CB Help

[kickboxer]

hoping someone can give me some advice (hope its not buy another one !)

I bought a cb from ebay - maoonraker minor with mag mount, I fitted it in the terrano which was an easy job as its powered through cigar lighter, however all i get is noise and very faint voices. I drove from peterborough to stafford today to give it a good test by listening to truck drivers, still terrible reception.
Decided to pop into radioshop in Walsal to see if they could help, they said its the areial and sold me a bigger mag mount and larger springer (£40) , tried this wehn i got home and made hardly any differance, have tried it on the wifes car as thought it might me some interferance from the terrano electrical system, works ever so slightly better on her car but not significantly.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what might be wrong?

I have not done a swr check but would this make a significant differance?

 

[briggie]

hoping someone can give me some advice (hope its not buy another one !)

I bought a cb from ebay - maoonraker minor with mag mount, I fitted it in the terrano which was an easy job as its powered through cigar lighter, however all i get is noise and very faint voices. I drove from peterborough to stafford today to give it a good test by listening to truck drivers, still terrible reception.
Decided to pop into radioshop in Walsal to see if they could help, they said its the areial and sold me a bigger mag mount and larger springer (£40) , tried this wehn i got home and made hardly any differance, have tried it on the wifes car as thought it might me some interferance from the terrano electrical system, works ever so slightly better on her car but not significantly.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what might be wrong?

I have not done a swr check but would this make a significant differance?

yes it would ,
may not be your radios fault on reception , not many people use cb these days I think , may just be that they are a long way away , you need to find someone close , or after checking your swr and its ok , put a call out on ch 19 asking for a radio check , and see where they are .

 

[kickboxer]

Ok will do a swr check and see if that helps, I thought that truckers still used cb that's why I thought a drive on the m6 would test it

 

[briggie]

Ok will do a swr check and see if that helps, I thought that truckers still used cb that's why I thought a drive on the m6 would test it

some do , but not many

 

[cncfabs]

some do , but not many

Didnt cb die out in the uk in 1981 when they legalised it.Do you still need a liscence

 

[briggie]

Didnt cb die out in the uk in 1981 when they legalised it.Do you still need a liscence

no , don't need a licence for cb anymore

 

[bry]

hoping someone can give me some advice (hope its not buy another one !)

I bought a cb from ebay - maoonraker minor with mag mount, I fitted it in the terrano which was an easy job as its powered through cigar lighter, however all i get is noise and very faint voices. I drove from peterborough to stafford today to give it a good test by listening to truck drivers, still terrible reception.
Decided to pop into radioshop in Walsal to see if they could help, they said its the areial and sold me a bigger mag mount and larger springer (£40) , tried this wehn i got home and made hardly any differance, have tried it on the wifes car as thought it might me some interferance from the terrano electrical system, works ever so slightly better on her car but not significantly.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what might be wrong?

I have not done a swr check but would this make a significant differance?

If you have not Done a SWR check then i am surprised you have not damaged your CB,
You need to do The SWR. Not only will you save your Rig You will get maximum transmission and reception.
But i fear,if you have being trying to transmit(Pressing the mike key) You may have damaged your CB,

 

[exosteve]

just getting to grips with my own cb.
and I did press the mike button without an anttena and again with out the swr.
however like some one previously said newer cbs tend to be a bit tougher.
after i did everything right it still would not work.
after doing a factory reset it still didnt work untill i reset the region. uk band.
hey presto.
1 factory reset
2 swr test
3 uk settings on mine is U
jobs agood un.
I just heard a local lad on last night selling some stuff and brought a 50x burner off him
aparently when fitted i can reach upto 20/25 miles

 

[jims-terrano]

Glad you are working and not damaged your set. Pressing the PTT without an antenna is a bad idea, a lot worse than an antenna with a bad SWR. I agree that modern transmitters are more robust than the older models.

Something else to remember is not to touch the antenna whilst transmitting as it'll hurt, it's a deep burn called an RF burn.

The "Burner" is an amplifier, this will give an approximate output power on the case/box. 50 times is not a normal rating for these things, they are measured in Watts. To start with you are legally limited in transmitter output power so the chances are you will be breaking the law but chances of getting caught are quite low but this doesn't mean it's correct but I'm not going to judge you and what you do or do not do.
So the more power you send up the CO-AX the higher an SWR will be so at 4 Watts you may be below 2 to 1 but with say 50 Watts being sent up the CO-AX it could go as high as 3 to 1 and more to the point the more being reflected down to the radio. A radio designed to transmit 4 watts suddenly finding best part of 50 watts being chucked at it may not last too long.
The transmitted power does not dictate to the distance your signal will travel. The distance your signal travels is dependant more on the terrain. Buildings and Hills will reduce the signals effectiveness, it basically blocks it. A good antenna with good feeder (CO-AX) and mounted correctly will give you better results than putting more power into a system that is not fitted correctly. Also parked at the top of a hill will give you better results, an antenna works best as high up as possible. It's not often when green laning you would want to communicate more than 100 metres in fairness. Also remember that it's OK your signal going further but not a lot of point if you can't hear stations as far away as your signal is going.

