tarpon4me

I went with a Cobra 75 when I equipped my jeep be cause of the simple space saving design and price factor. I get anywhere between a mile and a half to two miles on any given day depending on conditions. I'm using a 2' firestick and it's mounted at the right rear of my JK on the Teraflex accessory mount.

What i'm wondering is are there any tricks I can do in order to squeeze a little more range out of the set up I have? It's worked find so far, and on the trail you don't need a ton of range. But I got separated once when we split ways trail riding at lunch, and didn't have a phone signal. The radio saved the day. This was the same day I fried my starter. I wondered how that day would have gone had I not been able to raise my trail partner up on the CB, which lead me to this post.

Thanks in advance.

DJ1

You can't beat the laws of physics. Get a longer antenna if you want more range on the cheap.

RodCyn

^^^ What he said. You're lucky to get the range you're getting with only a 2' antenna..

Desert Fox

For best transmission results (and it won't improve your existing range much):
1. Use a 4' antenna with at least 1/3rd of it above your top.
2. Ground the antenna mount.
3. Read the antenna tuning directions again. Tune the antenna to get the SWR under 1.0 if possible on channels 1, 20 and 40.
4. Make sure the Hand Set Sound Tracker (ST) feature is turned on.

tarpon4me

Thanks for the replies gents. I kind of figured I was at the peak with what I had. My buddy and I tuned our set ups with an SWR meter when we installed them. Mine tuned in pretty darn close to 1. My only quarrel with using a longer firestick is it beating off crap on the trail. I went short for clearance.

Now, on the grounding part. I have a Teraflex HD hinge with the accessory mount on it. The antenna mount is on that. Would it be safe to say it is "grounded" since it's an all steel connection to the frame? I'll also check the ST function and make sure it's off. I'm about 90% sure it is, because I don't use features that I don't know what they do.

Thanks guys,

B-

tarpon4me

So I went to a rear teraflex mount for the hi lift. We noticed an issue with my cb on the trail Thursday, and we put the meter on it and it was tapping out over 3. We took the high lift off and tried again, and it metered just fine. The high lift is jacking up my signal. My question is if I go to a longer fire stick, would that knock out the interference?

Desert Fox

While you didn't say, my guess is that the jack and antenna are too close to each other. The easiest solution may be to move you jack into the JK and secure it behind the back seat. This won't be a problem if the jack is the four foot version.

tarpon4me

I was afraid someone would say that. They are very close actually, an inch. I will go back to my old mount which will put a few more inches between them and see if that does it. Thanks man

ybugly

Also check your local truck stop cb repair shop. If you find a good one they can peak and tune most radios and get way more power than factory. Again most radios not all.

'11BronzeStar70th

To the OP.. You asked if the antennae would be grounded through the mount because they are both metal. The answer is, it depends. IF you have clean metal to clean metal all the way from the ant. mount to the frame, which is highly doubtful, yes. Any paint or corrosion on any of those surfaces will interfere with the ground path. Think of it like stripping off the strands of a ground wire at each connection... You start with all the strands inthe wire at the user end but by the time you get to the battery's negative terminal, you only have a few of the strands left. It is still technically grounded, but. For my radio, my 4' antennae is mounted to the tailgate's stock spare tire mount. I acquired some stainless woven ground strapping and grounded the mount to the body, then the body to the frame. I also ensured my radio is fully grounded as well. I was able to tune it to less than 1 with my SWR meter.