So i finally spent the day today getting my CB all hooked up. It's a small Cobra unit, 18' coax, 4' Firestick. Simple metal L-bracket mounted directly into the left rear corner next to and below the fuel port. Positive and negative go directly to the battery. External speaker in the rollbar by the driver's head.

Get everything wired up, turn it on, and bam, i can hear guys on 19 chattin away. This is where i'm lost: I bought an SWR meter today, and when i hook it up, i get NOTHING. Here's how i hooked it up:

Radio---3ft jumper---SWR meter---antenna

Can't get the meter to move at all, not in SWR or PWR mode no matter what.

So for the hell of it, i decided to try the meter out on the antenna side. So basically:

Radio---18'coax---SWR meter---3' Jumper---4' Firestick

When i do this, the meter works, but not the way i feel it should. I key the mic, calibrate to the "SET" mark, but when i flip from FWD to REF, the meter shoots through the roof. Happens no matter what channel i'm on. And in PWR mode i still get nothing at all.

Any of you CB gurus got any ideas? Seems weird that i can hear people but am getting nothing goin out as far as i can tell. I know the mic works, because i was able to use the PA function. What gives??

-Adam

 

If Im not mistaken, disconnect the antenna from the radio and connect it to the "antenna" side of the swr meter. Connect the jumper from the "transmitter" side to the radio and see what you for match.
That should get you setup.
You may have had the meter connected backwards.
If that doesnt work, the meter may be bad.

 

Yeah, i've checked, double checked, and even purposely hooked it up backwards to see if it would do anything. When hooked up (properly or improperly) near the radio, the SWR meter does nothing. My first thought is that the meter was faulty, which is why i hooked it up near the antenna mount just for sh$ts and giggles. Low and behold, thing starts workin. Not in any way that i can figure is useful, but it registers.

What's goin on here??? lol

 

Did you do as Donnie suggested?

First you said you hooked it up...
Radio---3ft jumper---SWR meter---antenna. Where's the 18'coax?


Then you hooked it up...
Radio---18'coax---SWR meter---3' Jumper---4' Firestick

This is right, but you don't want the swr meter at the end of the 18' coax. It needs to be in front of it, close to the radio.

It should be.....
Radio---3' jumper---swr meter---18' coax---4' Firestick

Is this how you did it the first time and just didn't say you had the 18' coax inline?

 

LOL yeah, that's what i meant:
Radio---3' jumper---swr meter---18' coax---4' Firestick

Not sure i could figure out how to plug the 4' Firestick directly into the SWR meter..and if i did figure out how, i wouldn't admit that i had done it lol. Anyways, when hooked up correctly, i get nothing out of the SWR meter. When hooked up near the antenna mount is the only time i get any readings.

 

sounds like a bad meter. the reason it is moving when close to the antenna, is
it picking up the rf from the transmitted signal directly into the meter.

if you just bought it take it back and exchange it, if not try and find someone in your area that has one you could borrow or if they are willing to help you with it.

 

IF he was closer to me, Id run by and try to assist and see if we could get it going.

 

Allright gents, so either i have the worst luck in the world, or the 2nd SWR meter i bought is ALSO broken. I don't understand it---still gives me the indications that i'm putting NOTHING out when i key the mic. Maybe i'm not---is there some other way to measure this?? Basically, how would i find out if the radio is putting out anything into the antenna at all?

 

Maybe it's the jumper cable that's bad?