Figuring out my CB install

I have one of those cheap cobra cb's. I cannot for the life of me get that and my antenna setup to function properly. I can hear people pretty well but I can't transmit. One person said the antenna has to be grounded. Another said it doesn't. This really gets on my nerves when I'm on a trail and can't communicate. My antenna is mounted to my bed bar. It does not have a tuneable tip but I guess you can still cut it to tune it.

I will post pictures later. Or you can go look in my pictures.

Any help would be appreciate it. Should I just pay a shop to fix it?

 

It sounds like you have a short in the antenna cable or connector. Do you have a multi-meter?

If so, unplug the antenna cable from the back of the CB. Use the multi meter to test for continuity between the core (wire in the middle of the connector) and the body of the connector. There should be no continuity between the red and green in the diagram.




When I installed a setup on a truck I forgot to install a white plastic washer in the stud assembly. That caused a short and I had the same problems you are having. Also, you should test to make sure that all green areas have continuity with a ground in your truck (frame, body, chassis...).

 

I do have a one but that all seems complicated! I'm terrible that type of stuff.

I'll see what I can do.

Looks very helpful.

 

Does your stud assembly look like one in the picture?

 

Yea on the left. An I have that plastic washer in there too.

 

what type of antenna? On my setup I had the same problem and once I got a good ground everything worked great. My mount was on metal that went to the frame but I needed to sand it down to get a good contact

 

It's just a cheap $10 antenna from frys.

My bed rail is mounted to my bed rails.

 

thats not a good ground - try running a grounding strap to the frame

 

Grounding strap? From the mount to between the bed and cab to the frame?

A 12 guage wire will not work?

 

Here is how mine looks

 

I don't think the bed bar is enough metal...maybe?

enough of a ground I mean..

 

Me and HBMurphy tried grounding it. It kind of worked but not really.....

 

So the threads coming up from the bottom through the mount plate are hot?...So that means if they are touching the mount plate it wont work?

 

you need an actual grounding strap. a wire will help but from what I've learned doesn't properly ground RF signals. Think of a desoldering braid but bigger. Actually, a desoldering braid MIGHT work to ground it?

 

i had a problem with mine, check the ends of your coax cable and see if they are soldered. you can have a coax, the firestik fire line or whatever they call it.

 

What is a grounding strap and desoldering braid?

Soldered where exactly?

That sentence is confusing.

 

the screw part of the coax is your ground to the mount from what it looks like the inside threaded part is whats powering your antenna. not sure how those are designed to keep the two seperated but if i were to guess i think that your grounding your antenna out. i would make sure that the stud isnt touching the mount.

 

my coax that i bought first kept pulling out of the antenna, so i bought a coax cable from firestix called fireline or something like that.

And i mean check your solder the on the end of the coax that goes into the cb. undo the cable that goes into the cb, look at the wire that goes through the metal piece and see if the wire is loose.

 

So drill the hole out?

Ok I will look.

 

The BEST way is to run a ground wire from the ANT directly to the frame, there should be a ground wire in your driver's side wheel well on top of the frame already, you can hop onto that bolt. Use #16 or #12 wire.