S-10CREWCAB.NET

I want a cb for my truck... Not really sure why but I don't want the goofy antenna for it, every thing I read says unless it's straight up it's gonna perform very poorly.

Well going on a long ride to the beach next month, and thought about a handheld cb. Cobra has this one with a minature antenna for the vehicle.

http://www.cobra.com/index.cfm?fuseacti ... uct_ID=311

I'll use mine for just chatting on the road, weather during trips, possibly emerganvy call. I think really the only down side is they down have the range of normal CBs. I hink they are limited to a couple miles? Maybe that antenna cobra includes makes it reach a little more?

Any ways asking for thoughts or knowledge on the subject.

Save your money and take the "Ham test". Then you can go VHF.

If you have friends that use CB radios vehicle to vehicle, then a CB might be a good investment. If you want a handheld, I'll send you a PM.

For vehicle to vehicle FRS/GMRS works very well. Those are handy to have for housework , hiking and hunting too.

I have a Cobra handheld in my truck. It's nice to listen to if you are in a construction zone. But I also carry a couple different FRS radios in the console compartment. They are nice for convoying or dragging a budys ride home.

I found one of dads cobra 19 DX radios. The one that will fit where the ash try is. I dought it has NOAA stations, what is the smallest sized cb ( that will fit the ash try like the 19) with NOAA stations?

I'm curious if I keep this cb set up, I want the NOAA stations.

I did have for order a firestik antenna, mount, cb cable, cobra 19 mount. Dad does have a swr to tune it though.

My CB has the NOAA.


http://cobra.com/products//18-wx-st-ii- ... aa-weather

Nice. You like it?

Yes sir! No complaints here.

Let me ask, what do you usually use your cb for. I want one, I'm installing on once I get my firestik in. I plan to use it for entertainment on long trips, lol, and cops I guess. I have no real reason just want one.

Luckily dad was really into cb until we got a computer. He even had a few visits from the FCC, lol. He has atleast 4 cobra 19 dx radios from his old job. They would just swap em out when they "broke", dad took em home decided which were still good or not. They even just threw out the brand new mounting hardware! But if I decide I want to keep it I definantly want one with NOAA channels.

I'm thinking about joining a local off-road club. One of the requirements is having a functional CB radio. Other than that, I definitely don't need a CB. However, the weather station comes in handy. If I'm not listening to the weather or talking to a couple of my buddies who also have CB's, I just listen to truckers talk - it can be quite interesting.

lol, well, ill see how I like the cb world. From what a recall, its full of "potty mouths". While I curse entirely too much, some things i have heard on the cb in the past are, shocking, lol. But I dont think thats the kinda forum to be talking like that, or the internet, but that since of anonymity.

Let me ask, when you bolted your bracket in, did you just bolt it the the plastic dash, or was there something more solid? I am worred about bolting to plastic and the weight of the cb breaking it/pulling the bolt through.

Large Fender washers always help....

I threw out the bracket. Because of the position I installed the radio, the bracket was not needed. When you completely remove the ash tray, all you need to do is file (or cut if you choose) a little plastic lip, and the radio will fit very snugly in that position. Believe it or not, my CB will not budge and is very firm in place even though it's not bolted, screwed, or glued to anything. You can see by the arrow the plastic lip that needed to be filed so that it tightly hugs the radio. (If you remove your ash tray and take a look, you'll get a better understanding of what I'm talking about.)



Just wire it in place of the cigarette lighter, file the plastic piece to fit the dimensions of the radio and you're done. I ran the wires under the center console, under the rear floor mats, then squeezed them as best as I could along-side the rear seat leading to the back.

Also, if you're at all interested, the brackets holding my whips are screwed right into the frame. So as far as I know, they are grounded. Otherwise you'd have to mess with another wire to ground them. I drilled a hole through the cab with a hole saw to connect the wires to the antennas. It is behind the rear seat, opposite end of the jack.



I layered electrical tape around the wires to protect them from getting cut by the exposed metal (that I later filled in with silicone).

Thats slick. I would be curious if it would slide out under hard acceleration but you said its nice and firm in there. Guess you just gotta be very careful when making the cut! I do like your CB, if I decide to keep a CB in my truck ill upgrade to that one.

Thats an interesting antenna set up, how tall is?

This is exactly what im planning on doing:



Firestik, bed mount. I got a firestik coaxial cable that has a like,, threaded rca end, that the bigger coaxial plug threads onto. Its like that so you can run the cable through smaller holes. I figure I will just run my coaxial behind the dash/carpet whatever to the passanger side. Then run it under the trim to a spot with a existing hole or drill one, then under the truck to the bed and connect to the antenna mount. Basically im gonna run my cable under my trim like my amp wiring. till it goes under the cab.

I asked dad about my anetenna being grounded he said when I mount it to the bed like I want it will be. I guess if it isnt suffeciant the SWR meter will let us know, and runing a ground cable is cake.

