get the antenna off your spare tire mount...

you can get all kinds of feedback loops depending on where your coil concentration is in relation to your roof. if you can get the whole thing up high, and away from your jeeps body, or do what I did an put a baseload antenna lower and get a reflecting plane off your tailgate



thats a tram 1140 and I get 1.1-1.4 SWR and can always talk between 3 and 6 miles depending on weather

 

Got my radio out of the box and went to the local CB shop and had them tune it for $20 and now its time to set it up. Hopefully if i dont work this weekend i will have it setup and give you a break down

 

Sweet I'm looking for pics on the arizona rocky road mount

 

Thats the same mount I got for my CB and I also got the Teraflex antenna mount. I should have it all installed on either Sunday or Mondayand. I will take some pics

 

Well I reverified my entire system and it's good. I went out and got an SWR meter and it got me about the same results as before. After I disconnected the meter and hooked the radio back up normally I ran the self tests and the RF transmit power failed a few times. No idea what that means. The one time I actually managed to talk to a Cobra tech support guy he was sure it was an antenna ground and told me to get rid of the washer and lock washer that go over the plastic shoulder nut even though I assured him that my antenna system was about as close to electrically perfect as you can realistically get and all components in said system are within spec save the radio because I have no idea how to test that myself without some schematics and a couple more super expensive pieces of test equipment. I'm taking a drive down to Tacoma on monday because the other CB shop near me has a ridiculous bench test labor rate. I love paying people to tell me that a brand new device is malfunctioning so I can send it back and wait around a few more days.

 

I had the same problem with my unit when I got it, ran the self test and it would fail on the RF portion. Sent it back to the manufacturer and got me a new one, took the new one back to the CB shop and had it tuned, now it runs fine and zero problems. My advise send it back because I was having problems with the RF myself, you have a defective unit just like I did.

 

those were my thoughts to begin with. I figured I should have it verified first, but I pretty much verified it myself by ruling out everything else. About the only thing I didn't completely test was the full tuning range of the antenna but I assumed with a poorly tuned antenna I would at least be able to get an SWR reading. I think I'm still going to have it bench tested before I send it back, I'll talk to Cobra again to set up an exchange. Thanks for the replies man, I appreciate it.

 

Dude im right there with youand went through the same thing. Trust me when I send it back, apperently Cobra is just cranking these CB's out without doing some quality control.

 

No quality control is really a pain in the ass for everyone involved, especially the techs that assume a brand new product is fully functioning and refuse to believe me when I tell them my setup is correct and not causing the problem. Oh yeah and because i'm an obsessive compulsive type of guy I check everything a dozen times even though I know it's perfect. Anyways, I really do like the radio overall and can't wait to get the whole rig up and running. Good luck with your install.

 

I feel your pain man, I use to be in the Army and I have to have things done a certain way. Believe me that I say that it drove me up the wall knowing that I have a brand new product straight out of the box and it doesn't work. I should have it all setup this sunday and show you how it runs and my mounting options.