CB antenna installation
There is a wide variety of CB antennas available on the market and each one has a different installation process to follow. This guide is intended to highlight those steps that are common to all CB antenna installations. It will also explain the factors that profoundly impact the performance of your CB Antenna.
1. Choose a location
The first thing that you need to consider while installing the CB antenna is to select a suitable location for it. Before you take your antenna home, make sure you have selected the point. This will help you purchase the necessary equipment for the installation. Here are some tips to get this job done the right way:
- Try the center of your vehicle’s roof as the first mounting location for your CB antenna. This is an ideal spot as it gives your antenna maximum exposure and a wide ground plane to anchor on.
- Try not to mount your antenna on the bumper, license plate or fender as these are the poorest places for installation. Here you will receive half the signal strength than normal.
- Fix your antenna in such a way that its coil is above the roof line of your car. As the coil is the heart of an antenna and for better reception on your radio antenna, the coil should be covered with a hard material like diamond, this alone will make your antenna more effective.
- Select a high enough antenna that needs to be mounted high enough on your vehicle.
2. Magnetic Mount CB Antenna Installation
This process can vary in its level of difficulty depending on the type of antenna you have. If you have a magnetic mount, the process can be as simple as sticking the mount in the selected location. On the other hand, the door jamb mount may require technical assistance to drill the mount at the correct point. You can get an idea about the type of cb antenna and the antenna installation process from the manual that came with the product.
3. Pass the wire
Establishing the proper routing for the patch cord is the next important step. There is a coaxial cable that will connect the CB antenna to your CB radio. Your job is to set it up neatly and unobtrusively. Below are the tips you can follow for this:
- Buy a coaxial cable with removable PL259. This connector will help route the cable easily through the smallest of holes.
- Try to select the length of cable that is fully used and nothing is left hanging.
- Keep your line as noise free as possible by avoiding the use of alternators.
- Try not to cut your coaxial cable.
4. CB antenna tuning
Once you have successfully finished installing your CB radio and CB antenna, it is time to tune the system to the appropriate frequencies. This will make your CB experience more proficient and far-reaching and will ensure that you can make the most contacts from around the world through the CB system without hindrance.
5. Why tune my antenna?
Tuning a CB antenna is the most crucial part of the CB antenna installation process that determines the future performance of your CB system. A properly tuned antenna is necessary to improve the receive and transmit capabilities of your CB system, despite the constant 4 watt output power allowed for every CB radio on the market. If this tuning process is faulty, you have a communication full of interference and broken signals.
6. How to tune the CB antenna
- First, turn off your CB antenna and make sure your coax is out of the rear port.
- Now take your SWR meter and connect the coaxial cable from the antenna to the port labeled “antenna”.
- Now take the coaxial jumper cable and connect it to the point where you removed the coaxial cable from the antenna from one end and to the transmitter position on the SWR meter from the other end.
- Clear the space around your vehicle and keep your windows and doors closed as well.
- Now turn on your CB radio.
- Tune to channel 1.
- Set the SWR meter to the point that indicates “FWD”.
- Press the talk button to manipulate your microphone and adjust the knob by turning it until you find your SWR meter on “set”. Now let your microphone not be activated.
- Now bring the meter to the “reflect” state.
- Plug your microphone back in and note the reading displayed on the meter. If the reading is low, then all is well. But if you are somewhere in the red zone, check your settings again while keeping the CB radio off.
- Now follow the same procedure for channel 40.
CB antenna tuning matching channel 40 bandwidth
- If you get a reading on channel 1 that is higher than channel 40, that means your CB antenna is too short and you need to increase its length. On the other hand, if the reading on channel 40 is higher than that obtained on channel 1, then shorten your antenna a bit.
- If the readings on channel 1 and channel 40 are 1.2 and 2.3 respectively, then trim your CB antenna to a shorter length. For that purpose, you can either adjust the length through the tuning spike or you can trim it straight back 1/4 inch and snap it back into place. Be very careful when trimming your CB antenna, as trimming too much can destroy your antenna’s performance.
- If the readings are 2.6 and 1.3 on channels 1 and 40 respectively, increase the length of your CB antenna. You can simply adjust the length through the adjustable screws or you can use the spring between the bracket and the whip.
- As you adjust, take small steps forward. During this procedure, make sure all the antenna components are in their correct places and keep checking them after each adjustment you make.
