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Cruiser
Posts: 261
Sugar Land, TX (Outside of Houston) | Got the CB Antenna installed but the instructions look like the grounding strap is supposed to reach all the way down to the bottom where the trunk mounting bolts are. But it is too short to reach all the way down.
I grounded it to the top mounting bolt (Just under the plastic floor panel, which is still part of the trunk mounting frame. Just wondering if anyone else had the same problem or did something different to extend it down to the mounting bolts in the bottom of the well.
Also - Did anyone have to go to a Radio Shop to get the SWR Settings Tuned on the antenna. Or just use it straight out of the box?
Richard |
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Visionary
Posts: 8144
New Bohemia, VA | my dealer installed mine about a week after I bought. Also, I had to have a new radio installed because of the volume problem with the first one. Both of them had the strap down to the mount bolt. As far as I know there has not been an SWR meter tune and it works just fine. Mine will extend a few miles with good clarity. The mike could be better though. |
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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 11
| Mine did not work well at all, maybe the length of a football field. We replace the antenna with a 2 ft Fire fox and tuned it with the meter. I do not have a ground to my knowledge. It now works good for a mile or 2 . The radio volume is real low when the CB is turned on and I am hoping the download will fix that. |
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Visionary
Posts: 8144
New Bohemia, VA | Don, I'm not sure which version of radio you had, but when I had my bad CB it was thought to need a download. However, there was no download and it had to be replaced. I think the replacement radio will accept downloads but I'm not for sure. |
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Visionary
Posts: 1632
Jasper, MO | My grounding strap reaches all the way to the bottom and is captured under one of the trunk mounting bolts. You should be fine with it grounded to the top of the frame though. I checked the SWR's (tuning) of the antenna myself with an SWR meter. I am using the factory antenna. The SWR's range from 1.2 on channel 1 (very good) to 2.9 on channel 40 (right on the margin of being acceptable). I tried a two foot tuneable Firestik antenna, but it was worse than the factory antenna and I could not make it any better by tuning it, so I put the factory antenna back on. The "tune" of the antenna is critical to the transmission performance of any CB radio, as it determines how much power is actually transmitted. If the SWR is too high, then very little power is actually radiated by the antenna. Grounding of the radio and the antenna are equally important to proper performance.
We can talk 2 ot 3 miles apart even in the mountains. Out in the country, on a clear night, on a clear channel, my Goldwing riding buddy and myself have talked continually until we were as far apart as 8 miles. This is rare, though. The signal was weak and noisy, but we could still understand each other. Most of the time, there is enough other radio traffic and interference (powerlines, etc) to limit the useful range to 2 or 3 miles.
It doesn't hurt to check the SWR's. When you do, have the rider and passenger sitting on the bike, since your physical proximity to the antenna will have an affect on the tune.
Ronnie |
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Puddle Jumper
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| We were not sitting on the bike when we tuned the Antenna , so we will try that when the weather gets better. How would you tune then factory antenna? The meter read a little less than 1 on the low end and less than 1.5 on the high. I would rather use the factory antenna due to its size rather than the fire stick. I don't know yet which radio I have but its an 09 Premium. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 212
Tavares, Fl | I ordered an AM/FM CB antenna splitter from Sierra electronics for about 30 bucks. It allows you to fine tune the CB antenna and gave a little better reception on the am/fm radio....You still need an SWR meter though... |
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Cruiser
Posts: 212
Tavares, Fl | If I had it to do over again I would install the cb in the right saddlebag and would not install the factory antenna. One day thats going to be a project , move the cb and find another mount and antenna. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 261
Sugar Land, TX (Outside of Houston) | rlreed - 2010-01-19 9:09 AM
If I had it to do over again I would install the cb in the right saddlebag and would not install the factory antenna. One day thats going to be a project , move the cb and find another mount and antenna.
I did not want the entire Victory CB / Comm package and I don't like to be "Teathered" to the bike, so I bought the Cobra 75 WX ST CB which has all the controls in the Hand Held Microphone. It has a small Remote Head Unit that I put in the Trunk CB Space under the plastic panel. I connected power into the console Powerlet outlet so it is on the ignition switch.
The reason I went this route is I wanted an Audio out Jack on the CB so I can put a Bluetooth Dongle on it and put the audio into my helmet. But I wanted to control the channels, etc... from the hand held microphone.
Currently, I have it wired up to the Wiring Harness GPS Input Connector where I installed a 3.5 jack splitter to use my Zumo 660 and the CB through the speakers.
Richard |
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Visionary
Posts: 1632
Jasper, MO | Don Nieshe - 2010-01-19 8:04 AM
We were not sitting on the bike when we tuned the Antenna , so we will try that when the weather gets better. How would you tune then factory antenna? The meter read a little less than 1 on the low end and less than 1.5 on the high. I would rather use the factory antenna due to its size rather than the fire stick. I don't know yet which radio I have but its an 09 Premium.
The factory antenna is not designed to be tunable. You could effectively tune it in one direction by removing the plastic cap and shortening the end of the wire, but you're stuck with whatever you get with that approach. Your readings are very good as is. I wouldn't mess with it. I agree with you that the shorter factory antenna is better, if you can get it tuned in. If your readings are higher on channel 40 than channel 1, then you can shorten the wire at the tip of the antenna. Go very slow and trim a tiny bit at a time. J&M sells a tunable shorty replacement antenna. I may try one of them myself, since my factory antenna is marginal. I'm only putting out half power on the upper channels, due to the high SWR readings.
Tuning antennas almost require a little Voodoo magic. Sensitive things, they are, especially in difficult situations like a plastic bodied vehicle. http://www.cbradiosplus.com/shop/pc/viewprd.asp?idcategory=71&idpro... For those who may be interested in doing their own testing/tuning, this is a decent little inexpensive meter.
Always re-zero the meter everytime you change channels while testing, or your readings will be meaningless.
Ronnie
Edited by rdbudd 2010-01-20 11:53 AM
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CB Antenna Grounding and Tuning