I installed a CB in my F150 and have been having problems since.
First, I couldn't pick up any signal unless it was within fifteen feet. Anything farther and incoming signals were distorted or not there at all, yet my buddy said he could hear me on his end loud and clear.
I tried grinding down my bedrails to provide a better ground, but now I still have the same problems and I pickup engine noise like crazy. I tried rewiring my power wires to the other side of the truck to no avail. Can anyone help?

Specs:
-1995 F150 Extended Cab
-Uniden PC76XL wired directly to battery. Wires run along the driver side of the cab into the engine bay.
-18' twin lead coax wired along the bassenger side of the cab out the rear into the bed
-Dual 4' Anntenae mounted directly to the bedrails (the bed is bedlined but I sanded off the liner to bare metal on top of the rails only)

 

If possible plug your buddies radio into your truck and hook your antennas up to it, if problems persist you have bad antenna or bad coax/connectors. If it fixes it you have a bad radio

 

I hooked up another radio and still had the same problems. I swapped antennas with my buddy, and his still work just fine. I think my problem is somewhere in the coax, but its brand new. Maybe I installed it wrong? I'm not sure and what stumps me is that my buddy is running almost the exact setup. The only differences are 9' cables, cobra radio and his truck isn't bedlined or extended cab.. Could it be the the bedliner interferring with the ground?

 

Mounting antennas is a tricky business.

Best place is on the roof and anything else is a compromise. Your cab is blocking some of your signal, which could be a problem. Dual antenna configurations tend to be an issue when they're so close together, being on opposing bed rails. If you have an 18' piece of coax, hook up one antenna by itself and test it.

As a thought, have you checked/set the SWR?

Just some ideas.

Ray

 

^^ What he said. When you have dual antennas, you need to make sure that BOTH of your coax cables are equal length.

As for SWR, that's Standing Wave Ratio, which is I suppose is best explained as how much RF energy actually makes it into the airwaves versus the amount that is reflected back. You'll need an SWR meter if your radio don't have one built in, and you'll need to make sure everything is ready to go hardware wise... as in, check what I said above and make sure your coax leads are the same length and everything is mounted in it's final mounting location, all bolts are tightened, any hardware you removed to install them is reinstalled (toolboxes, headache racks, etc) and THEN you can set your SWR. Your meter or radio should have destructions that explain how to do this, but if not, Google it or ask back here.

Your engine noise, I'm guessing you hear a whine that varies in frequency with RPM? If so, you have a ground loop somewhere. That noise comes from the alternator (which produces AC before the regulator converts it to DC) and is heard in your speakers.