JKJody

Hi. I just purchased a cobra 29 lx with lcd screen. Mounted and wired it to my new firestik antenna which is not adjustable. My cb says antenna warning. I can not get it to go off. Also my firestik does not have a ground wire. So my question is, do i need to ground it some how?? Im not sure how to ground it if there is no ground wire.

Rooster76

Firestik says that all of there antennas must be tuned on there website. Are you 100% that it is not tunable with a screwable tip under the plastic cap? If not your suppose to somehow trim the antenna down to size. I cannot help you with how to do that I would check there website. If it was me personally I would probably just buy there Firestik FireFly that has a tunable tip.

There are a few firestik antennas that are NGP non ground plane that do not need to be grounded. I'm not sure how to tell those apart but I think they have a different color strip around the base. I'm thinking that way because I called there technical support and they ask me if mine had a strip. I'm guessing you do not have one of these type of antennas. If you did you would need totally different antenna coax cable then a normal set-up. Anyways try to figure out what you've got.

Most likely you have an antenna that needs/has to be grounded. They don't come with a grounding wire. Your going to want to run a 10 guage stranded wire from an bolt on the mount (that is unpainted or has been sanded down under the bolt) to a bolt on the tub that has had its paint scrapped/sanded off underneath. You can buy this wire by the foot at most large hardware stores Lowes/Home Depot. You probablly want to get about 5' so you have some extra to play with. Your also going to want to get a some soderless connectors like the ones shown below that are for the right guage of wire. For the best grounding you want the largest gauge wire you can use and the shortest distance. So leave just a bit of slack but not too much.


I did a bit of a write up here on how I grounded my antenna mount --> https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-w...2012-a-231369/

OH9JK

JKJody - where and how did you mount your antenna? If you have a regular FireStik then you have to trim the wire from the top to tune it. First off would like to see what your mount looks like before you start trimming the antenna. Also do you have access to a SWR meter?

BTW grounding takes place between the antenna mount and your Jeep. Depending on how you installed the antenna mount you may or may not have to add additional ground cable.

JKJody

Okay i have the antenna mounted to the bumper of my tire carrier. The antenna is definitely not tunable as i took the end cap off. I think i will get some wire and ground it to the chassis. As for an swr meter, there is one built in to the cobra 29 already. If the ground wire still doesnt help then i will try and relocate the antenna to a higher spot. Input please.

Nico4x4

Im having the same problem with the same CB!! I bought a new wilson adjustable antenna and it still giving me the antenna warning. My mount is grounded to the jeep near the pillar in the back( i scraped off enough paint so the whole connector is touching the metal of the chassis) its been a few days ive been trying to figure this out :s

Blade

I am also having a high swr situation with my firestik II and it is adjustable. I am begining to think that it is just a garbage antenna. At the moment I have a 2 gauge ground jumper to the frame and I am still over 3 on my meter. I have checked all of my grounds, and made sure my stud is Isolated and still no luck. At this point, it is either the coax or the antenna.

Rooster76

You guys might want to check out this link --> Measuring SWR

DG1976

Soooooooooooo are all you guys running a 29lx? I wonder how accurate the built in swr meter is. Have any of you checked swr with an external meter? Just curious.

Also how long (tall) is the firestick antenna? In theory, this is just a wound antenna and should not pose any real issues in tuning. (in theory I said) Has anyone tried temporarly connecting a counterpoise to the base of the antenna? or adding a choke to the feedline? to see if anything changes?

JKJody

I took the antenna back to 4wps and they gave me a new firestik with an adjustable top (tuner). I no linger have an antenna warning when i key the mic. I believe the swr went way down as well. So will not be purchasing the "cut to tune" antennas anymore. I still have static coming through on most channels though. How do i fix that?

OH9JK

The built in SWR meters are junk. You need to use an external meter.

CB antennas are not plug and play. The tuneable tips make it much easier!

There is supposed to be static on every channel. CB works on AM bands. You turn the squelch up just enough to cut out the hiss or static.