OK Guys, I am pleading ignorance here. I went to radio shack and bought one of their brand radios and antenna. I got the radio at a great price (40 bucks) because it was a clearance and they doubled the warranty. I got their brand antenna also. I installed the mount on the spare carrier and powered it by wiring direct to the battery. The problem is I don't hear anything. I can switch to the weather and hear it great, but i have sat there and flipped through every channel and hear no talking at all.

Any suggestions would be great.

 

It could just me quiet out there. Do you have another unit that you can use to make sure there is something to be received?

 

Make sure you have your swrs are tuned in.then go to a place where you know people are with a CB(Truck stop or something). go to channel 19 and say "Break 19 for a radio check".Someone will answer you if they can hear you. that's where i would start anyways.

are you getting at least static thru your mic?

 

At the risk of pissing you off with the painfully obvious, if you're not at least hearing static (noise), turn the squelch all the way down. Ditto on the high traffic area - if you're not within a mile or two of truck traffic you might not hear anyone for quite a while.

 

I turned the squelch all the way down and get nothing.

 

check swr as suggested

check resistance between the antenna ground the mounting bracket and the tub of the jeep. if you have high resistance then you have a ground problem which is the first thing to check.

if you are driving do you get static?

 

I get no static at all. When you say grounding strap....where do i attach it to the mounting bracket?

 

i would think you should be getting static even if your antenna or coxal isn't hooked up.

 

I agree - check to see if your radio has a switch for an external speaker that is accidentally on. Even with no antenna you should be hearing static from the speaker. Also, if you have a CB/PA (public address output) switch make sure it's on CB not PA.

If neither of those suggestions work and you have an external speaker available plug it into the jack and see if you get any output. The internal speaker could be bad.

 

Sounds like some of the guys missed the part where you mentioned that the weather band is coming in great. With that said, I agree that the brake light mount is not the best place, along with the fact that the gate needs to be grounded to the tub. (get the ground strap at Napa) Search the threads to find a write up on how others have done it.

My antenna mount works great if you like the antenna where yours is mounted. You can see mine here: https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-cb-ham-radios-128/sissy-bar-74589/ .

Once you get the antenna corrected, there are other tests to see if there is yet another reason why you're receive is poor.