Hello all,

My grampa gave me one of his CB radios, and I'm wondering how I should wire it in. It has a 3prong plug which I have, and there si a blakc and red wire coming out of it. The red wire was cut off and used elsewhere, and only half the white plastic part is left (2.5 amp fuse?)

He told me to wire it directly into the system, instead of plugging it into the ciggarette lighter (which is where the linear is going to go). He said to take the red wire and splice it into any "hot" wire. Unfortunately, I don't know what that means.

Are there suggestions on which wire to splice into? He said i might be able to put it on a screw where the fuse box is also??? and also what do I do with the negative (black) cable?

Thankyou!

Matt

1995 F-150 XLT 4x4
351W/E4Od
Ext cab, long bed

 

go get a new plug there chep. take your red(hot)power wire and run it to your battery.that means it will allways have power to it so be shure your cb is off when you are not useing it.your ground(black wire) is really important because you want a really good ground because you will get better reception. i find a bolt on my chassy and connect it right there. good luck and have fun

 

I am a over the road truck driver. Been dealin' with squak boxes(cb's) and foot heaters (linears) for 20 years. My suggestion to you is to find a good CB shop in your area and have them install the radio and linear together as thay need to be matched. If you go and plug that linear into your cig lighter, your gonna get alt noise just before you blow the 10amp fuse. the linear needs to be wired direct to your battery for best performance with heavy guage wire. I have seen many drivers melt their setup (if not thier truck) by not knowing what they are doing. pay a little to enjoy worry free Yakin'!
My 2 cents.

 

thanks westin and whity.

I went to the 145 truck stop on I 94, and talked to the guys there. They got me set with an antenna, coax, and mount and told me where/how to hook everything up. Now I need to get a couple pieces of sheet metal and silicone one and mount it where the hole is so that Water doesn't get in my cab. I know now to make sure that the antenna itself isn't touching any sort of ground.

Turns out my linear and radio match up fine, and I didn't need any adjustments (4 foot francis, couldn't go much taller-only thing in stock at or below 5 feet)

I'm going to up the ampage on my radio fuse (where my CB radio is wired) and as soon as I get a chance, wire the linear direct to the battery-right now its thru the cigarette lighter, but has a fuse on the wiring before it plugs in. Hopefully I can get the PA system to work sometime later.

I also got a base system set up in my room. Don't have the big antenna from grampa, but he gave me a lil one he say's works on it. I don't know what half the switches mean, so I'm goin to ask here.

Here they all are:
40 channel dial - good
power on/off -good
ch 9 on/off ??? i think this means channel 9 will always come through???
scan on/off ???
CB/PA on/off -good
NL on/off ???
NB on/off ??? I also have this function on my mobil radio
CAL/REV ???
Meter RF/S /SWR ???

How do you use squelch?

I have AM/USB/LSB and know what sideband is, but don't know how or when to use it.

Thanks!

~Matt

 

Here they all are:
40 channel dial - good
power on/off -good
ch 9 on/off ??? i think this means channel 9 will always come through???
>>I think it will allow ch9 to come thru when someone keys on it
scan on/off ???
>>to scan all the channels to listen to active channels
CB/PA on/off -good
NL on/off ???
>>NL= noise limiter, ON=cleans some of the garbage static, OFF=to hear a more distant radio. I allways leave mine on
NB on/off ??? I also have this function on my mobil radio
>>NB= noise blanker, alomost same as NL, but more for alternator whine/popping
CAL/REV ???
>>CAL/REV= calibrate your SWR, Switch to cal and key mike, On meter there will be a small red arrow upper right side of meter, turn **** till pointer lines up with needle. As for the REV? not sure
Meter RF/S /SWR ???
>>"S" Meter - The meter on your radio which indicated incoming signal strength. Usually calibrated in "S" units (1 "S" unit = 1DB). S units are also referred to as "Pounds". this is what you normaly run
SWR - Standing Wave Ratio. An incorrect impedance match can cause some of the transmitted signal to "reflect" back to the transmitter, which can reduce your signal, and possibly damage the Finals section of your transmitter. While a good match (1:1) is desirable, anything under 2:1 is safe. In my opinion. use this to calibrate.
RF= power you are putting out

How do you use squelch?
>>think of squelch as a hearing aid. All the way to the left and you will hear everything. All the way to the right and you will hear no one. you want to set it to cut out all the noise. Turn all the way to left, then start turning to right till it quiets down (unless there are people talking). Then when someone keyes up, it will "break" through the squelch.

