08 Rubicon unlimited. Using cobra handheld cb and firestick antenna (mounted at rear). Handheld cb power plugged into cig lighter. Listening is ok, but whenever I press the talk button the whole instrument panel lights up, the windshield wipers come on. Wow! It's like the jeep is having a heart attack if i try to talk on the cb.

 

It's a jeep thing... you wouldn't understand Just kidding bro... That's a scary symptom... It's a devil thing

 

how old is you cb are you sure it is not damaged in some way, have you run any other acc. in your power port was there any problems with those? My cb does weird sh^&* it will come on at full volume with the power off , but it is wired directly to the battery.

 

I take it that seeing it's a handheld, it has regular double AA type operation as well? Try not getting power from the accesorie plug and just key up using the internal batts in the handheld. What happens then? If it still does it, are you sure you're not telling us about a little kicker you have inline?......lol. I only say that because extra rf floating around can do really strange things to electronics.

 

i've used it without problem in the past, but that was before i had the kenwood lcd display do-everything stereo/nav/dvd thing installed. The firestick is also new since i last used the handheld w/o problems.

it's just the cb, there is no amp or kicker in the cb system. trying the cb on batteries sounds like a good test - i'll try that

yes, it does act just like a devil thing - freaked me out at first.

 

Also, if the handheld has a high/low power setting, and if it still does it on high power, switch it to low and see if that still does it......as that should make it tx one watt or less. We're trying to see if it's something that RF from the antenna is causing, or if it's because you are using the acc plug and it's getting in through the circuitry. Then one other thing.......if you still have the rubber duckie antenna for the handeld, try that instead of the external antenna. See what happens.

 

will try all the above this evening in order to try to isolate the problem

thanks

OK, it appears the problem only occurs when I draw the cb power from the cig lighter. There was no interference when I used the cb on its own internal batteries, both with its little rubber antenna and with the vehicle-mounted firestick antenna.

I guess the question now is whether or not there is some kind of insulator or filter that will prevent the interference when I draw power from the vehicle.

 

You are getting RF leakage into the cigarette lighter. Your antenna mount probably isn't grounded properly so RF is coming back through the power port of the cb ad into your electrical system.

John

 

In Australia our trucks are speed limited at 100 km/h. to get around it they use a plug it plugs into the 12v out let and upsets the speed limiter and fuel restriction so you can put your foot down.


So you see a little RF leek can do a lot to a micro processor.
eg the car computer.

 

The first thing I'd try is replacing the RF antenna cabling with something that's higher quality (unless you know you have good RF cabling). When you peel back the insulation and expose the braided shielding, the shielding should cover the dielectric (the material between the shielding and the center conductor) almost 100%. I've seen stuff with as little as 10% coverage.