Not necessarily.

K40's don't like to be bent like that. It causes wear of the bayonet connector and will likely eventually crack the housing of the base load. It's better to step out and pop them off before they bash into low overheads. One of the symptoms of a worn bayonet or a cracked base load housing is noise pickup, especially ignition noise.

You can tell if the bayonet is worn just by grabbing the base load and trying to move it somewhat gently without twisting it. It shouldn't move or knock. Another test is to put a VSWR meter on it -- a loose connection will cause a high VSWR. It helps to know what your impedance match looked like before the problem came along, though.

One of the downsides of the K40 is that if you frequently remove it, the bayonet connector will wear and get loose.

What does it sound like? Frying bacon or a whine? Does it follow engine speed? Is it constant or intermittent? Does turning on or off some accessory or the headlights make it better or worse? Where did you tap your power leads? Does your coax have any loops in it (in which the conductor crosses itself, even if separated by several inches)?

 

And make sure that you're using 12AWG or greater (lower number, that is) all the way, too, that you're running one long continuous wire for each side with a single splice at the radio power connector, and that your power leads don't pass too near potential noise sources. This is tricky when you've got a small block Chrysler with the distributor on the rear of the engine -- the best route is down the driver side (because it's the shortest run to the battery) to avoid the ignition, but then you're getting close to the PDC which can be a noisy little PITA. Increasing the length by routing around the front and down the passenger side to avoid the PDC can often make your power leads ignition noise pickups due to increased length, and can cause RF feedback problems for the same reason.

Use aftermarket battery terminal connectors from the car audio shop to fan out your battery connections -- jamming then into the stock terminals is almost always a bad idea. Heck, the factory terminal connectors were a bad idea right from the start anyway. Economical but kinda cheesy.

Once your power wires are routed direct from the battery along the shortest path to the cab, if you still get noise, see if it decreases if you move the power leads away from the PDC. If so, shielding is in order. I like to use the braided ground sheathing from an old piece of RG38 coax, as long as necessary, with short pigtails soldered on to provide the ground to the body.

Most whining problems in mobiles are from weak power connections somewhere between the battery and the mainboard, usually are external but every now and then internal to the radio. A failed filter capacitor or cracked solder joint internal the radio can make noise hunting externally an exercise in futility, but they're not as common as simple wiring problems. Another common source is a single failed diode in the alternator's rectifier which won't affect battery charging too much but will make the system noisy. Sometimes that noise won't show up in the car audio system because it has its own beefy filter(s), but it usually does on stock low-end car radios though not as loud as in the CB.

Mobile communications radio techs will just about always reach for the parts to do a direct-to-battery power feed when the customer complains of alternator whine. It's about as close to a sure thing as you're gonna get.

Oh yeah: external speakers can pick up noise if their wires are routed under the dash or near any other conductors or loads, so if you've got that setup try unplugging the external speaker and moving the plug away from the rig to see if it still whines through the internal speaker.

Hope this helps!

 

here's mine..

 

Hey, I like that! where did u get the center console thing for your CB? thats sweet!

 

Thanks, I made it!

 

looks good, you should make em, and start selling those. I bet they would sell like hot cakes all around the U.S.

 

very unique. I couldnt give up my cup holder though lol

 

Gotta love the cupholder...

 

getting one from geno's garage

 

its def a good idea. I may look into doing something similar a little down the road.