Once you reach a suitable SWR level for your CB system, you can either disconnect the SWR meter from the system or keep it there for future testing.
1. Rent
In the process of installing the CB antenna, the location is important. We are referring to the area where you will tune your cb antenna. This place should be open ground preferably or at least not crowded. Also keep your car carefully packed with all doors and windows securely closed.
2. Shorts
In a CB antenna installation, when a CB antenna is shorted to ground, you will experience a very high SWR level for your CB system. You can expect this short to occur in the CB antenna stud or coaxial cable.
3.Coaxial
In the process of installing the antenna, when the shield comes into contact with the conductor placed in the center of the cable, a short circuit occurs. This can happen for many reasons, two of which are a natural crack in the cable from the time of purchase or a manufacturing defect. To make sure your coaxial cable is working properly, first disconnect it from the CB antenna and CB radio, then test it with a multimeter. This meter will help you find out if there is any continuity between the center conductor and the shield. If there is no continuity between the two, your coaxial cable is perfectly fine. If not, you will need to get a new coaxial cable for your system.
4. Asparagus
In the installation of the antenna, if the antenna coupling nut and bolt come into contact with the antenna bracket, there is a strong possibility that the antenna bolt will be short-circuited. If you put the nylon washers on carefully, you can prevent that from happening, but that requires special care. This type of contact actually ends the main purpose of the antenna bolts, i.e. keeping the antenna positioned high above the ground with a distance between the two. You can now use the multimeter to check the condition of your antenna’s stud connections. If you find that the nut and bolt contact the bracket, re-adjust the nylon washer to fix this problem.
5. Poor electrical grounding
This is different from the ground plane that we all know. First, make sure your antenna mount is properly grounded to your vehicle’s chassis. If you have a metal count, you can ground it by touching it to the metal surface of the vehicle. For ease, take a multimeter and test if your ground spot is good or not. You can test this with a light or multimeter just as you would any vehicle on the ground. The easiest way to get around this hurdle is to remove some paint from your vehicle to expose the metal underneath for better grounding. You can also use the grounding trap to ground your CB antenna. If you have a magnetic mount, then there should be no problem grounding, as the magnet is grounded via capacitive coupling quite easily.
6. Coaxial coiled
In general, when you have a very long coaxial cable, there may be a lot missing even after all the installation is complete and the cable is routed. This extra coax is often twisted or coiled like the antenna coil. If that happens, then your system will face a signal feedback effect. To avoid this situation, select a longer route to run your cable through the CB radio.
7. Insufficient ground plane
We all know now that an antenna requires a wide metal ground plane as a requirement for a perfect CB antenna installation. First select the ground plane with the widest metal coverage. If you are going to mount the antenna anywhere on the sides, keep the bracket close to the main body of the vehicle. For vehicles without a metal chassis, use the CB antennas without a ground plane.
8. Obstructions
Your CB antenna will malfunction if it is obstructed by the environment. This often happens when you mount your CB antenna somewhere very low on the vehicle, like on your bumper. This reflects the signals back to the antenna and you get a high level of SWR. To solve this problem, keep the CB antenna well above the roofline and give it maximum exposure by placing it at the highest point.
9. Broken antenna
CB antennas usually have a fiberglass pole inside that has a copper wire wrapped around it. Any defect or crack in this cable can render your antenna useless and lead to very high SWR levels. Check the continuity between the tip and the base of your antenna with a multimeter. You can use the multimeter probe for this purpose in case the adjustable tip is not present. In this case, if you don’t find any continuity between the antenna tip and the base, you need to replace the broken antenna.
10. Short or poor quality CB Coax
If you’ve tried all the other solutions and your problem is still not resolved, try replacing your coaxial cable with a longer and better one. Select a cable from a good brand that offers high quality.
11. CB antenna length
Most CB antenna manufacturers assure you that the antennas are pre-tuned and you will not need to retune them. This may be true, but it is not guaranteed to work for you. Even if you trust these claims, you will find that these preset specifications will not perform well in all mounting situations. If after trying everything else, you still want something great to solve your problem, then consider changing your antenna length as one of the last resorts. Sometimes it may be necessary to trim the antenna 2” to reach the required SWR level, but that is a very rare case. Always be careful when changing the length of your CB antenna through the cut as you can easily cut more than you need. The safest way to do this is to cut out a small portion of the antenna and measure the reading on the SWR meter. Do this side by side with each cut. This will ensure that you do not exceed the required SWR level.
