CB specifics

Is the pa much louder with the amp?

 

Please hold...

Before you button up everything, do you have a tester? I mean electric tester where you can test continuity?

 

I was going to install it all and have the local truck shop tune the antenna up for me. So no i do not personally have one

 

OK. So from your photo I don't see this:

 

What antenna mount is that...home brew? Never seen one of those before. Nice looking set-up you got there.

 

The thing is that top adapter can't be grounded to your bracket. It's important that you install the insulated washer between the top adapter and your bracket (!) and the stud that connects top to bottom can't touch your bracket neither..
Now the bottom connector has to be grounded to the bracket you actually need to file/sand paint (or powder coat) to bare metal, so the outer part of that connector makes good contact to the bracket. You could also do the same under the bolts that you affix your bracket to the bed/body.
After proper ground and swr are verified, you could try painting that area to prevent rust.

 

Ya thats there upper half is above bracket lower half is below brack then coax screwed into that and ran into tailight

 

If you have your washer there, that's great! I just can't see it on this photo... And I started to worry

 

Yes but the

$38 SPECO 6" 15 Watt PA Horn SPC-10

Speco PA speaker I got is only 15w so I may need to update that. They amp says its 300W but I bet its more like 50W peak and especially with the PA speaker being 8ohm I don't think it is ideal but it seems to do the job. It seems like there is always a need for a PA at most of the events I go to around here. I really need to get this

$31 Horn, Weatherproof, 6in

4ohm version but I don't think its that big of a deal.

 

Its still wrong. The antenna needs to not be grounded and isolated. Just like you showed him. Like this


I ran a seperate ground up to the bracket and the paint is removed on the side the COAX connects to.

 

That's what I'm saying, I don't see that plastic washer there.... I might have misunderstood what @Friedtacolover wrote, but that washer needs to be there, just like in your photo

 

Well there are a ton of bar clamps on ebay and even Amazon in various different sizes that are bare and you can make your own light or antenna brackets. There is one guy on ebay I found that had on premade and it shipped real fast so I got two of them 1 for CB and 1 for HAM when I install it. This guy make the bracket in vert or horiz configs. Bracket Link

It seemed strong enough for a 5ft firestik.

 

If you look at the schematics that @brentw59 provided, first photo illustrates how it's supposed to work.

What I was trying to say is this:

Make sure that insulated washer is installed properly on top of your bracket.
Scrape paint on bottom of bracket so the outside edge (stud in the middle is insulated from outer edge) has good contact to metal.
Good luck!

 

this is what i have so where should a grounding wire go. There is only a nylon under it on bottom

 

Ok so just do that and no grounding wire correct? Thanks for the help!!!

 

If you'll have good ground between your bed -> bracket -> antenna base, then no additional wire needed.
If it's not good enough there might be an issue getting decent SWR, and additional Grounding wire might be necessary between truck frame and your bracket.
It's kinda hard to tell without a tester, and over the internets... Lol

 

Ok so ill sand the bottom of the bracket and either where the bracket mounts to truck or run a ground from bracket to ground. Ill move the washer and hardware up to the top part above bracket. Thanks all for the help im on track now

 

I recently installed a cobra 75 with a 4’ firestick NGP antenna. It’s mounted to the bed rail on the passenger side. Using a meter I got when I ordered the radio I’m getting an SWR around 2.2 or 2.3 on 1 and 40.

Searching through this thread here it seems like not many people are using NGP setups. Have y’all had good grounding results with bed rail setups before? Anyone have any more advice on how to improve SWR? (I’ve read the guide on right channel radios’ website and implemented the changes they recommend)

 

I don't believe the bed rail is a good ground. Those SWR readings aren't very good you need to be 1.5 or lower and the NGP setups while they will work they aren't very good even with good swr reading.

NGP ANTENNAS
Due to their unique construction, no-ground plane antennas have about 70% the range of standard ground-based antennas of the same length.

2' Length: 1 to 2 miles

3' Length: 2 to 3 miles

4' Length: 3 to 5 miles