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New with a cb radio and needs help.

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2004crownvic

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Hi guys

I have been reading and hofully can understand whats happening . I have had a CB radio for about 2 weeks. cobra 29 Harley Davidson edition. my antenna is a lil will with a 12 inch black antenna with a coil in the middle. is this even the right antenna?

Its mounted on the truck toward the back window. its was working fine few days ago, I have been getting a lot of engine/ignition noise when the squelch is not tuned closed to where its in the sewwt spot. when it is in the sweet spot there is no noise but if i have it wide open it lets engine noise in. i can select to turn the noise canceling feature on but not sure if that decreases anything else.

Next and important is that when i was noticing that nobody can hear me now. i was on the highway and could hear them but not other way around. i was looking at tuning the swr a lil better and noticed is won't go below like 6???

I calibrate to the cal arrow then switch it to swr and the needle sits around 5 or 6. I'm not sure whats going on but help lol.

there is a light that says ant that lights up red when i key up the mic. so any help?

Thanks everyone for welcoming me. again I"m sorry if i sound so noobish, but I am lol.
 
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reedeb

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Take it to a CB shop and have someone use a mete on it. With the red light on it's telling you the antenaa is messed up somewhere. ALSO lil wills are asically for trucks got for a willson 100 or K40 and you will see better reports BUT get an outside meter to check the match
 

ka3nxn

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If you are properly calibrating the SWR meter and then checking your antenna and still getting a 6:1 than that antenna is either not tuned or it's defective. Don't transmit with an SWR higher than 3:1 The ignition noise is normal. Use the noise blanker on the radio, if that takes care of the problem than leave it on. Also see if you can find that sweet spot again. Ignition noise is actually radiated through the air and that is why when you move the antenna, sometimes you hear it and sometimes you don't. If you have a standard pickup truck and want a magnet mount antenna I would use a Wilson 1000 or a K-40. Stay away from anything that is shorter than 3 feet. Actually the longer the better. The best mobile antenna for CB is the 9 foot whip, but since it is so big most people don't use them. Find a CB shop to tune your antenna once you get a good one. Or better yet see if you can make friends with someone at your local ham radio club. I can promise you that one of them has the meter you need to tune your antenna and will check out your install for you and make recommendations for you. All for free.
 

2004crownvic

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Feb 21, 2012
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i appreciate it a lot, Im not part of any club unfortunalty. the closest cb shop in pa from me is 212 miles. i have not looked in N.J. its just weird that all of a sudden this is happening.

I'll look into the bigger will.
 

sdeeter19555

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Reading, PA
Hi guys

. my antenna is a lil will with a 12 inch black antenna with a coil in the middle. is this even the right antenna?



The Little Wil should have a stainless steel whip about 36 inches long...if you don't have the correct whip, that could be most of your issue right there.

FWIW, the Little Wil is a perfectly fine antenna for a starter...no need for a Wilson 1000 or 5000 until you figure out whether you really use it or not...
 

Randalman

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I don't think you have a lil wil take a look on wilsons site. I think a Wil is only available as a steel whip.
6:1 swr will likely damage you radio if you try to talk into the mic and I believe they start to drop power above 2:1.so even if there is no damage TX will be very low.
Base Load Antennas | Wilson Antennas
 

2004crownvic

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Hey I'll post a picture, I already bought a steel whip. Just waiting for it.

7d383cd1.jpg
 

roadranger

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Athens, Ga
Oops!

Doors and lids have a bad habit of crimping, if not cutting, coax. Check to see if the antenna wire is cut or mashed, while you have a CB technician look at it.
 

2004crownvic

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Feb 21, 2012
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I don't think you have a lil wil take a look on wilsons site. I think a Wil is only available as a steel whip.
6:1 swr will likely damage you radio if you try to talk into the mic and I believe they start to drop power above 2:1.so even if there is no damage TX will be very low.
Base Load Antennas | Wilson Antennas


hey man

I do, i bought it with a replacement antenna. i already bought a steel whip. i just hope nothing is damaged.
 

donny612

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Sep 16, 2004
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New Bern, NC
Wrong antenna mast???

