My wife got me a Midland CB for my birthday.Being its my 1st CB, I scoured the forum here on install procedures, do's and don't,s etc.
So I've got it all installed after a lot of trial and error. Positive straight to the battery, ground to the frame.
Bought a Truck-Spec 4 ft antenna with coax and mount from a truck stop. The mount was designed for a big truck mirror, but I used it to mount to the cowl by drilling 4 holes for the bolts thru my body.
The coax is 9 ft I think, so some of it is bunched up under the dash.
My question is I'm not hearing anyone on the air. I transmitted earlier and it sounded like someone replied but it was real short and I couldn't make out what they were saying.
Could it be there was just not much talk going on when I was out earlier, or could my CB install be off, or I don't have the dials set right?
Everything I've read said to turn the squelch just enough so that you don't hear static, is this right
I'm so new to the whole CB thing that I'm just at a loss.
Any ideas?

 

Don't transmit anymore. you need to use a SWR meter and tune the antenna. If your antenna is not tuned the energy generated from transmitting bounces back into the radio and I'm not sure if your midland will protect itself from that.

 

Once I get a SWR meter how do I go about tuning the antenna?

 

Ouch..bolted straight thru the sheetmetal? Sorry, I know very little about CBs, that just made me cringe. What little I do know came from the good folks on here so I hope you get some useful info and get the problem fixed.

 

I had it mounted with sheet metal screws at first, but didn't think it was secure enough. So I drilled the holes and used 1/4 in bolts with lock washers. Let me tell you, not much wiggle room between the body panels.
So I've been watching YouTube videos on using an SWR Meter, and now it's got me wondering if my antenna is grounded good enough as is or if I need to ground it to the frame also?
Off topic but she also got me 2 PP hood louvers, so I get to cut the hood now too!😁

 

Probably plenty of better write-ups if you google it. You wire the meter inline, a short jumper cable goes from the meter to the back of your CB, then your antenna cable connects to the meter. the meter will have instructions on how to zero it. On mine your put the switch PWR then transmit. You then adjust the dial to get the needle to highest mark.

Now move the needle to SWR and transmit, notice the reading on the meter, you now adjust the length of the antenna to get this reading as low as you can, 1 is great, 3 bad. Small adjustments are all that's needed. Hopefully your antenna has an adjustment screw on top under a plastic cap. If it's just a metal whip you'll need to cut it.

 

Yikes man. I would be really careful with how you mounted that through the body sheet metal. The first tree branch you hit with your antenna on a trail is going to rip that mount right off. The make fender lip mounts you mount in the crack between the hood and fender that bolt straight to the frame that also ground very well. They are like 30 bucks or so. If you want to leave it there you might want to check into a metal whip instead.

 

He's got a spring mount so that's unlikely, he'd need to hit the mount itself to rip it off. I can't see all of antenna but looks like it might be a bottom loaded metal whip. I would put a backing plate on it, since the sheet metal is kind of thin there. I have mine mounted through the tub on the back corner, but I do have body color matched armor to make it thicker. also make sure the mount is getting a good connection to ground, half of the antenna's performance comes from the connection to the ground plane of the vehicle.

 

Hey guys, first I'd like to thank everyone for the replies and advice.
My antenna is a 5 ft fiberglass Truck Spec. At first I didn't have a spring on it, but it rocked and swayed ALOT so I went and bought a spring hoping that would help but I think it has amplified the swaying so I'll most likely take it off soon.
Part of the swaying has to do with how thin and flimsy our sheet metal is on our JK's. Believe it or not I was able to put the backing plate in between the body panels to try to add more strength to the mount, though it WAS NOT EASY!
Now I'm in the process of trying to find someone in my area with a Meter to use. I dread the thought of spending $20 something dollars on one. When taxes come in I'll probably break down and buy the JK specific hood lip mount, which will then leave me with the 4 holes in the sheet metal to cover up somehow.
My antenna does have a rubber tip on the top though I haven't removed it yet to see if it has a screw or nut to tune it.
Thanks again for all the help! You guys ROCK!!!

 

I would say don't worry about the swaying if it's from the spring and not the sheet metal. the spring will protect your antenna and tub if you hit the antenna on stuff while off roading.