CB specifics

It sounds like something might be wrong with your setup. Or maybe you are reading the SWR meter wrong. The SWR (roughly) is a measure of the power put out by the radio divided by the power that is reflected back to the radio So if you have an SWR that is less than one, your antenna is creating power which can't happen. I would suggest you find an external SWR meter as many CB SWR meters can be faulty. If needed contact a local ham radio club, many of us are more than willing to find and excuse to use the equipment that we have laying around and to teach about radios.

 

Thank you!

 

Did you run the cable under the cab and through the engine bay to the firewall?

 

It didn't bring it down to 0.5, but brought it down from 2.0 to 1.5 just from the grounding strap.

 

Understood, sorry about that. That makes a lot more sense.

 

No worries, my original post wasn't exactly clear!

 

Ok we finally have a 3rd gen in the shop that i can use to design a mount. I will wok on it this afternoon.

 

No. The antenna goes back along the inside passenger side and through a small hole drilled in the rear of the cab. Then it goes along under the bed plastic and to the mount. I was able to keep the hole small because the cable had no connectors. I built my own after the line was run.

I have a bunch of pics detailing it on my build thread:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/metalheads-angry-taco.452919/

 

Great!

Wishes:

1. Sell them for either side. (I want to have an antenna on one side and a dust/rear fog light on the other).
2. Take into account the overhang from a shell.
3. An extra little hole or two for cable management zip-ties would help the install look more polished.

Good luck.

 

Choice of 1/2" CB hole or 3/4" diameter NMO ham antenna hole!

 

Thanks for the tips, first thing i am noticing is that there isnt much room between the edge of the tailgate and the truck bed for a bracket to fit between. Didnt have much time to look at it yet, hopefully we can figure something out.

 

I'm sure something can be worked out, since this guy was able to fit his bracket through.

 

It's definitely a tight fit. It might require thinner and stronger material. Like EatSleepTacos says, since the stainless FireStick bracket fits, we know it is possible.

 

Fits like it was meant to be between the bedside body panel load bearing bed structure. No rubbing, even after a reasonable amount of trail running.

 

Nice, thanks for the pic!

 

Installed my external cb speaker.

 

K0BG really knows what he is talking about!

 

You got this! I look forward to see what you come up with.

 

3rd gens should probably NOT install here due to side air bag deployment.

 

Ok. I have a little riddle that is going to take someone with more experience then me to figure out. I have a Cobra 75WXST that is directly hooked up to the battery. Ever since I installed it back in July, I have been getting more noise through it than I should have been. I did the basic checks of continuity of the Coax cable, along with tuning the antenna. Every thing looked good, but I was still getting more noise than I should have been. The radio wasn't useless, I just needed the squelch turned way down. Some times it would work just fine, but most of the time I would have problems. This past week I finally figured out what my problem is. The day time running lights (DRL) are causing the excess noise. Now this may sound a little funny but trust me they are. I figured it out when I was driving in the dark with the lights on one morning. When it got light enough I switched to the DRL and immediately the CB started pushing out noise. After playing with the lights, I discovered that the DRL was the only setting that would cause the CB to have a lot of noise, hence the reason why the CB would sometimes work just fine. The weird thing about all of this, is that the DRL are on while the headlights are on, but the noise only happens when the DRL are on by them self's. I have installed a CB's in 5 or 6 trucks and never had a problem like this (of course non of the trucks had DRL). To try and make a story that is already to long, not longer. Dose any one have an idea of why the DRL are creating so much noise, and do you have any ideas to fix it? By the way I have already gone to just leaving the lights on when I am using the CB, but it would be nice to just use the DRL considering the CB is on for 2 to 4 hours every day due to my job. Thanks in advance for any help.