I have a Volvo 860 2023. The factory antennas are so bad it blinks "antenna" when I tried to transmit. The cobra 29 has a protection circuit on it. Get another antenna. When you key the mic, does it show "transmitting" or does it say "antenna error" or whatever the Cobra says when the antenna is bad? I have an NGP antenna that works fine. (no ground plane) so I don't have to worry about finding a ground. Firestik makes a great NGP antenna. Just find something to mount it to and screw the cable to the radio. Done. Antenna is tuned at the tip. I got mine to 1.5:1 with great radio checks and one guy, without me even asking, told me "That's one fine sounding radio system you've got there." I was just helping him with directions how to get to a shipper I'd been to before. I wasn't even asking for a radio check at the time. But I now have an old Pres. McKinley. I love that thing.
Nice to hear that the NGP antenna works. I've mentioned it on a couple of other threads that an NPG antenna may be the way to go for someone who didn't want to go the bonding route. But I was never sure if it was good advice or not.
It could be a couple things. It could be just your mic has a shorted out wire. If it's the stock mic, I would get a better mic if it was me.
Oh it definitely works. Theoretically they say it's only 80% as good as a well installed non-NGP antenna system. That *might* be true, but if you are down to using an NGP antenna because you can't get a good installation on a non-NGP one, then you're plenty happy with 80%. I have no problems talking to, or hearing, anyone. Including that nitwit dumbf**k in the desert.
Dude, he said its a brand new radio. I drive almost the same truck, his antenna is his problem. Not his radio.
I seen that. Brand new radio factory stock. First thing I always do on my radios is get rid of the trashy stock mic and get a better one, along with two good antennas. That and get the radio matched up to my dual fan cooled 1k amp...... bwaaahahahahaha
I was successful in tuning one antenna on the local group of side-by-side riders. But he went with a 4' footer. SWR was too high after about channel 10, but they ran on channel 4 and I got it below 2:1 on 4. Everybody else wanted 3 footers. No joy with those. They all ended up going with the 3' NGP FireStick and they had a decent SWR and thehy worked as good as they needed them to. (edited to change Francis to FireStick....oops!)
That's interesting, especially considering the type of vehicle you were working with. I have always wondered too, about how good a CB antenna system is on a motorcycle. I've had a few bikes over the years, but I never installed a CB on any of them.
