I ran a ground strap to the antennae mount, no change.

I pulled the tuning screw on the 5' firestik II and the SWR was better, 1.2 across the board, but still not able to reach the calibrate mark so I don't know if that means anything.

Talkback doesn't work.

I put my old 3' firestik on it and I can get to the calibrate mark but have an SWR of just over 3 and the radio flashes an antenae warning. I haven't tried to transmit with that on there, only to calibrate.

The radio was supposedly modded-
"New Receiver, with Custom Schottky Low Noise Supression Diodes, for High Quality Receive, with Less White Noise, and More High Quality Audio.

New Custom High OutPut Modulation Swing Kit Installed, for 2 Watt Dead Key, with Full OutPut Power. Very Loud!!"

But the warranty seal is intact, why bother with keeping the seal if the radio has been modded so my guess is it wasn't opened up. I paid $50 over retail based on the guy's high feedback rating because the radio was modded. I think I've been ripped off.


I found a CB shop an hour west of here. I'm taking it out there this afternoon.

 

CB shop update- The guy at the CB shop says with a swing kit installed SWR won't calibrate correctly, something about the dead key being to low. That makes sense with what I was seeing.

He also said my antennae was electrically to short. He tried a few and couldn't get any to work. He told me what I wanted was a Firestik "KW" not the "FS", which is what I currently have on it. He did not have any in stock. Well I have a 3' KW at home and I'm going to bring that back out to him and have him try again.

When I go back I'll have him bench test my radio and see what it's actually putting out and what's up with the talk back not working.

 

Good luck with that. Thats a bummer if you find anything else wrong and paid so much for it.

 

Well if it has been modified like that all you have to do is whistle into the mic to cal and then again to read the swr. The whistle should bring the power up to set the cal, just practice making the same level of whistle a bit and it should make it work. Just give it a try and you should see the level come up as soon as you whistle into the mic.

 

Now is that an old school trick, or just a trick of the trade? Never heard of that, but it sounds really cool. Can an untuned radio/antenna really cause damage to the radio? Thanks

 

I guess it is kinda both. Have tuned and repaired many a radio in my day on the old workbench using a good ole dummy load. You have to make sure the modulation isn't set to high to overmodulate and cause distortion and a whistle was easy to do and gave a nice high input to the mic for setting it to a good starting spot.

If your antenna is far enough off to give you a swr reading over 2.5:1 you are at risk for burning out your final if you are on the mic for a long period of time. Getting 1:1 is pretty rare but 1.5:1 should be obtainable by any good antenna system. I would have it checked by someone that has an swr meter if you don't have one.
Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving.

 

Thanks and same to you. I appreciate the answers since I am new to all this CB's and tuning stuff. This is why I love this forum. Everyone is so willing to help. Happy Turkey day everyone!

 

Maybe a dumb question, but are you calibrating with the meter set to forward power? I think on the 29 you do that by pulling the calibration knob out first, then setting it while keying down. Push it back in to measure the reflected power. I don't currently have a 29, so this is from memory and I may be wrong.