How To Set Up A Cb Antenna

There'southward cipher more frustrating than existence out on the trail and realizing that your CB is not performing very well. People in other nearby vehicles can barely make out what you are saying and incoming reception is difficult to make out. At 1 fourth dimension or some other, we've all been there.

And then what's wrong with your CB? Is it the mic? Is the antenna out of adjustment or is the CB just a cheap piece of junk. Well we tin can't help you with a poor purchase merely we can highlight some points that you can check to get the most out of your CB. 95% of all troubled CB come up downwards to a few basic problems that tin can easily be corrected and in return give you much better manual and reception and quite peradventure salvage your CB from self destruction! Plus, with a properly installed CB and properly installed and adjusted CB antenna, even the cheapest CB'south volition perform well plenty for close range vehicle to vehicle communications.

Below are some basic CB installation, setup and tuning tips. In this article we're non getting into theory and radio moving ridge technical explanations, we'll salvage that for some articles. Nosotros will only continue it plain and simple and to the point.

What's in this article:

CB Radio Installation
CB Antenna Mounts
CB Antennas
CB Antenna & Radio Tuning

CB Installation

Mounting the Set – CB'southward vary in size and shape as do the vehicles they are installed in. Where you install the CB itself is only important in regards to its ease of access and the orientation of the speaker so you can hear it. Most CB's take the speaker located on the underside and so for that reason, an overhead installation will generally requite you the all-time audio quality as well as access and visibility to the controls. But overhead may not be an choice and determining a mounting location is not ever easy. If yous are mounting under the nuance or on either side of the center console, just make certain yous have enough leg clearance. In that location are many companies making CB mounting mounting brackets, some of which are vehicle specific for some trick installation locations.

Mic Brackets – Most sets come with a mic mounting bracket that often can be attached to the side of the CB itself. If that'south not user-friendly, consider attaching the mic mount nearby the ready in a piece of cake to accomplish location. Last thing to consider when choosing the mounting location is how you will run the CB'southward coax cablevision out to the antenna. Consider your cable routing when choosing your set mounting location.

Cobra Highgear Noise-Canceling External Speaker — External Speaker

Remote Speaker – If mounting the prepare in your preferred location orients the speaker so you can't hear it then well, consider an external remote speaker box. Most CB'due south have a speaker jack in the rear of the prepare. You can purchase a small CB radio remote speaker that use a male mono audio plug. Sometimes even a small speaker mounted in a convenient location will do. Personally I have a CJ-7 with a large Cobra 148 GTL CB mounted to a higher place in the curl cage. Just my speaker is mounted in the dash using the old single speaker location in the CJ dash panel. The audio quality of this setup is great. Nice and loud with a improve than average speaker behind the dash.

Power requirements – Most CB'due south come with an inline fuse rated at 3 amps. Use the recommended fuse rating for your set. Do not use a fuse over the recommended rating. Yous are not doing your CB radio any favors past increasing the size of the fuse, your only request for harm. Some CB'south fifty-fifty come with a 12v ability supply plug (we used to – still exercise – call those cigarette lighter plugs). Your CB will run just fine off of the power from the 12v power supply plug but if yous are mounting the CB permanently, you might want to consider wiring the CB into the accessory wiring harness. Non something we will get into here simply we volition say, go along the inline fuse in place and Practice Not claw up the polarity backwards! Hooking upwards the ability backwards volition probably burn down out the protection diodes immediately. Red is positive 12 volts and black is footing.

CB Antenna Mounts

At that place are a myriad of CB antenna mounting options on the market. If you are reading this article, at that place'due south a good take chances yous are going to go offroad with your vehicle. With Offroad in mind, there are practiced choices and bad choices in antennas and mounting options. Lets start with the antenna mounts.

Well-nigh antenna mounts fall into two categories, Magnetic CB Antenna Mounts and bolt-on Bracket Antenna Mounts.

Magnetic CB Antenna Mounts

A magnetic mount uses a large flat magnetic base to secure the antenna to a steel panel on the vehicle.

Pros – Pop, many options. versatile. Removable, not-permanent. Movable around on vehicle for meliorate SWR adjustment, meliorate reception, and avoidance of tree branches.

Cons – Easily knocked off (and under the bike) by low hanging tree branches. Dirt tin go lodged nether the magnet and scratch the pigment. Almost magnetic mounts are base loaded, meaning most of the coiled antenna wire is low at the bottom, which in most cases means reception and output is less than what it could be. Only sticks to ferrous metal (steel hoods, not fiberglass Jeep tops). Sometimes hard to ground.

