My newbie setup... Cobra 29LX & Wilson Antenna

Don't let anyone in your radio. You will regret it. I had a perfectly good cobra 29 until I let a golden screwdriver get in it.
Four radios later, I had this one worked on by a real technician with a degree hanging on the wall and all proper equipment doing work in the open. That being said, either Q5 , or Harddrive will do my next work. There are allot of hacks ready to take your money.

 

Depends how it's done. Service manual alignment (with an oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer), set modulation to 100% instead of the 80-85% it comes set in most radios from the factory... tune and align the receive and close it up, do nothing else... signal quality will not be lost.

Clip the limiter, jack the AMC wide open, spread the loading coils, etc... it's going to sound like #### and do less power on the fundamental frequency while splattering all over kingdom come.

Sadly, most shops just do the latter. I can recommend a couple that don't.

 

If you are going to run a CB radio and not tie it to a linear, you're best off just leaving it alone. Get your SWR set as low as you can get them and a good noise canceling mic. Do not use a power mic.

If you want some power, decide how much power you want. If you really just want a bit better performance, buy a 10 meter radio(I prefer a General Lee) and have it converted to 11 meter. If you want to be a real mud duck killer, then you need to get a Cobra 29 led classic and whatever linear you are going to run(I prefer Dave Made) and find a true professional to match the units together.

Bottom line on any set up is get your SWR set right.

 

The wire is hidden, I believe it is the top front torx bolt on both the passenger and driver side mirrors, you will see it once the bolt is removed. Use something like this for mounting a bird perch:

Or run another ground wire from the torx down the mirror arm to the bird perch. (You will need an oversized mount for Volvo)

A few tips specific to your Volvo:

• There is a firewall grommet on the driver side if you want to save your coax from crimping in the door jam. 18' is a perfect length for this, and I suggest using Belden cable with FME connector for easier fishing.
  
• The overhead compartment dividers are flimsy (cardboard?) and easily bendable for fishing the cable.
• Remove the factory antenna on the side your mounting the new bird perch. The close proximity will give you SWR headaches. The remaining factory antenna on the other side will do its job for AM/FM stereo.

 

Would not agree. Find a competent tech who actually does the alignment procedure correctly. These days especially, the factory just throws them together and makes sure they talk and receive, they are rarely even close to dead on out of the box anymore. Also, the modulation is usually set at 80-85 percent, you want 100%.

This includes the export radios, and many of those are coming out of the box with bad harmonics these days. Connex and General seem to be the worst in this regard. Find a competent tech who has all the tools. If you so not see a scope and a spectrum analyzer on their bench, walk out.

 

To use the bird perch you remove one of the existing bolts on the mirror bracket(the one with the ground strap and you will need star shape tool) and put the perch in that hole, than you put your attenna mount on the perch and route your coax from the attenna mount into your truck. The perch should be grounded well enough that it shouldnt be difficult to achieve a good swr, you may have to make some attenna adjustments like raising the whip or trimming the whip. When I had my 2014 volvo I had to trim about an inch of the whip on a wilson 2000 to get a good swr.

 

Exactly what wolverine describes.
Looks something like this when finished: