The Golden Triangle (Beaumont, Port Arthur, Nederland)

Phill and David, did you guys ground your CB ant.? From what I gather, the cable acts as a ground for tue ant.

 

I grounded mine just because.

 

What kind of antenna do you have?

 

Firestick adjustable.

 

I think that's what I have, I don't have mine grounded and it works well.

 

We loved the Harry Potter ride. It was defintitely the best one and worth the ride. Try the butter beer while you are waiting in line. Also if it's raining while your there you can bet it's 3:00pm. I could have set my watch to it. That was in June though.

Chris did his on the meet where we installed Devin's sliders. He damn near finished it by himself before we got there. Not to hard at all, but definitely easier with help[.

PM'd him. Kinda hard not to pick that up at that price. Seeing what freight would be. I would like to get it here and modify it to my needs.

automotive prototype testing engineer?

 

Hmmmm, will have to work on it this weekend, then.

 

I like that definition, Warren.

 

My name is not Phill or David but I'll chime in with my two cents anyhow. Unless you bought a base loaded antenna (like a magnetic antenna) then the antenna is grounded by the mount itself. If I remember correctly, you attached the mount on the plastic of the bed.

If this is your current location, you may not have a decent ground as the only thing touching metal would be the bolts themselves. If you do not want to change the location then I would suggest adding a grounding strap to a good body ground. Otherwise I would move that mount to have as much surface contact with grounded metal as possible.

Why are you questioning this now? Are you having problems transmitting or problems calibrating your SWR's?

You can check if the ground is good enough by using a multimeter. Touch the mount with one lead and your negative battery terminal with the other. Since yours is not accessible than you will need to find a ground near your location. I'd look somewhere around your taillights. This might require you to remove said taillight. This is easily done bu just removing to bolts on the inside of you bed above and below the tailgate latch. If your multimeter swings all the way to the right then you have a good ground if not there is your problem, fix it.

If you have a good ground and are still having issues then it might be either the quality or length of the coax cable. This is one area you don't want to skimp on. Also the optimal length for your cable is 18ft and better the quality of the cable the better off you are. You should be running RG-58 A/U type coaxial cable. This is for single antenna setups. If you found your running RG-59 A/U type coax, then you have the wrong kind as that is made for a dual antenna setup and could be causing your issues.

If none of these resolve your problem then your antenna itself may not be tuned. I believe that you bought a FireStick with a tunable tip, right? If so, it will look like this.


To tune your antenna first turn your CB off and disconnect the antenna coax cable from the back of it. Connect the end of your antenna coax to the SWR meter where it indicates "antenna." Connect the short coax jumper cable coming from the transmitter position on the SWR meter to the back of the CB. Close the hood and doors on your vehicle, and make sure there are no people around the vehicle area. Turn on the CB. Set the CB to channel 1. Set the SWR meter to the FWD position. Key the microphone by depressing the talk button and turn knob until the SWR meter indicates the "set" position. Unkey the microphone by letting up on the talk button. Flip the SWR meter to the "reflect" position. Key the microphone and look at the reading on the SWR meter. The lower the reading, the better. If the meter reading is in the red zone, DO NOT operate the CB. Recheck your connections. Turn CB to channel 40 and repeat the process you did on channel 1.

If the reading on channel 1 is higher than the reading on channel 40, you need to lengthen your antenna. Alternately, if the reading on 40 is higher, you need to shorten it. You can adjust the antenna by turning the tuning tip. There should be a locking ring on there also to keep it from moving once you have found your ideal length. If any adjustments are needed, they should be made in small increments. Re-check after each adjustment.

I hope this helps and if you have questions just PM me. I'll do what I can to help.

 

Warren highly upset you didn't quote my quote

 

It's ok buddy I didn't get quoted either

 

You're not getting an invitation Devine

 

We are not interested in your club

 

We sound like girls lol

 

Devine always sounds like a girl

 

Relax..........ya'll are on the big screen

 

Fawk

 

#winning

 

Wait.... How many clubs do you have?