sounds to me like your quick disco is causing a short...just a guess.

Is it making contact with the body or anything like that? have you tried unplugging the gps trailguide and seeing if it goes back to normal? That might be a good way to determine if the gps is really invovled, but that wouldn't be my guess. The GPS might put out some EMF but I wouldn't think enough to mess your SWR.

Do some more troubleshooting and let us know what you find. Surely the source of the issue can be found.

 

Ok, I did some additional trouble shooting. I used a spare CB mobile and plugged it in next to the GPS with a spare mobile antenna. Results were SWR between 1.5 & 1.8. I plugged my Cobra 75 into the spare antenna and got 1.5-1.8. Seems my radio is OK and the GPS is NOT an issue. I plugged the spare CB into my installed Firestik and SWR was off the chart similar to my installed Cobra 75. Ok, I figure its an antenna problem. I tried both radios with the Firestik antenna disconnect and without. Still SWR was off the charts so disco doesn't seem to be the problem. Lastly I check my antenna to radio 259 connector for shorts. None appeared. I replaced my connector with a new one. Still getting the same results. I guess I'm down to three things. One, there maybe a short at the antenna base (what a pain to access within the license plate housing). Two, my new Firestik may be faulty and I do not have a spare base to test it on. Three, I need to find a CB repair shop where they really know what they are doing...ARRRGH!

 

Will do. I have a meter, but probably did not use it correctly. I will use your method. Once again, the crazy thing is that my initial install worked perfectly. My local Jeep dealer decided to "Test" the flexability on my antenna during a courtesy wash (even though instructed NOT to wash). They snapped the original 4' Firefly that came along with the cooltech antenna mount. I figured I would just replace the snapped aerial with a new 4' firefly. I never considered that the new antenna would have these problems. Going out of town so I'll test this next week. Thanks so much for the step-by-step. It really helps.

 

nota4re:

On a whim, I looked up your profile and noted your post on the ultra mount kit with ground wire. My kit did not include a ground wire. The antenna coax was already installed to the base bracket. Interesting though, I did not have SWR problems with the original kit from cooltech dispite a missing ground. is the ground a potential problem?

 

Here's a few CB tuning questions.


- I notice that my squelch is lower when the Jeep is off and higher when its turned on; so this leads me to believe that I'm getting some added interference from my alternator, etc. Is there anyway to avoid this or is that just par for the course? (I have the power running right to the battery, ground is to the bolt under the dash on passenger side.)

- I currently have a 3' FireStik II antenna and I don't think I'm getting much reception. I very rarely hear someone crystal clear; normally hear people with a lot of static. Would I benefit more from a taller antenna as far as reception goes?

- I have tuned my unit to 1.5:1 on 1, 19 and 40. I assume that this is good and that it means that I'm properly grounded, etc?

Any other tips/tricks for better reception and/or lower squelch? Again, I apologize for so many questions but I'm still learning this stuff.

Here's a couple pics of my setup:

 

I also have the CoolTech antenna mount & 4' firestick. Could not get the SWR below 1.75. Replaced the 4' firestick with an old 3' Wilson antenna. Got SWR down to 1.3.
Maybe there is a good reason the Wilson antenna is a few $ more.

 

Put a fuse in the red wire to the CB within a few inches of the battery. It won't affect your SWR, but may prevent a fire if the insulation ever wears off the red wire as it snakes past all that (grounded) metal to the CB in the passenger compartment.

-Glen

 

So I have a quick question (new to CBs)...

I have learned a lot since reading a few posts but have not figured out a few things.

Last night I drilled a hole in my bumper to mount a 4' firestick. But the bumper is made out of plastic.

Do I need to drill a small hole in my frame and run a grounding wire from where the antenna mounts to the frame to ground it? Or does grounding the CB itself accomplish the same thing (was going to wire it into one of my cigarette lighter plugs on the dash).

Thanks,

Andrew

 

You need to ground the antenna as well. If you can post pics of your set-up and I'm sure we can give suggestions as to the best place to ground it.

 

Don’t have my camera available atm...

On the rear bumper between the door and the license plate holder I drilled a hole in the plastic bumper (on the elevated part of the bumper). I then used a hole saw on the bottom part of the bumper for access.

I have two spray-painted washers that I was going to put on each side of the plastic where the antenna mounts screw together for stability.

What I was thinking for grounding was just buying one of those washers with a wire attached and running it to the frame and drilling a small hole and using a screw to anchor it. Since the frame is right underneath the bumper, I figured that is the easy way to do it.

There any problems with doing it that way?