CB signal

[Baby Jeep Overland]

I have a cobra 75 installed with a 4' firestik.
Everything is connected and tight ( no locktite). My signal strength is at 3-6 is this normal?
Is there something I can or should do to get better signal?

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[Tim]

My first check would be to find someone with a SWR meter that you can you use to check the install.


Unless you have already done this?

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[TerryD]

Signal strength is dictated by many things. Propagation, the weather, proximity to the other transmitter, coax quality and length, and many other things. You'll have to provide a little more information about who you are receiving and the terrain as well.

 

[vicali]

You're talking about the little lines on the screen right?

I don't think they mean too much, can you get anyone on 19?;

You're going to need an antenna tuner to get any better than that;

 

[Tim]

You're talking about the little lines on the screen right?

I don't think they mean too much, can you get anyone on 19?;

You're going to need an antenna tuner to get any better than that;

Any SWR of 1.5 is ideal, as far as I know. After that it's all about the gain of the antenna and terrain... I think. In hilly county you need a low gain short antenna and in flat terrain a long, high gain antenna. That's the extent of my knowledge.


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[TerryD]

You're talking about the little lines on the screen right?

I don't think they mean too much, can you get anyone on 19?;

You're going to need an antenna tuner to get any better than that;

Any SWR of 1.5 is ideal, as far as I know. After that it's all about the gain of the antenna and terrain... I think. In hilly county you need a low gain short antenna and in flat terrain a long, high gain antenna. That's the extent of my knowledge.


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SWR of 1:1 is ideal. 1.5:1 will not be a noticeable issue for most of what CB is capable of though. 11m (cb frequencies) do not propagate well or for long distances unless there is solar activity to affect the ionosphere and carry their signals ("skip"), which is why it was chosen as the citizen band. You won't need an antenna analyzer to tune your antenna, just an inexpensive SWR meter.

To reiterate, what conditions are you seeing that "3-6" in. Are you transmitting or receiving another station? What distance to station? How and where is your antenna mounted? Not trying to sound insulting, but there is a LOT more to a properly working CB than just having one.

 

[Steve]

Moved to the Overland Communications sub-forum.

 

[Baby Jeep Overland]

Moved to the Overland Communications sub-forum.

Thanks...
Still new to regular posting.

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[Baby Jeep Overland]

Thanks everyone!!
This has been very helpful so far!!!
I will try to find an swr and see about tuning.
I'll update with any info I get.

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[Sean S]

Thanks everyone!!
This has been very helpful so far!!!
I will try to find an swr and see about tuning.
I'll update with any info I get.

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I found an inexpensive SWR meter to be invaluable in calibrating my CB system and optimizing it for the best possible performance. Grounding was the toughest part given the long wavelength of the CB signal. It seemed to be the biggest issue for me. Eventually, I was happy to achieve an SWR of 1.2 on Channel 1 and about 1.5 on Channel 40. Before resolving the grounding issue, the SWR would remain constantly well above 3, which is terrible and damaging to the radio in the long-term. Best of luck with your installation and calibrating.

 

[Sean S]

Thanks everyone!!
This has been very helpful so far!!!
I will try to find an swr and see about tuning.
I'll update with any info I get.

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You might find the following Youtube video and troubleshooting guides interesting as it is the same information that I used to finally tame the SWR beast!

 

[TerryD]

You still haven't addressed whether this was in receive or transmit and if there was a station you were receiving. That'll help answer your original question as well.

 

[Baby Jeep Overland]

When in recieve mode I have one bar
Un transmit U am up to 6.
I can faintly hear the weather station with lots of fuz.
I have not recieved any transmissions yet.

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[Baby Jeep Overland]

You might find the following Youtube video and troubleshooting guides interesting as it is the same information that I used to finally tame the SWR beast!

Thanks!
I'll check it out.

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[TerryD]

When in recieve mode I have one bar
Un transmit U am up to 6.
I can faintly hear the weather station with lots of fuz.
I have not recieved any transmissions yet.

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Ok, so it looks like you need to tune the antenna. The reduced number of bars usually indicates folding back power because of a mismatch in the antenna system or bad ground.

One bar on RX, if you aren't near any noise, could be ok or it could mean you don't have a good ground for the antenna, causing it to not resonate.

 

[Flipper]

Make sure the radio and the antenna has a really good ground, I think on the fire stik you pop the top off and there is a screw about an inch long, you you move it up or down to get the best swr, you can buy a swr meter on amazon for around $20 , I use mine all the time, I have a 2' firestik and farted around with it for hours and couldn't get a low SWR 1:1 is perfect, 1:1.5 is really good anything above 1:2.5 you have an issue, if you transmit with a high SWR you will burn up the output transistors in the radio


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[Baby Jeep Overland]

Thanks!!
Very helpful!

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