I found this thing in a pawn shop at a good price, and installed it in my Jeep. I get the weather loud and clear but have yet to hear a conversation. I listen to 19 and 23 for the most part. I did try to tune the SWR with the little meter but got very little deflection. ( is that the right word?) Should I be looking at whether my antenna is tuneable?
What reading did you get on the meter? anything lower than 1.5:1 is considered fine, even 2:1 isn’t awful - and do you know where the weather you are hearing comes from? Distance wise. If you hear that loud and clear the chances are simply there isn’t anyone around!
The built in SWR meter only lets you read the SWR… it won’t actually let you adjust it. Make sure you know how to calibrate and read an SWR meter correctly.
If you have calibrated it correctly, and have a very low reading on SWR, then that is good.
CB is not as busy as it has been in years past. In my city, a large metro area, channel 19 RARELY has any traffic.
Thanks both of you. I trashed my antenna going through a car wash a while back, forgot it was there. looking now for another. Does length have much affect? And what about type? Straight wire or wire wrapped over fiberglass?
Either type will work for you. A longer antenna will generally perform better, however. Just make sure the antenna is designed for CB use.
Alrighty, been trying different antennas and am thinking about remounting the little window mounted one that I have. I took it off thinking it wasn’t enough to receive anything, when the fact is there’s nothing to receive. I’ll only use it while off road anyway. Now, The question — Is there a special adhesive to use for it?