Mr Clean
An external SWR meter that hooks up between the radio and antenna cable. I have about a 15' cable that is atteached to a 4' firestick. My radio is an old Cobra. This is mine MINUS the meter on the front.


Sniper
I dont have any switches just push buttons. I set channel 20 to 1 on the SWR meter. I have done this with all my old radios as well and have never had this problem before. So im lost on what to do, the only thing I can think of is to yank out all the old and replace every thing with new.

Thank you Mr Clean and Sniper for your help.

 

Sniper
I dont have any switches just push buttons. I set channel 20 to 1 on the SWR meter. I have done this with all my old radios as well and have never had this problem before. So im lost on what to do, the only thing I can think of is to yank out all the old and replace every thing with new.

Thank you Mr Clean and Sniper for your help.[/QUOTE]

You don't SET SWR, you read it from an SWR meter. You set the SWR with the small amount of adjustment on the antenna whip. But we will get to that later. What meter do you have?

 

Without getting too technical, here is how CB works. Citizens band radio is in the HAM band of FCC authorized radio bandwidth. It falls in the 11 meter band, right between the HAM bands, 10 meter, and 12 meter. The length of the standing wave, is 11 meters long meaning the radio wave of at the CB frequencies is 11m long from trough to peak, Think of radio waves like a non breaking wave or swell on the open ocean.

Antennas for this band are a multiple or fraction of 11 meters in length and at an impedance of 50ohms. So a full wave CB antenna would be 11m long, a 5/8w antenna 5/8 of 11m, a half wave antenna 5.5m long and so on. All antennas made for mobile use have a coil in them somewhere to keep their overall length short enough to be manageable save for the 102in whip which is a 1/4 wave Cb antenna and by the way, the worlds BEST antenna for mobile use.

When you get a new antenna or move it to a different spot from another one, you need to re-tune IT to the radio. The radio is not tuned to the antenna. All Cb antennas have a way to tune them by sliding the whip up and down in its holder. If you look, antennas all have a set screw at the base of the whip, except for Firesticks, which have the tuning section under a cap on the tip of the fiberglass antenna. To tune them, they have a screw and nut to shorten or lengthen them enough to tune them to the radio.

This is the drill to tune your antenna SWR.

Remember, never stand in the way of the antenna when checking SWR either.

Place everything as it will be used in the vehicle, make sure your antenna is well grounded, the base of the antennae mount that is. Never ground the whip. Go park in the most open place you can find because EVERYTHING close to you has a negative effect on SWR readings. You want to be well away from any buildings, power lines, or other obstructions.

Hook a short jumper between the meter and the radio making sure you hook the radio to the input that says transmitter on the meter, and the antenna to the antenna connection.

Switch the meter to calibrate. Put the radio on channel 20 because if tuned for 20 it is best from 1~40 since ch 20 is half way thru the band.

Turn the radio on on 20, key the mic and hold the mic key down and turn the calibration pot till the needle on the meter points to the cal letters or the infinity symbol on the right top ortion of the meter. Unkey the mic, switch the meter to SWR and key the mic and hold it again. You are now READING your SWR or standing wave ratio. you will notice the scale for SWR reads in a number :1 ratio so you should be reading under the 2.0:1 reading. If not, go to 40 and redo the reading. If it is HIGHER than it was on ch 20, then your whip is slightly too long, if it is LOWER than it was on 20, your whip is slightly too short.

After determining which way your whip needs to be adjusted loosen the set screw and slide the whip a TINY bit whatever way it needs to go then repeat the SWR for ch20. When it gets to about 1.5:1 or LOWER on 20. tighten everything up and remove the meter from the mix. Retest every month or so or if you see an Antenna warning light on your radio.

you can do this with the built in SWR in the radio if it has one but meters are always more accurate.


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Your cable lenth sounds ok cause you want to use 3' lenths like 3', 6', 9', and so on. Your antenna sounds ok. What model Cobra do you have? It needs to be tuned like Sniper X said even if you cb has a antenna match setting. This should only be used after you have done the above SWR setting. This will give you a better match for your cb to antenna. The only time that I have had my SWRs change after doing this kind of setting was my set screw come loose or my anttena cable got messed up from something hitting it and going through the insulation.

 

Sniper
I dont know the name of the meter but it has two seperarte meters a SWR and a Power with a 10W, 100W switch and a Fwd, Ref switch as well. I will recalibrate the way you suggest and see if it makes a difference.

Mr Clean
Its an old 29 Plus.

Okay thanks guys I will give the recalibration a shot and let you know how it goes.

 

Just thought of something you might need to know. Most antennas are made long. So, you have to shorten them by cutting them. Do this a little at a time so you dont make it too short. Most tell you to only cut them 1/4" at a time. Most of the ones that I have done I have had to cut at least an inch off of them. Sence you have a Firestick, here is the link to there site about tuning your antenna. http://www.firestik.com/CatalogFrame.htm. Hope this helps you.

 

All the shops that I have talked to about it say that you can not turn them up but, I turned it up. Took it to the shop that I did most my bussiness with and let them recheck it. They wanted to know now I did it. It was factory 4 watts dead key and would swing only 6.5 watts. After I turned it up it had a dead key of 3 watts and would swing 18 watts. I use a Wilson Little Wil antenna with it. One thing I like about is everything is in your hand and easy to use and see. Also, I like that it has weather channles on it and a scan feature. They are not too cheap cause they go for about $100. Dont want to sound like I am saing they are the best. I really like the Cobra 29 and think for the money you cant beat them cause you can do so nuch to them. But, if you dont have much room to mount a cb this one works very well.

[/QUOTE]
Those are great for trips and like you say, when you are limited to room in the vehicle. BUT they are not very kind when they need work, nor do they have (literally) ANY mods available since they are a compact unit. No one bothers modding them since no one uses them as a Cb for other than trips or casual use. I have one and use it in rental cars just like you I turned up the AM carrier a little on mine and also turned up the modulation to 110%. It does work well but I very seldom use it.

I will also say that a Cobra 29 is the worlds best radio for a casual CB user who wants a dead reliable kick *** radio. With 10 dollars worht of parts and an hour I can make one of them scream like a Galaxy 99.

 

There are different levels of Cb ownership just like everything else.

Basic CB owner has a stock radio and possibly a mag mount antenna or a permanent mount antenna on one of their vehicles, usually their off road truck. They usually use their Cb once a month or only when they ar3e out on the trial if even that.

Next level, I'll call them a casual Cbr. They also only have a stock radio in one vehicle, but use it more often and have at least a few friends who also have CBs.

Serious CBr. Has a non stock radio and uses it daily or multiple times a week. Has quite a few friends on the radio.


Super serious CBr, has multiple radios, most if not all are non-stock, also usually has amplifiers for at least one or two of their radios and usually has a base station as well as multiple mobiles.


CB JUNKIE, has BIG power, like over 1500 watts, and a LOT of radios or at least some very high end radios and almost all are export radios.

Crazoid CBr, has thousands of watts, a website dedicated to radio and usually thousands of dollars into their radios and amps. Some of these guys like my buddy "Prime Minista" Have around 30 thousand watts of power or more.

Most also from serious and above spend more time talking skip than locally. But do talk locally because they have many buddies on the radio.

 

My favorite rig I have now. Cobra GTL200DX, 300w out on ssb 150 on AM on high power.