CB Problems

Did you do the swr check that I mentioned? If not then do that.

Put the CB on channel 20 switch the far left switch to cal. Key the mic and adjust the SWR cal knob until the needle is just touching the small square on the far right side of the meter. Then switch to SWR and key the mic. If the needle goes higher then the 2 on the top bar of the meter then you have a problem. Ideally it should hardly move at all. Make sure you do this atleast 50 ft away from any buildings or powerlines and trees etc.

As far as the coax going into the adapter. Yeap it needs to be all the way in or you will have problems because you are not getting proper contact with the ground portion of the connector.

Did you check the mounts for proper ground also? This is very important. If your antenna mount brackets are not grounding then you will have many issues with transmit and receive.

No the mic will not work without a battery in it. There is a dial on the mic. Turn it down to a lower setting such as 2 or 3. Turn your Mic gain knob on the radio all the way up. Turn the RF gain all the way up. Use the squelch control to tune out the noise. Leave the delta tune in the middle. Turn the sound tracker feature off. It only works if you are talkign to another radio with this function and they have it on also.

Try the stock mic also. Make sure all coax connections are CLEAN and TIEGHT.

If the red warning light is coming on when you key up then stop until you get the SWR problem figured out. If it was coming on before then you may have damaged the radio if you used it for any amount of time.

 

Ok. the stud that the antenna screws into should not be grounded. The actual bracket itself should have a good ground.

If you look at the bracket it should have a plastic wash ontop of the bracket between the stud and the bracket surface.

When running grounds, you want to incorporate the door into the system. Meaning run a short peice of wire from the bracket to the door itself or the mirror mount bolts.

Then if your ground is still iffy you need to run a short wire from the door to the pillar near the hinge area. Hinges make for a terrible ground for the most part so I most always run a ground from the door to the post. Don't just run a wire from the bracket all the way to the frame or other ground. This is not a good practice.

 

If you were to ground the antenna mount properly (theoretically getting the antenna to the lowest swr) then yes the light will go away.

 

Tank33....If you have your mic gain turned all the way up (usually all the way clockwise) and still have problems being heard, I suggest you take your radio to a "good" CB repair shop and have them check it. My guess is you tried talking on it too much after changing antennae and burnt out the final amplifier.
Hope you have had it looked at by now and repaired.
Good luck!

 

I doubt it is Dave, because he has ears, and the finals wouldn't affect that. I'm guessing it was an SWR problem caused by that bad coax connection.
I tried those Francis antennas before many years back...they worked well, but I'm partial to Wilsons when you can get them adjusted right. The original Audio Kings were great but hard to adjust...then the truckstops started carrying those copycat "Diesels" that actually looked just the same...and they were crap.
I shot skip with an Audio King barefoot several times. I thot that was pretty cool.