CB radio (1 Viewer)

[lx450landcruiser]

Ok me and a bud both just got new CB radios, radio shack 503
any ways we hooked them up in our vehicles and i can hear his perfectly but only his and no other channels (other channles have only static) His on the other hand cant hear mine at all but he can hear faintly other people further off talking. any ideas as to whats happening? everything is adjusted right to me i just dont get it? any help would be awsome.

mike

 

[REDDER1]

I am not an expert..but i will take my best shot based on my rececent CB install experience.

• check your antenna. I believe the antenna 'closes the circut' and allows the CB to actually pick up signals. Make sure all connections are tight and secure.
• Check where you are mounting the antenna. it needs to be higher up (unless you have a 10 ft whip antenna )
• Sometimes CB's need to be tuned professionally. Usually the high end ones that truckers use dont. Less expensive ones might. I think a CB radio shop can tune it. I believe it is like if your CB says channel 15..it is slightly off and taking in channel 15.1. Like when listneing to AM radio and you are slightly off..you can hear the station..but it is static.
• Check for any shorts/cuts in the antenna wire. You might have unintentionally cut into it..or crimped it..
• FINALLY, and the most " " explanation. I thought my CB didnt work at all..when i turned it on. I heard NOTHING. So i took it to a place with lots of truckers! Drove down the local highway..and BOOM! I heard more P.O.'ed truckers talking about chicks and s***ty road construction projects that i could ever dream of! At least i knew it was working!
  

Hope this helps.
good luck

 

[Gumby]

Grounds, especially at the antenna are very important. The antenna must be mounted and be getting a good contact with metal.

 

[GXO]

4x4 conection has a SWR Meter for about 20 bucks.

 

[CDN_Cruiser]

Mike:

A few things:

1) you don't mention it - but you DO have an antenna attached, correct? If you operated the CB (transmit) with no antenna, there is a possibility that you have blown the radio.

2) assuming that you have the antenna, check all the connections and make sure they are well seated and good and tight.

3) as others have noted, make sure that the antenna is up high and grounded to metal (ie using a mag mount or attached grounding strap, etc)

4) The radio shouldn't need tuning, but you do need to tune the antenna. This requires a SWR (Standing Wave Ratio) meter that can handle CB freq. Assuming you don't want to buy one of these and do it yourself, go to a radio store and have them tune it - probably the single biggest thing you can do to improve the CB

5) I'm not familir with the model, but make sure that the 'settings' are the same. For example, if you have SSB, both need to be on SSB, etc.

Let us know if this stuff doesn't work.

Cheers, Hugh

 

[alia176]

For those of you who mounted an antenna on the ARB bumper tabs....are you running a separate ground wire to the body or did you simply scrape the tabs to expose some metal?