The Defpom Forum, for RadioMods, S&M Software and Music by The Defpom

Hello everybody! Let me start by saying hi, and im fairly new. I've done some research on CB's, but money and lack of resources (CB Shops are very hard to find around here) have kept me from getting far into it.
The other day, two of my buddies and myself went in to get some Cobra Radios from wal-mart, and the nice 3" mag mount antenna. They just gotta through theres in, and that was it. I actually took the time to mount it and wire it and everything else. Now my main question is, because I just basically plug-n-played, and didn't tune anything, am I hurting my radio?

This is not something I want to do, and because of my lack of money I can't afford to do serious damage to my unit.

Mag mounts are not ideal, as they are really meant for temporary installations, or ones that require the antenna to be removed frequenctly (such as places that have low height access etc. that said, as long as they are tuned then it will work just fine, it wont be a performer, but it will work.

You need to check the antenna length by using a SWR meter, having the wrong length antenna can damage your radio, as it reflects power back to it, which damages the final transistor, eventually causing it to fail.

Is that something that just goes? or am I slowly damaging it to the point where it won't work?
Can I harm the radio by listening or is just by sending out.