Troubleshooting mylack of distance, receivng and transmitting.

I have been reading here a while, enough to know that my answer will probably be that I need a better antenna. Talking with other drivers on the road, I am barely getting a mile of range.


I have a Cobra 25 ltd. One year old.

The coax in my cascadia is bad so, when I was only a month into trucking I was sold this antenna setup:

Coax run straight from the radio, along the dash and out the passenger door, about 9 or 10 feet long (I did not measure it). The coax is Tramflex RG-8/x Foam 95% Shield stranded center.

The antenna mount is a single stud perch.




The antenna has no markings on it. It is 4' and I think fiberglass.

I installed the perch myself and the guy at the CB shop came out and tested the antenna on it with his meter. He kind of gave a "mppfff. Well it should be good enough for your purpose." response to what he saw on the meter. I did not know enough then to ask further questions about that.

I was wondering if either of these roadpro meters (free to me with pilot points) will do an adequate job for my limited use testing of my setup? So I can see what it is doing before I start modifying it, and after.



Thanks for your input, in advance.


Mikeeee

 

Maybe that was confusing the way I typed it. The preinstalled coax is not just bad it's broke. So I ran a new wire along the dash and out the door.

Is Tramflex RG-8/x a decent coax?

I was wondering about the ground as well. Perhaps it has some thread lock on the threads from the original bolt.

How do I test for a good ground?

Mikeeeee