CB Question

I have a question for any CB guru's out there.

I have a Cobra 29 classic that I've had since I was 17 and it worked fine. Gave it to my brother in law for a while and then he ended up throwing it in his toolbox for a few months. Anyways, I got it back from him to put on my Tacoma. I bought a new 3' Firestik antenna, Firestik stud, BAMF cb tailgate mount and a new microphone. I can hear weather when I turn it on but I cannot receive any communications. I am unsure if I am transmitting or not, but when I push to the button to transmit on the new mic, the needle jumps as though I am transmitting....Any suggestions on what could be wrong?

 

When you say that the needle jumps, does it go into the red area? Do you have a multimeter?

 

It does go into the red. And no, I currently do not have a multimeter but I think I need to get one to test the ground of the antenna.

 

Ok, so I had a similar situation as you. Same radio too actually. You're install of the antenna is shorted. Give me a minute and I will post a picture.

 

So the center pin in the coax is the + line, while the ring is -. The pin goes into the center at the bottom and that line runs though with insulation around it so it doesnt make contact with the metal - portion that gets grounded. I colored all the + parts red, with the exception of the center connector thats inside the coax connection part. If you remove the stud and disconnect the antenna and look at the base of where the antenna screws on you'll actually see a plastic ring. In my opinion it's kind of shitty in the sense that it doesnt provide a whole lot of insulation. What happened with me is that the + stud that the antenna screws on was making contact with the mounting bracket causing it to short. This is the area I marked with green. When you tighten it, the thing moves around and can sometimes do this. I personally wrapped electrical tape on the base of the stud so it wouldnt short against the mounting braket and I instantly got great SWR.

 

Awesome. I'll go out and try this real quick and let you know what I get.

 

Ok, I went out and did the same and am still getting the same.

 

Also, I was mistaken this whole time. I have a cobra 25WXST

 

CBs can be iffy. realistically you'd want a multimeter, anything cheap will work as you dont care for accuracy and just test for continuity to figure out if it's the antenna system or coax. If neither I'd say it's probably the CB having some sort of issue. But thats a different ball game and I cant help with that.

 

Alright, I sure hope its just a grounding problem. I really appreciate your help.

 

Mess with the antenna adjust a bit to see if you can get it in the green zone. One of the issues is that antennas don't have grounds in the sense lights do where current flows. The "ground" is more of a plane that reflects radio waves, it's actually called a ground plane, and if the 09 has a plastic bed like the 16 then I'd imagine the ground plane must be pretty bad and close to nonexistent. It's possible that none of your components are bad but rather the setup is not good. I'm personally going to mount the antenna on the hood, so I've done zero research on how good mounting the antenna in the bed is, maybe I am wrong. Maybe it is a good spot.

 

I'll get a multimeter in the morning to check but I am betting it is that and yes, the 09 is all plastic. I haven't heard of any others having this problem with the BAMF mount that I have but there's always a first.