I need some help and or advice. I just got back from Moab Easter Jeep Safari and had a hard time with my Cobra 75 CB radio. I could hear some people but others I could barely hear them at all over the static. If I adjusted the squelch so it wasn't just blasting static and if I turned it up just a bit to stop the static I couldn't hear people at all. I'm running the Cobra 75 CB of course, 18 foot cable routed under the carpent down the passangers side, a Teraflex spare tire antenna mount, and a 3 foot Tiger antenna. When I had the same radio in my XJ with a K40 magnet mounted in the middle of the roof I never had a problem like this, I could hear everyone great. It wouldn't be to big of a deal other than I'm a Red Rock 4 Wheeler member and help run the trails so I kind of need to hear people like the other trail leaders and gunners.

I've had the SWR check at Royce's Electronic shop in Moab (its a full service RadioShack) and they said the readings were in the low 1's across the board.

To put it comparsion my handheld Cobra HH38 cb with its whapping 12 inch antenna was getting better reception than the Cobra 75.

I'm thinking that there are a few options:
1) get a longer antenna (4 to 6 foot) with a quick disconect
2) send the Cobra 75 and have it looked at to see if there any problems with it
3) get a differant CB (not really wanting to go this route)

Any help would be welcome

 

grounding is the key to any good radio setup. How is the radio grounded? is your antenna mount grounded?

 

I agree with you about the ground being important, when I use to install car audio without a good ground you got all sorts of noise.
The mount is just grounded to the tailgate/ tirecarrier. I thought that if your SWR was reading good then your antenna ground should be good too. After all isn't that what the SWR is checking for. I could see if my SWR reading were above say 2.5 or so that it would be a grounding issue but with low SWR readings I don't see how it would be the ground. if you can explain a little more that would be great.