Rookie driver installing a cb

What is SWR?

 

Youtube will help alot..

 

At least your truck came with the hookups. I just moved into a '14 579 with a million less miles than the 9400 I was in.this truck came from the factory without any cb wiring. No antenna mounts on mirror, cab nor back of sleeper. Popped the trim off and no speaker behind it, just the hole for it. Rigged me up a setup while sitting at the loves in deer park texas yesterday. Mounted the bracket on the headache rack in the gap behind the sleeper. Ran the coax along the frame into the firewall near the fuse panel (multiple rubber plugs there) and up the A pillar into the overhead and out near the windshield. Currently have the radio just laying on the dash until I can get some flat bar or some other bracket to attach the radio to so it will be hanging where that middle visor was. Still have to make some tweaks to the setup like fine tuning the antenna and switching to a one piece cable. Used an 18' and 12' with a barrel connector.

 

Run pwr and gnd to battery...Is the rack mounted solid to the frame or does it have any rubber between the rack n frame...
I would run a few wide braided straps as short as possible from chassie to rack..hopefully that will be a good gnd..
Running 30 ft of coax i would get the best i can afford like lmr 240,many like rg213 but i dont remember why but im not thrilled with it..Most likely i didnt like the specs compared to the lmr 240..

 

Rack it directly on frame secured with U bolts. Still have to hardwire the power, using power plug currently. As it sits the onboard meter is saying 2.5 so I'm guessing slightly higher on a dedicated meter. I don't talk on it much but the Mills I haul out of using them to let you know when it your turn to load. On the road mainly listen to traffic reports and the typical bs when you get into cities.

 

Yeap 2.5.swr is to high..1.5 or less is desired..Try the gnd straps i mentioned between chassie and rack..Chk swr again...Try to find a shop with an analyzer cause doin it with a radio will eventually create a big issue with radio itself..
If you have a multi meter(set it on ohms) follow this pic and see...It will show if any is grounded or not without useing and harming radio..