Im assuming you get good reception and what not? i know you want the antenna as high as possible but I dont think I have seen one mounted that low! lol. The way I wanna do mine isnt the tallest either but i figure should be more then sufficiant.


I saw a guy last night that had EIGHT 4 foot magnetic base antennas ontop his SUV. Seems prtty crazy to me... lol.

Mine are Fire Stick just like the picture. I just bought the duel-antenna set up. I can't remember right now if they're 4ft or 5ft, but you can see from some of my pictures that they stick up about a foot above the top of the cab.

The reception is far better than the single magnet mounted antenna I used to have (which was positioned much higher). From what I've read, I'm pretty sure that duel antennas work better than a single one.

I know nothing about CBs really, it looks like you ran two seperate coxials from each antenna to the cb,,, are there two inputs on the back of the cb for each able, or how does both cables interface with the cb?

Im assuming it has only one antenna IN port?

Yes, one input. The wires merge into one to connect to the the radio.

Alrighty, got the firestik antenna mounted yesterday and the cb wired. Didnt get to test it right away as i touched the exposed cig lighter wires and blew the 15 amp fuse Didnt have a spare on hand, neither did my buddy.

Any ways, got some fuses, and the radio turned on just fine. but no sound...Dad was out, so dad looked at it today. I was installing a CObra 19 DX. Long story short, first 19 DX was bad, the Second 19 DX was Bad, the Third 19DX worked but the meter on it didnt. Then we tried a 19 plus, and it worked. So we installed it. SWR readings range from 1.2-1.6 at the worst.

But I soon discovered im getting a lot of noise with the engine on. It was first wired to the cig lighter. When you turn the ignition on it would pick up noise from the fuel pump. With the only thing on being the radio the bars read 1/5 bars. With the truck running it reads 3/5 bars. When you rev it it jumps to 4/5 bars.

I decided to run the power and ground directly to the battery and route the wire as best i could away from the ignition, sprak plugs, alternator, etc. But the same story, no differance at all. Dad suggested a inline filter.

Maybe the old Cobra 19 plus I have installed doesn't do as good a job filtering noise out as newer models?

Ideas?

edit - from a little searching im thinking of getting the 20amp or heavy duty filter seen on this page:

http://www.sparkyscbshack.com/filters.html

or this DIY

http://www.worldwidedx.com/home-brew-mo ... ilter.html

I have a heavy duty 20 amp filter on my VHF radio. Seems to do the trick.

Im gonna do the DIY one. Looks pretty solid, and from my rading a capacitor is the big thing in a noise filter set up... im not sure of the one in that store had one,, plus I like building things

But unless theres some how a differance in the dash 14x4 i dont see how your radio would fit mine...

My ash try opening is only 6" wide. Your radio is 6.5" wide.




And if you look at the inside of yours vs mine, you just have a plastic piece that runs side to side.

I have a metal piece that runs front to back along the side of the opening...





So, unless theres a CB out there under 6" wide with NOAA, I dont see me doing any thing but sticking with the cobra 19 line up.

It would appear my noise issue isnt from the wiring but the antenna.

I took the antenna off and the noise level with the truck running went down 95%. I could hear a slight hum but was not bad at all. Reconnected the antenna and tons of noise.

The antenna (firestik) isnt grounded, though the SWR readings are good. Ill have to try grounding it. Any ideas if that doesn't work? I dont see a inline filter helping, since those filter out noises in the power wires only?

edit- dad says its grounded just fine since it has good SWR levels. 1.2 - 1.6 at worst. Its just noise. Have to live with it,,, but id entertain ideas...

What you want to look for is a low pass filter for the antennas CB is 27Mhz so you want a filter that will not let any signal above that pass into the radio. Here is what you are looking for Low Pass Filter. Also check to make sure if your antenna leads are isolated from any power leads, do not parallel a lead but make sure to cross them at a 90 degree angle. You also may still need a better ground. With two antennas unless they are grounded with a common ground the opposing field ground can cause problems, this is just like using a common ground in house wiring.

I took out the frame around the ashtray - not just the ashtray itself. I don't know if that is that problem or not...

Oh, that would make more sence... how hard was that? Do you have any noise issues?


I just recalled my coaxial is running parrallel to my amp wire But i took out the fuse at the battery, and it didnt help at all. I took some 16 gauge wire, put a ring connector on it, put it on the antenna and ran to to the negative battery post to ground it, no differance at all.

Im not sure if I did that right though?

I relaly cant find much info on a low pass filter while googling, seems more people use it for CB stations rather then vehicles? But ill take your word and bid on that one you listed.


I am getting pretty good range though, I had some one do a cb check with me who was around 5 miles away. heard him great and he heard me reat. He said I had a little whine but it wasnt bad when i asked specifically.

I also think the squelch is messed up on my radio? after less then 1/4 turn it abruptly kills and static. and even people who are on the radio who are so loud and clear it sounds like they are in the passnager seat, it blocks them out. Seems like they should still come in clear? Again this is with the squelch at less then 1/4 turn.