Radio is a complex subject and their are a lot of tales and people that know about it. Also people and businesses selling equipment are not often trained and give false information.

My personal advice is to flog the burner on to someone else. Ensure your antenna system is as good as you can get it. Have a good play and see what you think of it. As Briggie will tell you CB has it's uses and there are people out there who use it as a hobby as well as people who use it as a convenient way of communicating locally. If you decide actually this radio thing is quite interesting ask on here as there are a number of people that had those thoughts and took up radio as a hobby. Above all enjoy playing and take it for what it is.

PS can't wait to see Briggies response to this post.

 

[briggie]

Glad you are working and not damaged your set. Pressing the PTT without an antenna is a bad idea, a lot worse than an antenna with a bad SWR. I agree that modern transmitters are more robust than the older models.

Something else to remember is not to touch the antenna whilst transmitting as it'll hurt, it's a deep burn called an RF burn.

The "Burner" is an amplifier, this will give an approximate output power on the case/box. 50 times is not a normal rating for these things, they are measured in Watts. To start with you are legally limited in transmitter output power so the chances are you will be breaking the law but chances of getting caught are quite low but this doesn't mean it's correct but I'm not going to judge you and what you do or do not do.
So the more power you send up the CO-AX the higher an SWR will be so at 4 Watts you may be below 2 to 1 but with say 50 Watts being sent up the CO-AX it could go as high as 3 to 1 and more to the point the more being reflected down to the radio. A radio designed to transmit 4 watts suddenly finding best part of 50 watts being chucked at it may not last too long.
The transmitted power does not dictate to the distance your signal will travel. The distance your signal travels is dependant more on the terrain. Buildings and Hills will reduce the signals effectiveness, it basically blocks it. A good antenna with good feeder (CO-AX) and mounted correctly will give you better results than putting more power into a system that is not fitted correctly. Also parked at the top of a hill will give you better results, an antenna works best as high up as possible. It's not often when green laning you would want to communicate more than 100 metres in fairness. Also remember that it's OK your signal going further but not a lot of point if you can't hear stations as far away as your signal is going.

Radio is a complex subject and their are a lot of tales and people that know about it. Also people and businesses selling equipment are not often trained and give false information.

My personal advice is to flog the burner on to someone else. Ensure your antenna system is as good as you can get it. Have a good play and see what you think of it. As Briggie will tell you CB has it's uses and there are people out there who use it as a hobby as well as people who use it as a convenient way of communicating locally. If you decide actually this radio thing is quite interesting ask on here as there are a number of people that had those thoughts and took up radio as a hobby. Above all enjoy playing and take it for what it is.

PS can't wait to see Briggies response to this post.

not much to add jim , you've covered everything ,

yes my friend swr is a measure of the reflected power transmitted ...... so if your output power is 50 watts for example , then conversely your swr will rise . also linear amplifiers ( burners ) are quite critical as to the input power too for example most have a maximum input of 4watts .... if you go above that you will damage your linear and possibly your radio too .

another thing about swr .... it means a mismatch between your radio and aerial ...... you then have a situation which can create interference .. which will obviously multiply if you use a burner .

to recap ,
you have absolutely no need to use a burner for green laning

 

[briggie]

just to add ... its a very good idea to read the instruction manual for your radio ( if you have it ) before installing it

 

[zippy656]

just to add ... its a very good idea to read the instruction manual for your radio ( if you have it ) before installing it

Before, nar more fun after when you have sparks flying about:augie:augie

 

[jims-terrano]

:jesterbg

Before, nar more fun after when you have sparks flying about:augie:augie

 

[kickboxer]

Stupid question but how will I know if I have damaged my cb by incorrect aerial setup ?

 

[jims-terrano]

Chances are if you've been able to connect and SWR meter and was able to calibrate the meter and get a reading it'll be fine. If you hear someone on the air try giving them a call, if they answer again it's fine.

 

[edgerton19]

Sorry to disagree but VSWR does NOT change with power as it is a ratio of the maximum RF Voltage and minimum RF Voltage measured along the transmission line with a constant amplitude signal. The signals may get bigger with more power but the ratio stays the same.

Burners are not a good idea as they are very easy to damage with a poorly matched antenna or faulty feeder (apart from the fact they are not legal in the UK).

How far can you go with 4W CB? Best thing to say is if line of sight the hundreds of miles but unless you are always on top of a very large hill "It Depends". On the other hand if you were to hold and Amateur Radio Licence then the same 4W on the appropriate band at the right time of day then Australia is quite possible with a decent antenna.

One other point is there are now 2 sets of 40 channels available to use in the UK, the old UK FM frequencies and another set of CEPT FM frequencies, some truckers have moved onto the CEPT frequencies so they are legal in all the CEPT countries.

 

[briggie]

for a given swr , if you increase the output power from the transceiver , then you also increase the reflected power , by definition , its a ratio , so increase one and the other increases proportionately .

 

[96terrano]

some do , but not many

What do they use now?

 

[R1cho]

What do they use now?

hands free mobile phones maybe

 

[96terrano]

I'd if thought somthing more high Tec, not just a mobile phone