I have AM/USB/LSB and know what sideband is, but don't know how or when to use it.
>> you use side band to talk "skip" i.e. long distances. Say you have a thousand people talking all at once in a room (chnl 19), the person 10 feet away will not hear you. too many sound waves cancelling each other out, will not travel far. Now switch to sideband and you put yourself into a tunnel where sound will travel further because the waves will be more directed and hardly no one to try and talk over. the sound waves will bounce off the ceiling and floor till it reaches the other end. same with the atmosphere, the waves will bounce. that is why "skip" will come and go.

Always remember that the cb is a tool and sometimes entertainment source for truck drivers. Do not get on there to aggrivate us, talk inteligantly and youwill recieve the same in return. Act like a jerk, and you will not be able to keep up with firestorm that will be directed towards you.
Hope this helps, Erick.
Google cb sideband and the model number/name of your base rig to get more information. Hope i didn't ramble too much

 

Thanks man, that info was quite helpful.

On my base radio, I have a meter for squelch. It goes from open (which is red) to break which is yellow and then the rest is green and says "squelching" with numbers 1-8. Should I set it so that the needle is on break? or keep it in the "open" section?

 

Whatever else you do - make your ground connection as short and thick as you can.
RIGHT THERE AT THE RADIO if you can. Your ground plane is everything...

The other point is match your VSWR exactly.

If you add a linear - IT'S VSWR has to be matched the same way.

Don't install the linear driver until you max out the main radio. That keeps it simple - one step at a time. The last thing on earth you want to do is find yourself running down wierd VSWR readings between two untried boxes.

And make a solid short ground for that driver box too.

 

Keep it set to where it just barely keeps the garbage noise blanked out. then when someone keys up it will be able to break thru.

 

Just play with the squelch button a little bit when you are listening to the radio, and you will quickly figure it out.

 

oh yeah a couple other things. In my truck on my linear I have a switch for BIL on/off. What does that do? and on the mobil in the truck there is a switch for DX/LOCAL. what about that one?

That just about answers all my questions. Oh yeah. My base radio is a console V <we 're="" talkin="" oooolddd="" there="" two="" switches="" the="" upper="" right="" one="" has="" a="" green="" led="" with="" it="" which="" doesn't="" turn="" on="" any="" idea="" what="" these="" are="" for="">

I googled it but couldn't find any useful information about the two switches that are in the upper right hand corner (one has a green LED)<we 're="" talkin="" ooollld="" two="" switches="" on="" upper="" left="one" a="" green="" led="" doesn't="" work="" and="" other="" has="" lights="" is="" no="" writing="" up="" there="" idea="" what="" these="" are="" for="" i="" tried="" to="" google="" thing="" but="" only="" one="" site="" was="" actual="" information="" about="" the="" radio-and="" that="" didn't="" mention="" any="" functions=""></we></we>

 

I don't know what the other switch is for, but the DX/LOCAL switch puts a resistor inline with the receiver. They try to make the input of the receiver as sensitive as possible to pick up distant transmissions, but if someone is right on top of you, they can have enough power to overload the input and cause distortion. So if that happens, you can put the switch in LOCAL, and it makes the radio less sensitive. When you want the most sensitivity to pick up people far away, put it in DX. You can try it also. If you are listening to someone that sounds a little weak, put the switch in LOCAL, and it will probably cut them out all together.

 

The BIL on/off switch is for a receive amp to boost incoming signals

check out the link in my sig. for lots of useful info on radios.