Alaska BS thread

I hear you on the HAM radios. I know they're great but I know nothing about them. And honestly, my main use for the CB is hearing weather and being able to chat with someone I'm driving with on a trail. I'll look into the HAM stuff closer though.

As far as cable, I bought 20' Of Ancor RG-8X and ran it. Ended up cutting a little over a foot off so I've got ~ 18.5' and I soldered the coax connections on. This is the first time I've soldered anything though. But I'm getting the right resistance readings so I think I'm good there.

I went to a high school paring lot to tune so nothing near me. And my antenna is in the back corner of my bed too. I know it's not the best spot but like I said, I'm not too worried about getting super long range.

I'm using an SWR meter from a friend but I don't know if its working right. It feels really cheap. I have a nice $110 SWR meter but its on our boat in Whittier so I gotta wait to try that one out.

And my radio is grounded to a screw behind my dash trim. It's not the best connection but it worked for my light bars so I figured it'd be good enough. I though the antenna ground was way more important than the radio ground. If it wasn't good, wouldn't it just not turn on? Sorry for my inexperience haha. I sell VHF radios all day but I never run into tuning issues with the stuff I sell.

 

Looks like what I did this weekend. Fished too but it was very slow. He about 5 hook ups but they kept spitting the new hooks I bought. Switched to my old ones and landed two small rainbows. Sow other than that.

 

Hmm.

Make sure that screw is going directly to metal. Honestly, I think that you'd be better off to run a ground directly to your batteries (-) post, and power from your (+). You may be picking up interference from something else that is grounded to your dash.

Ancor is good marine quality cable, so I wouldn't suspect that as an issue. There are definitely some good references out there on how to solder PL-259 ends, it's pretty crucial that it's done right.

Have any excess cable? I know that coiling it in a tight loop causes RF to be reflected, better to coil it in a figure 8, instead.

Keep the faith.. I got super frustrated and spent a lot of time/research on getting mine to work. Pretty much got to the point where I got it to a level of functionality and had to move on.

And yeah, that bed mounting location is going to reflect a ton of RF back to your antenna. That may be the source of a lot of your issues.

But, with 7.5 I'd suspect a ground/short is your issue. Don't even try to transmit until you get that SWR to at least a 2:1... you can do some serious damage to your radio.

I'd just start eliminating possible faults one at a time; starting with the easiest ones.

Good luck!

 

I've been meaning to set up a bus common - and + bus bar or fuse panel somewhere in the cab for my lights and now radio, I just haven't been too interested in running more wires haha. I'll throw a deep cycle on my floor and wire it directly to that and see if it helps, but I'm with you on having a short somewhere. I'm almost certain it's in the mount at this point. I've been readin all kinds of stuff online about testing for resistance in the mount, stud, and coax/connections and everything is reading good except the mount. I might try making a ground strap for it and putting it on another spot to see if that helps before sanding it down.

 

We will too.

 

Hey guys... got my foxes and TCs on the front this weekend (thanks Jeremiah and Russ!)

If anyone wants my stock coil overs with the revtec spacers ill sell em to ya for $100 total. Might even help throw em on. There is also a top plate spacer for a little added lift... so your truck will be taller than Jeremiah's if you run 285s

Also have the stock UCAs... but someone might have stabbed one of the ball joint covers with a knife so that will need to be replaced. If anyone wants em i am giving them away.

PM me if interested

 

Heeyyyyy now, ouch!

 

I see the stabber has admitted his guilt...

How could you Jer?

 

It was really quite easy to be honest. I just removed my beautiful knife from its sheath, and proceeded to slice the shit out of it! Also, I was say Heeyyyyy now, to her inside poke at being taller than my truck

 

Well I'm pretty sure it's either a bad ground in my mount or I have a short between my mount and my antenna stud. This is too much for me to handle right now haha

 

Psh. Lies.

 

Luke did you get my text, not sure if you android fells get group texts

 

We get them! Jeez, don't discriminate against those of us who are nerdier than you Ben

 

Mike, do you have your antenna grounded to the frame of your truck? Unless you did a cab roof mount, it's essential for you to run an external ground to the frame since the bed is nonmetallic.

 

Nice, ya I fished too. Caught a couple of pinks and a couple trout.

 

Well it's hooked between the bed and my tailgate latch on the driver side. My first gen sure is metallic too. I don't know where to attach a ground wire on my mount. I think the portion of the stud is touching the mount which is causing a short. But I don't know how to fix the issue other than drilling the hole out bigger.

 

Uh. Nope. I didn't get a text...

 

Can you take a pic of the antenna, its mount, and how it's grounded, and send them to me? Or post them here is fine too

 

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