What to avoid – Avoid narrow magnetic bases. Narrow means easily toppled over. Wide and flat is amend. Avoid stiff antennas with a magnetic base of operations. Potent volition not flex easily on contact and will get knocked over. You will notice very brusk stubby CB antennas no taller than a foot with a magnetic mountain. Though they seem ideal for offroad use, avoid them. They are hard to suit the SWR and get terrible range.

Magnetic Antenna Mounting Tips

The wider the magnet, the better information technology volition attach to the vehicle.
Using a base-loaded, very flexible whip antenna volition stay on the vehicle better when you're offroad.
Route the antenna wire backward towards a rear window or door so it doesn't become hooked by a tree branch.
To preserve your paint, periodically pull the antenna magnet up and clear away dirt and h2o.
Avoid using a stiff, fiberglass antenna with a magnetic mount.
Offroad mounting tips: Move the magnetic mount to the hood or into the bed of a truck to prevent it from getting knocked off. Be certain to check the SWR in these mounting locations.
For all-time performance, use an 18 human foot coaxial cable between the radio and the antenna. Most magnetic antenna mounts come up with a coaxial cable pre-fastened.
For single antenna installations, utilize 50 ohm (RG-58A/U) coax. For Dual or co-stage installations, apply 72-75 ohm (RG-59A/U) coax.
CB antennas are non plug and play. CB radio antennas must be SWR tuned to the vehicle and the terminal antenna location on the vehicle. When adjusting SWR, close the doors on the vehicle to get the near authentic aligning.

Bolt-on Antenna Mounting Brackets

Bolt on brackets include a wide variety of bolt-on antenna mounts that come in all kinds of custom designs for various locations on the vehicle. Some are even designed for specific vehicles. Hood mounts, corner mounts, vehicle specific location mounts, even rollbar and roof rack mounts.

Pros –Permanent, stock-still location. Worry free, volition not get knocked over or off the vehicle. Good grounding.

Cons – Permanently mounted, may crave drilling. Challenge to detect a location. Hit or miss basis plane.

What to avoid – Avoid mounting the antenna likewise depression and also close to the vehicle. Ideally, keep ii/three of the antenna to a higher place the roof height.

Bolt-on Antenna Mounting Bracket Tips

Try to go on at least 2/three of the antenna above the roof of the vehicle for best performance.
Mounting a flexible antenna too close to the body tin cause it to brand contact with the body and tin cause SWR and/or functioning problems.
For single antenna installations, apply 50 ohm (RG-58A/U) coax. For Dual or co-phase installations, utilize 72-75 ohm (RG-59A/U) coax.
CB antennas are not plug and play. CB radio antennas must be SWR tuned to the vehicle and the terminal antenna location on the vehicle. When adjusting SWR, shut the doors on the vehicle to get the near accurate adjustment.

CB Antennas

The most common, versatile CB antennas come up as steel whips and fiberglass tube antennas of various heights. Nigh common antennas use the quarter wave length (about 9 feet) with most of the antenna wound upward equally a coil. This whorl can be located inside the base ( Base-Loaded), partially upward the antenna ( Center-Loaded ), near the top ( Peak-Loaded ), or wound up near of the length of the antenna ( Continuous Loading ). At that place are quite a few more than antenna types, lengths and configurations but for the mast part, 4×4's will use one of these types. Steel Whip antennas are nice because they flex well and about steel whip antennas will have a base-loaded ringlet keeping the bulk of the antenna away from branches. Fiberglass antennas will flex somewhat just coupled with a spring mountain, will resist damage. Some fiberglass antennas accept the benefit of existence center-loaded and peak-loaded putting most of the antenna equally high as possible for better output and reception. Though not unbreakable, fiberglass is stiff and light-weight. Heart-loading or height-loading a steel antenna adds additional weight or majority to the center or top of the antenna, which is not ideal for off-road apply.

