Help hooking up CB

People, finding out the SWR reading before you use the radio should be thought of as mandatory not something to ignore. If the SWR reading on an external meter is 3.0 or higher, it is a connection problem. Usually a defective antenna, faulty coaxial cable or the metal is not connected to chassis ground. Trucks tend to have faulty grounding from mirror mount to door and/or door to frame.
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For the original poster, that plastic insulator electrically separates the antenna from the door. Without it installed, I suspect that alot of your signal is not being transmitted by the antenna. That is why you get no range.
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I hope that you have not already damaged your power transistors or you now have one very expensive night light for the truck. Keep your fingers crossed.

 

Check to see you have a connection from the center pin of the PL-259 to the antenna and the sheld to ground at the connector and open from the center pin to the ground.

any questions feel free to ask

 

Bad coax and/or antenna

 

You say it's a General Lee radio. Could be that your knobs are set wrong. Is your switch 10khz in the off position? If not turn it off. And what band is it set on? I think it needs to be on D band. RF gain fully to the right. SQ fully left. Now let us know if that helps.

 

Sounds like when you hooked up your antenna you grounded out your coax or antenna. The antenna mount sound be grounded, not the antenna itself. There should be a insulator between the actual mount and the bracket. get a cheep ohm meter, check between the center conductor of the antenna cable and the mirror bracket it should so open no connection, next check right above it the mount where the antenna screws in (I check it at the threads where the antenna actualy screws in) should show shorted or a connection. If both show the same reading you probably assembled it incorectly. Also check the coax end to end no mount, shield to shield and center to center.

The monkey made antenna is a good (too expensive IMHO) broad band antenna. General for 11 meters it is about 18" to long, becareful on tuning you can not put it back, the statice rod replacement is about 10 bucks. I find most internal antenna "SWR meters are alright unless a good buddy tire polisher has been it the radio. SWR bridge is not expensive, and can be cheep insurance when in doubt.

Grounds are very important. You should ground the case of the radio not just the ground wire, use a large enough wire to allow for good current flow, normally about 6" before the radio I splice (and soldier) and wire for grounding the case. These should run to the negitive side of the BATTERY, not the frame. Also while your ground do not use solid core wire use stranded and run a ground wire up to a bolt or screw on the door then up to the antenna bracket. Make sure all your connections are clean, use internal/external lock washers on all grounds to ensure present and future connections and make sure they are tight.

Positive wire from the radio should run to the battery and be connected to the positive side making sure all your connections are clean solid and tie wrap to keep from having stress on the connections themselves. Run NO MORE THAN 6" of wire before the FUSE, IMPORTANT do not leave the battery box without fusing both positive and negitive leads, DO NOT. Make sure the all your wiring runs thru grommeted holes, no wire runs over or thru bare metal edges, ever.

Last but not least your SWR question, simple stands for Standing Wave Ratio, simply put say your radio transmits 5 watt, into an antenna that is to long, so 3 watts go into the air and 2 watts go back into the final transistors of your radio, and this will eventfully smoke your radio. A commerical SWR meter reads in watts not ratios, Like my Bird (23) thruline. What you are tuning in the lenght of the antenna to get it to an exact portion of a wave length (physicaly) this allow for maximum transference of the power in your radio into the air. You do not want any power coming back into the radio, I would consider a 1.5:1 as a minimum allowable swr ratio, 1.1:1 is what you should have. And with a Monkey made antenna it is achievable. Making sure your install is clean and that your antenna install is free from shorts or open is most important.


I know this is a little long but hope it helps.

 

I'm not into yoga. How many ohms in a truck anyway. can I get it chrome, or with a rebel flag. Or with a instruction book in braile.