You did say you had a little wil, 12 inches with a loading coil in the middle? With the base loaded little wil and a loaded short antenna you may have a serious antenna length problem if I'm understanding the description correctly. The little wil is a base load with just a stainless antenna mast at about 3 feet...no coils or anything. Your radio may be seeing an antenna that is way too long electrically or way too short if this is in fact a little wil?
 
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2004crownvic

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Feb 21, 2012
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You did say you had a little wil, 12 inches with a loading coil in the middle? With the base loaded little wil and a loaded short antenna you may have a serious antenna length problem if I'm understanding the description correctly. The little wil is a base load with just a stainless antenna mast at 4 or 5 feet...no coils or anything. Your radio may be seeing an antenna that is way too long electrically or way too short if this is in fact a little wil?

that is correct, thats what was on it when i bought it. i bought it used. I'm already replacing the whip. i bought the correct 36inch one. just waiting for it.
 

pjtnascar

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Sussex County, NJ
That is definitely the wrong whip you have there. You'll also do better with antenna on the roof. Don't TX with that whip on there.

Where in PA do you live? If you're near Route 80 in NJ there is a CB shop in the T of A truck stop iin Columbia right over the border in NJ.
 

kb2vxa

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Uh oh, that's NOT a CB antenna, looks more like a UHF collinear. That being the case, the base contains the matching network for the band so simply replacing the whip won't cut the muster. What you need is a complete CB antenna, Wilson makes several and they're all good.

In any case I'm not fond of those trunk lip mounts that squash the coax between the lid and gasket. While I haven't seen damaged coax I've seen plenty of damaged, leaky gaskets. I've not seen problems with those that hold the coax in place under the mount away from the gasket, trouble with Wilson ads is you can't see detail. It's a pretty sure bet a dealer will let you examine the merchandise so look for one that fastens like the one pictured.
 
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2004crownvic

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Feb 21, 2012
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Uh oh, that's NOT a CB antenna, looks more like a UHF collinear. That being the case, the base contains the matching network for the band so simply replacing the whip won't cut the muster. What you need is a complete CB antenna, Wilson makes several and they're all good.

In any case I'm not fond of those trunk lip mounts that squash the coax between the lid and gasket. While I haven't seen damaged coax I've seen plenty of damaged, leaky gaskets. I've not seen problems with those that hold the coax in place under the mount away from the gasket, trouble with Wilson ads is you can't see detail. It's a pretty sure bet a dealer will let you examine the merchandise so look for one that fastens like the one pictured.

I bought this with the steel 36 inch stock whip replaced. I did not know you can not use it like that. your saying this in not a cb antenna period? that picture there clamps to the car? i just don't want to drill holes.
 

ka3nxn

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It is a CB antenna with the stock whip that it came with. When you replace the whip it changes the electrical characteristics completely. The only way to know for sure if it will work with that short whip that you put on it is to put it on a good SWR meter and check the SWR or better yet an antenna analyzer. This will tell you where the antenna is resonant. If you do happen to get lucky and it does resonate in the CB band with that shorter whip, it still will not work as well as the 36" whip that came with it. Remember what I said in my earlier posts, the longer the better? By putting the shorter whip on the coil you reduced the efficiency of the antenna many times over. I can't tell you how much without putting it on some test equipment and running some field tests on it. Your CB only puts out 4 watts of RF and you want to make sure that as much of those 4 watts gets radiated out into the air. By shortening the antenna, you reduced the efficiency and if you are lucky it maybe radiating 1 watt of RF. We call them "dummy loads" in the ham radio world. Also for receive it is also reduced dramatically because the aperture of the antenna is greatly reduced. Imaging an antenna being like a big net, and radio waves like fish. What is going to capture more fish a bigger or a smaller net? The bigger one of course. Same applies for an antenna, the larger the antenna, the more radio waves it can capture. This is why your receive suffers.
 

kb2vxa

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You're confusing the heck out of me and by the look of things I'm not the only one. Your best bet is to start from scratch with something you're SURE is a CB antenna. Once that's sorted we can get into SWR and tuning if need be, maybe you'll get lucky and it'll be acceptable right out of the box.

The picture shows a "minimalist" trunk lip mount for clarity, that is you can easily see how it mounts. Note the set screws, no holes needed; just back off the screws, slip it over the lip and tighten them.
 

grogan

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Nov 7, 2006
Messages
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You have the wrong antenna it should be 36" and silver in color stainless steel.
 
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