Is my CB junk?

Ok, gonna bring this back up...again. There is nothing I would like to do more than to buy a good radio and a couple of those big fancy antennas, but that's not gonna happen anytime soon. I know, if I can't do what's needed, why keep bringing this up? Well, I'm trying to learn. I've done a little research about the swr which just brought up more questions. The first thing I learned is that I probably got screwed by the cb shop that tested my swr, although he only charged me $5 so I'm not crying too hard.

What I've read about testing swr, the meter should be connected inline with the radio. Meaning the coax from the antenna is connected to the meter then a jumper coax is connected from the meter to the radio. After the connections are made, the radio is tuned to channel 1 and and there is some setting made on the dial. (This is just a general description of the procedure from my research) Then the radio is tuned to channel 40 and the procedure is repeated and the actual swr is said to be the mid-point of the 2 readings. The person at the cb shop only hooked up his meter to the coax in my truck, not connecting to the radio at all, and flipped a switch on his meter then told me the swr was 1.26. My question here is, is that correct? Or do I need to get it rechecked somewhere else?

My research turned up another interesting piece of info. What I was reading had said that they have run into situations on pre-wired trucks where the swr actually tested good, but the customers still complained of problems. The problem turned out to be the cheap and wrong type of coax the manufacturers used in production. I guess to aide in production, the manufacturers used plug-in type cables in multiple pieces instead of one long cable with the proper connectors on the ends. Though it doesn't seem to affect the swr, it does have an affect on reception which is the problem I seem to be having. The obvious fix is to replace the cable with 18 feet of the right kind of coax.

Now here is an interesting tidbit. To refresh for a moment, my main problem is that frequently I only hear one side of a conversation on my radio. I can hear what seems to be someone obviously talking to another driver, but to me he is just talking to himself. Many of you have suggested that perhaps the other driver is out of my range. Last week I was in Charlotte, NC at MM 12. I heard a lady come on asking if someone going south could give her a ride. I heard the driver in front of me ask where she was at (I know he was in front of me because he said he was at MM 12) and she replied that she was at the truck stop at MM 39. I would say that 27 miles is a pretty good range, but that was also the only thing we heard at the time. But also yesterday, I was again hearing only half a conversation when another driver passed me. When I looked over, the driver was just hanging up his mic, yet I didn't hear anything. Now I understand that a reasonable explaination for that is that he was on a different channel. Or, I have a problem. But I also saw a school bus driver on the radio and didn't hear anything either. Again, could possibly have been on a different channel.

So now, based on my research above, I'm thinking my cheapest fix might be to get some coax and use that to connect my radio with. But since I have dual antennas, do I do that with both sides? Or just one side or the other? And If I just do one side, which side do I connect to, or does it matter? If I do both sides, how do I connect both cables to the one radio?

One other quick question. I pulled off the road the other morning when it was still dark and a freaking monster tree limb snapped off my passenger side antenna. Fortunately that was the only damage done, but I haven't talked on the radio since then. It's my understanding that it's when transmitting with a high swr that will burn up the radio and I'm sure that snapping off the antenna like that is gonna cause the swr to skyrocket since that is where it's adjusted at. I've had the radio on so I can listen to it, but I haven't touched the mic on it yet. I have replaced the antenna with a cheap replacement of the same length that was on it, but I haven't had it adjusted yet. My question is, would it be safe to talk on it with just replacing the antenna or should I wait until I get the swr adjusted?

 

Why couldn't I just run one new cable from one antenna to the radio, leaving the other antenna disconnected from the radio? I understand that I would need to check the swr.

 

I have an 09 Columbia. I also snapped off the passenger side antenna and it still received ok. I never tried transmitting because I've read on here and other places that transmitting with a high swr will burn up your radio, and since the swr is tuned by the length of the wire in the antenna, snapping it off would certainly spike the swr, I'm sure. Of course, I'm no expert, so I could be wrong. But to play it safe, I still haven't transmitted anything even though I've already replace the broken antenna. I just haven't "tuned" it yet for swr. It's a cheap radio, but it's all I've got and I can't afford another one right now.

 

But was it a brand new radio?