Cobra 29 no range no squelch static

Wiggle the microphone cord where its connected to the radio. I didn't have an astatic mic, but when my radio did this it was because the mic cord was bad or had a break in it somewhere right where it plugs up. Set squelch to where you should definitely hear static and wiggle the mic cord starting from right at the front of the radio where the mic plugs in and wiggle it back in various spots to the mic itself along the mic cord and if it is in fact that you will have an idea of where the cord is broken inside. If that is the culprit just buy a new mic and should be okay then.

 

A bad michrophone cord is a good place to start. Even though you are new to cb radio, you really need to buy an external SWR meter and a short coax jumper cable. Even the cheap meters are better than nothing. Not sure which 29 radio you have, but if it has the built in SWR meter, don't go by what it says. The internal SWR meters aren't very accurate. In fact they are worthless. You need to know if your antenna is okay. A bad antenna and or coax, can cause a low or no noise in the radios receive.

 

Mine I know the swr is way off. I can hear static in my radio when I open and close my door so I know the coax is broken or shorted somewhere. Plan on getting a new coax and antenna mount

 

Oh okay, very good. Sounds like you are on the right track to getting it fixed. It doesn't take hitting too many tree branches to mess up the antenna system.

 

Since we know the antenna has impact damage, I'd start there for sure

 

Well in my case I bought the bird perch mount for Volvo trucks, installed on driver side (thankfully rather than passenger side), used the existing antenna I already had and new 9' RG58 coax cable. So now I can get SWR on radio to read 1.5 or less, but can't have radio calibrated to the cal mark. I think the radio may be junk, but getting out now at least more than just a couple trucks either side of me in truck stops.

 

its not junk when it works. The builtin SWR meter is usually crap to begin with - use an external meter.

 

So when you use those external meters long as external is good doesn't matter what radio shows, even on the radio calibration?

 

most Cobra radios I've owned the speaker was the first thing to go.

try an external speaker.