antenna warning!?

Discussion in 'CB Radio Forum' started by Little Jon, Jun 10, 2012.

  1. Little Jon

    Little Jon Bobtail Member

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    Jun 10, 2012
    Wildwood, Fl
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    started getting this on my cobra 29 lx. SWR is ok but getting antenna warning sometimes on ch19 and every time i key up on ch40. bought 2 new antenna and SWR was good but got warning on every channel every time i keyed up. I'm new to cb and im in way over my head. could this damage my radio? I like using my radio but don't want to throw hundreds of dollars at it trying to fix it. please help and thanks for your time.
     
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  3. Eaton18

    Eaton18 Road Train Member

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    Waverly, KS
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    It could possibly damage your radio IF the SWR is over 3. You said that the SWR was ok. Did you use the radio's meter to check it, or an external SWR meter? It's best to use an external one. The meter's built into the radio tend to not be very accurate.

    What antenna did you buy? What coax are you using? What type of truck did you install it in?

    There's some threads on this forum that provide information on CB shops. However checking and setting SWR is really not difficult. If I can do it, any should be able to. I use a Radio Shack SWR/Power Meter. It's not expensive and works fine for this. In fact the one I use is shown in a tutorial video on youtube.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 9, 2015
  4. poppapump1332

    poppapump1332 Road Train Member

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    birdsboro,pa
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    What's ok? And how did you check your swrs id be willing to bet your swr is too high that's why the light came on and yes you can burn out your finals with a high swr
     
  5. OpenRoadDreamer

    OpenRoadDreamer Road Train Member

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    I get the same warning, but only when the truck is goin down the road... Parked it operates fine, I have the LCD version.
     
  6. ramkatral

    ramkatral Heavy Load Member

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    Tryon, NC
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    I resolved mine with new coax.
     
  7. handlebar

    handlebar Heavy Load Member

    If you put a decent dummy load on the radio (without the meters, jumpers, etc.) and the light goes out, you probably *do* have a legitimate antenna system problem. If it doesn't go out, put a low-pass filter between the radio and the dummy load. If the antenna warning light now stays off, someone may have gone in and altered some of the filtering that's intended to make sure your radio is putting all its power onto the 27 MHz range, wherein lie the CB channels, so that it's now putting out a lot of its energy on 54, 81, 108 MHz, etc. -- multiples of the band you want (they're called the second, third, and fourth harmonic; the "first harmonic" is the fundamental, or 27 MHz band). And since your CB antenna is only built to work on the 27 MHz band, it presents a "bad match" for the other signals coming out, and that mismatch is being detected by your radio's antenna protection circuit.
    Since you mentioned it only happens when you start moving, the evidence points to an intermittent connection in the coax or (as was mentioned up above) a break in the antenna itself. When the truck is still, it makes contact, but making it flex by driving pulls the little ends of the wire (or stud, or whatever) apart and that part of the antenna "disappears" from the circuit.
    A quick test is to park the truck, key the mic from a place where you can see the front of the radio, then flex the antenna (or antennas, one at a time) and see if the light flickers as you release the antenna and let it go "sproinnnnnnnng" back to position. If it does, you've found your culprit. One of the fellows her (Rat, maybe?) has fixed antennas with silver solder, but it's not for the faint of heart if everything in the radio system is kind of a new mystery for the user. If new antennas and coax make the problem *more* consistent, check for a broken nylon insulator at the antenna mount (or installed on the wrong side of the mount).
    Hope that helps,
    -- Handlebar --
     
  8. x#1

    x#1 Road Train Member

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    reads as if you have a ground problem OR a bad antenna.check to see if the antenna is loose anywhere that there are connections,mounts,whatever.see if you can move the antenna up and down in the mount.key the mike as you do so and watch the meter.running an extra ground off of the mount tends to eliminate lots of problems.good luck on getting things rectified and talking as you want-

    again i can't reiterate enough just how simple a single antenna is to straighten out but then that is just me.over the decades i have learned to simplify and get rolling-
     
  9. david123abc

    david123abc Heavy Load Member

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    Augusta, GA
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    I bought a 29lx and put it in my truck with the factory antennas and in the factory mount for a cb and got an antenna warning. After much searching I discovered this was a very common problem with the lx. Found step by step instructions on a forum (maybe here) with pictures a guy said he got from cobra on how to fix it. It involved taking the cover plate off and turning some little thing in the radio with no antenna hooked up until the light went off, then turning it back until it comes on again. My problem was constant from the moment I hooked everything up though and not intermittent as yours seems to be.

    While I'm not sure if the poster was actually told by someone from cobra to do that, or if its the proper way to fix the problem, it seems to have worked fine with mine. I know I haven't given you nearly enough info to fix it, but maybe it will help you in your search, or jog someone here's memory.
     
  10. OpenRoadDreamer

    OpenRoadDreamer Road Train Member

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    I got a 2010 Cascadia. Has an antenna on each side of the truck. From what Ive been told the Sirius runs through the same system. Not sure if one antenna only services one, or whether both use both. Im ask the shop when I head that way. CB comes in handy for information, til people start arguing.
     
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  11. x#1

    x#1 Road Train Member

    1,773
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    Dec 24, 2009
    Cherokee County, Alabama
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    that arguing actually gets you down the road.try it sometime when you are tired and really have to go.the truck stop junk is a different ball game but the junk on the road works wonders and in my 2 plus decades it is more often than not all in good fun as whomever is probably needing to get some miles in as well-
     
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