CB guys..need a little advice on the 102"

So i decided to take my pos antenna off today. It wasnt a firestick or anything fancy. Just a plain jane 5ft with a metal gound bracket on the back of the bed. it was ok for 1/2 mile trail riding-thats it. I put a 102" whip in its place, recalibrated my cobra 29lx, and i still can't get this thing tuned right. granted, i haven't been out on the road too much tonite, but sitting in my driveway, i cant hear $h!t. not even weather. I need to get the swr better since its at 2 right now, but am i missing something?? or do i just need to head to a cb shop??

 

To start with, make sure your antenna bracket is fastened to a good electrical ground. Next, find your primary frequency that you use. Use the wavelength calculator found here: http://www.1728.org/freqwave.htm. Convert this to inches. Assuming your 102" antenna is a solid metal whip, add a couple of inches and cut your antenna to that length. Now check swr. If necessary, make small cuts of 1/4 inch and note that the swr decreases. Adjust to minimum. Moving the antenna shaft in and out of the base using the set screw to hold it will give you an idea of which way to go with your tuning. Hope this helps. Good luck.

 

To figure out your issues one must trouble shoot the install or equipment.

I suggest checking out this link for both, but starting with the install because that's easy and you can do it yourself http://www.rightchannelradios.com/cb-radio-resources.html#installation

If you have the install good you shouldn't need to tune a 102" whip. I didn't need to tune mine as as soon as I installed it I started getting skips from all over, the farthest being some guys from AZ that lasted almost 20 minutes. With my 4' Firestick I never got a skip and had a pro tune that for me.

 

thanks for the help guys. I ended up taking off my 102 whip today. I put a new mount behind the cab on the driverside, yet extends over the side (outide) of the bed and installed a k40 tuneable. Best thing i ever did. I get alot more reflection, got my swr down to 1.1. and can talk for miles in any direction. I dont see how guys are putting firesticks on the back of the bed and are able to talk to anyone, especially if the people you are trying to talk to are behind you.