grounded correctly, or there is insufficient ground plane for that antenna, or the wire inside the antenna is broken and creating an open circuit.

Will tuning my antenna with a SWR meter alleviate anything?

It will confirm that one of the three things above is wrong with your antenna.

 

[petrotk40]

Thanks for the help! Where would direct me on how to repair the antenna? Just call the manufacturer?

 

[Elbert]

I would get the SWR checked..but probally not worth the $$ to try and fix the antenna unless some obvious defect that is easily repairable.

 

[1911]

Thanks for the help! Where would direct me on how to repair the antenna? Just call the manufacturer?

The SWR reading will help you to narrow down the problem. If the SWR is off-the-scale high, then you probably have a broken coax cable to the antenna. If the SWR is in between 3 and about 10, then your ground plane is not good enough for that antenna, BUT since you are using a Wilson K30 which is a magnetic-mount antenna, this does not apply as much. If you have SWR readings above 3 but you can get a dip below that in some frequency out of the cb range (26.965 - 27.405 MHz) then the wire inside the base coil is cracked or broken or the whip is not making good contact (due to corrosion, etc.) with the base coil.

The problem is, the K30 is a cheap antenna, so on the one hand it's not the most quality antenna in the first place but on the other hand it's only $30 to replace. A cheap SWR meter will cost half of that, so see if you can borrow one and test your existing antenna first.

 

[petrotk40]

Wow, thanks for the detailed response. I just wen't ahead and bought an SWR meter. My setup is just temporary until I get my new bumper mounted and put a more permanent antenna on there. I'll need the meter for that as well so I figured I should go ahead and get one. I'll test it out and post my results.

 

[hey you]

I recently re-wired my CB coax antenna cable. I used a no ground plane coax cable to hook up my Firestik. It seems to work without really testing. Did I use the wrong cable?