CB Antenna Tips

Ideally a 4×4 should employ a very flexible antenna or at least a bound mounted antenna to avoid antenna harm.
The taller the antenna is on the vehicle, the further the point output will accomplish.
Antenna types: Base of operations-Loaded, Eye-Loaded, Top-Loaded and Continuous Loading.
Most all-in-one CB antennas come with a length of coax cable. Most volition have most 18 anxiety of cable. There is good arguments to the 18 pes length.
When dealing with excess antenna coal cable length, do not coil the wire tightly tucked away. This can cause poor SWR readings. Instead loosely lay the excess coax wide and spread out if possible.
Buy an SWR meter and larn how to use it. After installing your CB and antenna, use the SWR meter to adjust your antenna and tune it to the CB and the vehicle. While a properly tuned antenna will issue in strong radio performance, declining to properly tune your antenna can result in poor performance and can even damage your radio from excessive radio frequency heat that is reflected dorsum into the radio instead of transmitted out.
Comparing a taller antenna to a shorter antenna: 4 watt input into a 4 foot antenna yields the same broadcast ability every bit 2 watts into a 102-inch whip antenna. For more comparisons, read this.

CB Antenna Scroll Location

All CB antennas shorter than a 102-inch whip have a ringlet. The wire in the coil is the remainder of quarter wave (102 inches) minus the height of the antenna itself wrapped up in a tight or spread out coil. The location of the coil affects output considering the college the scroll is on the antenna, the higher the majority of the antenna is in relation to the ground and the vehicle. Higher is better. Antennas can be base-loaded, center-loaded, top-loaded or continuous-loaded. How do you lot identify what type of antenna is what?

Base-Loaded – Base of operations loaded antennas accept the majority of the antenna at the lesser of the antenna within a sealed plastic base, ordinarily attached to the magnet or secured to the roof of the vehicle. Most magnetic mount antennas are base loaded due the weight and majority of the roll. Base of operations loaded antennas can have a loftier wattage output rating though this is not a consideration for average CB users since all CB's are sold with a 4-watt output limit.

Eye-Loaded – Center loaded antennas usually have the coil further up the antenna but not ever in the center. Center loaded antennas will generally have a thicker steel shaft upward to the coil for support. center loaded antennas are usually used on semi trucks.

Top-Loaded – Superlative loaded antennas are very common and cheap nonetheless are likewise the most efficient. Nearly have a lower wattage rating merely again, this is not a concern for average CB users since all off the shelf CB'due south will take a 4-watt limit. Top loaded CBs are usually fiberglass structure with a thin wire wrapped around the fiberglass pole and covered in a protective layer of vinyl plastic. The sparse wire is wrapped tighter towards the top placing most of the wire nearly the top. Benefits of a top-loaded fiberglass antenna is that option to mountain the antenna lower on the vehicle still placing nigh of the antenna college, hopefully above the roofline of the vehicle.

Continuous-Loaded – Continuous loaded antennas are very similar to top-loaded antennas in their structure with the exception of the wire distribution over the shaft. With continuously loaded antennas, the wire is not concentrated towards the acme or bottom, but rather distributed evenly over the unabridged length of the shaft. In that location is very little benefit to continuous loading vs top loading.

Running the wire from the Antenna to the CB

When installing a CB, you have a long coaxial cable that runs from the CB to the antenna. Typically this is about 18 foot of cable, which according to some theory, is the optimal length of cable to use regardless of how close the antenna is to the CB. And so if you accept 18 foot, you lot probably accept some or a lot of extra cablevision to deal with. Don't wrap information technology up wire-tied in a tight scroll. This will cause performance problems. Instead spread out the wire loosely in broad lengths. Route the cable out of the way as adept every bit possible. If the antenna is in the rear of the vehicle, that can be a claiming. Under carpet, along the door jam, under the seats, along the coil cage are all common ways to route it.

Antenna SWR Adjustment – CB Radios are Non Plug and Play

The last affair y'all'll need to do later on installing the CB, coaxial cablevision and the antenna is melody the antenna to the CB and the vehicle. With this you lot'll need an SWR meter to mensurate SWR (Continuing Wave Ratio) and adapt the antenna acme to tune for the best SWR reading that you can go.

Do NOT Key up the mic (push to transmit) without an antenna attached to the CB! This can result in a damaged CB.

If y'all don't have one, it's a practiced investment to buy an SWR meter. They are not expensive and it's worth the coin to exist able to adjust yours and your buddy's CB antenna. You'll have improve manual and it can save your radio from impairment.

For more data on SWR Adjustments Read:

How to Adjust YOUR SWR on your CB radio and Why.

Adjusting SWR with a Para Dynamics SWR Meter

Related Manufactures:

How does a CB radio antenna piece of work and why does it demand to be tuned?

Antenna Length vs Power Output

All About Citizens Band Radio

Wiring Cobra Mics

Source: http://www.offroaders.com/cheap-tricks/cb-radio-installation-troubleshooting/