Sounds like the radio might have some issues might just be dusty inside if old there are electronic cleaners you can spray directly onto boards (power off ) and clean a lot of gunk out the squelch sounds like the pot it's connected to might be bad. I would also try a different antenna the one you got could be bad right from the store.

Do the power filter. Your alternator is noisy.

You may not want to believe me or that it works. I am the radio tech for our fire department and my full time job. We have lots of old equipment. The newer stuff is much RF quieter. A simple power filter has solved the whine on more than I can count.
Sure you can pick up interference via the antenna, but I doubt you have to deal with old strobes and rotators next to your antenna.

The low pass filter is not a bad idea, but should be a last resort. You will lose transmission power. Our repeater had to have one due to PD interference. It cut our power in half. Needless to say we moved the PD transmitter and took the filter out. We went from 40 watts to 90 watts. Not perfect due to some other interferences, but much better.

My truck had the same whine. small , but annoying. with the engine off it was gone. I was careful to route coax away from power. The power was straight from the battery and routed away from other wiring as best I could.

Buy a HD power filter. Mine whines no more.

Maybe,, dad has another old 19 plus, might try it... or might just be better off snagging a new one for $40 on ebay...... He said the squelch is working fine, but from what i can recall from past cbs iv mesd with the squelch will slowly fade out the static, no abruptly kill it. It dodnes teven seem to fade at all till it kills it, and no other signal can get through unless you have it on the border of where it kills it.

Brule, you posted before I posted. Many times I have not been able to fully grasp what your saying, this time ill just go with it, lol. Ill snag a new/slightly used cobra 19 whatever-is-the-newest-model, and make that filter/buy one. Might be becuase I have older eqiupment but mine is a pretty LOUD annoying whine.

I unplugged the alternator while running that made no change? but again, ill do as above, and save the low-pass as a last option.

Unplugging the alternator while running is not good for the alternator and...it is still running. Pull the belt and try it if you like. You may still get some RF from the ignition system. Less though. Personally, I wouldn't bother.

My local Ramar Electronics (independent RadioShack) has been getting me 20 amp filters commonly used in audio systems. I think the last three I bought were $15 each? The $20 one you linked from Sparky's looks similar.

Our Engine 101 has always had a horrible whine. One of the other guys had worked on it several times over the years. Lord knows all the tricks he tried. It was still terrible. I slipped in one weekend and put one of those filters on it. Bingo! whine gone. "A Christmas Miracle"

Well I just plucked a new cobra 19 dx iv on eBay. I'm not sure if I want to build or buy that filter. I looks like the store bought one would be smaller. But that homebrew one has lots of great replys....

So hopefully new equipment and the filter will do it. Oops on the alternator. FYI, the dr44 alt I have is the same one in one of the ups trucks I drive in the country a lot of the time, lol.

Edit- I kept reading about this David navone n-700 being one of the best filters out there, and it was over half off, so I bought it for $20 shipped. It's half way down the page here:
http://www.davidnavone.com/cart.asp?24&cat=2

Got my new cobra radio and David navone n-700 filter today. This filter is.... Huge... I have no clue where to put it....

It's about 8" long and 2 1/4" round, guessing... If size is an indicator I can see why people think this is one of the best filters out there...

When wiring this filter, would it be okay to tap into the radios ground suing going to the battery to ground it? I don't see why not but never messed with a filter like this?

The filter goes between the radio and supply. If it has both the positive and negative filtered one side is the input the other output.
If is just a filter for the positive and it needs a ground, select a good chassis ground, or go to the battery.

Got it all installed. Again. Only place I could think to put the filter was in the glove box, this thing is crazy big.



And the radio



I first installed it without the filter, and there was a huge noise differance. With it off and the gain cranked up it makes a whine similer to the alternator whine. With the engine on and gain off, theres very very little static, when you get it past 1/4 turn, you start to pick up the same noises I had before. but It seems i can keep the gain low enough to get rid of the noise and get good reception.

Plugged in the filter, and at first thought it made a big differance, but discoverd it was just the postion of the gain knob. The filter did little, if nothing for me. But I half expected that since i was sure my problem wasnt in the power lines. But rather the antenna picking up noise.

Had to slightly retune my antenna. channel 1 was reading 2.1 and 40, 1.2 on the SWR. After tunning channel 1 and 2 are both 1.6 swr. and the middle bands droop down to 1.2 when you hit 20 then work their way back up to 1.6 at 40. So, not bad.

I talked to a driver atleast 4 miles away, possibly 5. Prefectly clear. but I did the same with a driver that I know was atleast 4.5 miles away last week on the old CB i was using. When I get a radio check its normally someone going past my exit or getting on the interstate at my exit, lol.

Also hard to really try it out today, there has been no chatter on it at all, I first thought it was broke becuase no one and any channels were talking the first half hour I had it on, even after many requests for a radio check.

But all seems good so far