CB radio suggestions anyone?
 

I have recently installed a Uniden cb radio with a fiberglass firestick antenna. So far i have not been to impressed with it. Any suggestions on cb and antennas ????

Tell us about the install of the radio and the antenna (mounted where, what to, VSWR reading, pwr output of radio). Post a couple of photos of the setup also.

i tried to see the difference between the one i mounted and a mag mount and the mounted has little to no squelch when you turn it all the way down, but the mag mount when the squelch is all the way down you definitely can hear it you need to turn the volume down, its the way it should be



https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...6a402c53c2.jpg

it temporarily in place hooked up to 12 volt cigarette lighter plug

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...d0deaabc4d.jpg

its a home made mount

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...10f29ba457.jpg

how it is mounted an aluminum bracket

I am running a Uniden PC78 Elite in mine and I absolutely love it. Firestik antenna mounted on a spring and mount.

Attachment 293492

One major problem is the way you have the radio connected to power, that way makes for a very noisy radio due to electrical interference. The positive and negative wires from the radio need to be wired directly to the battery and each fused. The battery acts like a very large filter itself so helps in that respect also.

What the two antenna mounts told you were that the mag mount had a better ground plane than the other and it in effect was working much better just by the squelch working that way. It was in effect receiving much better you could use a simple front fender/hood mount and use the hood for the GP while keeping the antenna lower. The mounts need to be grounded as well for a lot of antennas to work properly.

Could I try and wire it to the cigarette outlet??

how would you go and wire it to the battery

No you need to run the wires through the firewall directly to the battery. There are several grommets in firewall that you can get the wires in that are installed already. Install fuses for both close to the battery just for safety.


I run a Cobra remote head unit its out of the way only the mic is seen the main unit for all connections (coax, pwr., mic, remote spk.) can be mounted where ever you wish and out of sight. I use the external spk. for the PA sys. have the spk. in the mic is quite good and loud enough to be heard over other radios in Jeep because it is right in front of me. This radio cost under a $100 and has many features for one this size and cost.
Attachment 307048


For an antenna I use a 102" SS whip/with spring mounted on my rear bumper to and antenna mount built into it.

Josh, the underside of your antenna mount where where the antenna stud is needs to be bare metal. Also where the mount meets the body needs to have a clean metal to metal contact.

You may not experience any ignition noise from powering the radio through the cig lighter, but it is always best practice to power the radio directly from the battery with a fuse close to the battery.

So i need fuses on the positive and negative wires???

Yep, with a long run of wire it never hurts. Just added safety.

Wiring straight to battery is always a good idea, but I have mine plugged into outlet just like you and it works perfectly! Not saying wiring it to the battery isn't better, just saying I doubt its your problem. All my buddies and I, use the cig outlet without any issues whatsoever. I think your problem is the Coax cable... Pretend its glass... NO tight curves or pinches. Once you "break the glass" there's a permanent break in the wire that can cause reception and noise issues. Also I seen you had a antenna mount on the rear taillight. Make sure its BEHIND the taillight touching the bare metal instead of sitting on the plastic of the taillight like they recommend in the instructions of the premade ones. This allows for a better ground :cheers: Anymore questions feel free to ask away, I have almost the EXACT setup as you.:devil2:

I'm waiting for someone with superior CB knowledge to do a write-up! Seems to be a question that's asked very often. Oh and my CB is wired to my cig lighter and it makes a bunch of unnecessary noise. Just another thing on the list to do.

No. Don't fuse the ground (negative) wire. That's a bad thing.


Another big problem is that coax going into the bottom of the antenna is bent too sharply.

Coaxial cable is not just wire. It needs to be handled carefully, and not bent sharply, and never kinked.

That bend is changing the distance between the outer conductor and the inner conductor. That changes (for the worse) the cable's radio characteristics.

^^ there's something I never realized. See, more good information for a CB write-up!