I recently bought this CB, a big upgrade from my last POS. The factory installed antenna in my truck works fine, but when I recently upgraded my antenna to an oil coil, I can't get the SWR calibration to get below three or even meet the calibration mark on the meter. I've tried shortening the antenna, but the next step would be to start snipping pieces off. (I read that somewhere) Any before someone types it first - I'll say it.... Go back to the factory antenna! ;-) installed cb in pick up..swr reading is almost off the meter [10 plus] cb hot wire straight to battery+,cb ground straight to battery-,ground wire ran from anntena bracket to frame. the anntena i'm using is a monkey made,which has a steel whip...i have taken a total of about 8 to 9 inches off the whip an 18 inch at a time,several times..then 1 to 1 /2 inch...then back to an 1/8 inch..STILL NO LUCK! the cb is a general lee,basiclly a connex 3300 40 channel moble radio...any suggestions?
You are using an inline swr meter to set your swr right, not looking at the meter on the radio? Here is the process to set swr on an antenna:
You must have an inline swr meter, which can be purchased online or from a truck stop. The ones at truck stops are cheap ones, but will do the trick for the most part.
You connect your antenna 18ft coax to the antenna plug of the swr meter, and a jumper coax (any length) to the transmitter plug of the swr meter and then to the radio.
Close all doors and make sure no one is messing around with the vehicle or antenna. You must be set up as you would normally be transmitting.
Now set your cb radio to channel 40 and your swr meter to fwd. Key up your microphone and at the same time turn the set knob on the swr meter until the needle is at the line that reads set. Unkey your mic and set the the swr meter to ref. Key up again and note what your reading is. Now leave the swr meter in ref and turn the cb to channel 1. Key up and take your reading. If the reading on ch 1 is higher than ch 40 you must raise the stinger on your antenna. If ch 1 is lower than 40, you lower your stinger. You are trying to get lower than a reading of 3 and as close to 1.5 as possible. If you lower your stinger as far into the antenna as it will go and you need it shorter, you cut the bottom of your stinger no more than 1/2" at a time, and recheck your swr reading after each cut.
Once you have gotten the best reading you can, connect your antenna directly back to the radio.
The setting of your swrs is to make your antenna as efficient as possible, by trying to get it as close as you can to a 50ohm impedance. THE ONLY PART OF YOUR SYSTEM THAT CAN CHANGE YOUR SWR IS YOUR ANTENNA, not your coax and not your radio. Your radio and coax can give you false readings, but only the antenna can actually change the swr.
On the swr meter, the fwd/ref switch stands for forward (power that is being transmitted out) and reflected (power that is reflected back into the radio.
Just for information sake, the swr cal switch on your radio is used to set the meter to reflect the swr that your antenna is set at. The meter on your radio is like a dummy light on your car. ONCE AGAIN, YOU CAN NOT SET YOUR SWR ON YOUR RADIO, only the antenna.
First off, unhook the ground from the battery and re-attach it closer to the radio, the shorter the ground the better! un-ground the antenna bracket also .All of that grounding can affect the swr ,when u started cutting pieces off of the antenna did the SWR drop any at all? is the positive wire fused?
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started with a shorter ground on the radio...and no ground wire on the anteena bracket...the swr reading started at about 3.5 to 4...then close to 3...then over 5...back to 3.5...then srtaight to 10+...so,yes the swr did drop at one point. the whip maybe to short or i've got a bad coax or stud(coax and stud are new)
My house has an annoying humming sound - 24/7. My neighbor installed several CB antennas outside around the same time my problem started. I have been trying to stop the hum by having everything in my house checked - couldn't find the source, but have been told several times that it could be the radios or the antennas.
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