Old CB, brand new antenna

hbrhodes

hbrhodes

New member
My friend gave me an old (25 years?) CB, and I bought a brand new 4' firestick to use with it. When I hooked my SWR up to it, it is a solid 3 and the antenna is based out. I can't go any lower.

Is it possible it's the old CB? I'm thinking of going to Wal-Mart and seeing if they have a cheap CB I can test this out with. I would hate to think I screwed something up or I didn't scrape off the paint before putting the washers on.

lé bntly. •|||||||•
 

C

Crusifix

New member
I absolutely have bad luck with everything that Firestik makes. Having said that, make sure that your coaxial is installed correctly and not damaged. You say it is a 3. Is that on both channel 1 and 40?

My preferred antenna is the K40 SF-400 at a minimum.
My preferred coaxial is Wilson 305-830. It is superior to the FS cable, especially the FireRing in every way.

99% of the time the SWR issues are in either the cable or antenna when it has worked previously on the same vehicle.
 

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drhcobra

drhcobra

Member
Crusifix said:
I absolutely have bad luck with everything that Firestik makes. Having said that, make sure that your coaxial is installed correctly and not damaged. You say it is a 3. Is that on both channel 1 and 40?

My preferred antenna is the K40 SF-400 at a minimum.
My preferred coaxial is Wilson 305-830. It is superior to the FS cable, especially the FireRing in every way.

99% of the time the SWR issues are in either the cable or antenna when it has worked previously on the same vehicle.
Click to expand...

Make sure you have a good ground on your antenna mount and that it is isolated from the antenna itself.


Sent from my iPhone using JL Wrangler Jeep Forum mobile app
 

drhcobra

drhcobra

Member
hbrhodes said:
My friend gave me an old (25 years?) CB, and I bought a brand new 4' firestick to use with it. When I hooked my SWR up to it, it is a solid 3 and the antenna is based out. I can't go any lower.

Is it possible it's the old CB? I'm thinking of going to Wal-Mart and seeing if they have a cheap CB I can test this out with. I would hate to think I screwed something up or I didn't scrape off the paint before putting the washers on.

lé bntly. •|||||||•
Click to expand...

Sorry replied to the wrong one. See my reply to crusifix.


Sent from my iPhone using JL Wrangler Jeep Forum mobile app
 

hbrhodes

hbrhodes

New member
Like an internet site suggested scraping the paint off my Jeep so the washers make good contact! Kinda horrifying.

lé bntly. •|||||||•
 

drhcobra

drhcobra

Member
hbrhodes said:
How do I do that? I made sure the antenna mount was set up the same as the picture in the instructions.

Grounding I mean ....

lé bntly. •|||||||•
Click to expand...

My antenna is on the mopar tailgate reinforcement. I ran a ground direct from the bracket into the tailgate seal and down into where the jack is stored then you can run it out the plug and direct to the frame. Eddie explains in a video how to run from inside the tailgate from a hinge bolt then out the same way. With the mopar reinforcement there wasn’t much bolt left to work with. Search for the video on the CB mount. I’ll post a picture of what I did later.


Sent from my iPhone using JL Wrangler Jeep Forum mobile app
 

C

Crusifix

New member
Your ground looks good other than you really need to scuff the paint down to the metal where you are connected on the frame. Once you get it screwed back in just hit the whole thing with some rattle can paint or plasti-dip and you will be protected from rust. I would get a multi-meter and do a continuity test on the positive and negative components of the coaxial. With my Bearcat 980ssb radio, Wilson Coaxial and K40 4' antenna I see 1.0 on ch. 1 and 1.33 on Ch. 40... Ch. 19 is also 1.00.

I only added a ground strap going from the inner part of the tailgate to the inner tub behind the sub woofer incloser.
 

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