new with questions....

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hotspada
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new with questions....

Post by hotspada »

heres a quick run down...i had a cheapo radioshack cb...i was frever only picking up engine noise and not getting out. i hated that thing and figured i could fine tune things better with a new cb. i picked up a cobra
25 NW LTD CLASSIC. wired it to the battery and to the frame for a ground. engine noise is gone but i have realized i have another problem
i have felt like it wasnt recieving as well as it could nor was i putting out as well as i could. i hooked it up to a swr meter and tested it. i calibrated it, and when its hooked up and i key the mic the needle on the SWR meter shoots over past the red off the charts. def showing horrible functionality. thing is..the mount i use, its mounted correctly. i put the plastic insulator on the top and the underside of the bed rail is touching the mounting bracket without insulation. i thought maybe it needed to be grounded. so i ran a large ground wire from the underneath of the bed rail and grounded that to the frame. I GET NOTHING. almost no diff. how can i fix this. should i get diff antennas ,do they need to be grounded or what?

THANKS
hotspada
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Post by hotspada »

by they incase i didnt mention it, i have twin 4' antennas on the corners of the bed right behind the cab
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The Defpom
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Post by The Defpom »

make sure that the coax is OK, and that the plugs are soldered on not just wires bent over etc.

Also make sure that you are using RG59 coax, not RB58, as co-phase antenna's run in a 75 Ohm system, so the the radio will see 50 Ohmx.

Sometimes to only way is to tune each ant. seperatately by using a second piece of patch lead (50 Ohms) and run it from the ant to the SWR meter, tune each ant for the lowest SWR, then re-connect your co-phase harness, if the problem is still there then replace you co-phase harness (coax)
hotspada
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Post by hotspada »

i thikn i am using rg58 not 59. what do you mean make sure your connections are not bent over. all my connections are scew type plugs and i bought the cable with them connected. will using rg58 as opposed to 59 make that much of a diff. i shouldnt need to put an auxillary ground strap on the antenna as they were advertised on the packaging as an antenna i didnt have to ground. but its off the chart past the red and really making me frustrated. would switching to 59 make that much of a diff. i have a leng of coaxial going from each antenna to a T connector and then from there to the cb.
hotspada
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Post by hotspada »

also....i unhooked one antenna from the t connector and still got the same reading. so it wasnt co-phased at the time
fatdude1
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Post by fatdude1 »

first you need to make sure that your ant is not grounded out by checking this take ohm meter and check where the ant screwes to the mount and where the mount makes contact the to vehcile if it shows a short than the ant is grouned the make plastic insulator that goes inbetween the mount and the stud make sure that they are there if not get some once thats done tune each ant with 18 feet of regualr coax then put your cophasing harness on the ant's your match should be the same as if you had 1 ant
violator
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Re: new with questions....

Post by violator »

You mentioned you are using a t-connector. That might be the problem. Set the t-connector aside and try each antenna seperately and directly to the radio for an SWR reading. If you are able to tune each antenna this way for a decent SWR reading, then you might want to use a co-phase system that has both antenna leads leading into one at the back of the radio. The less connections along the coax to the antenna the better. Best of luck.
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