Alright I bought a 12ft whip from a buddy and got a CB for free.
How do you hook it up? Mine works but is the ground needed? Im wondering if It isnt hooked up as well as it could be because I dont pick up a loot at a time. How far should this 12ft work? I have a ground wire(speaker wire) running from the antennae (b/t the casing and the mount in full contact with the CB base) to a good ground in the cab(for my stereo amp). I have 20ft RG-58 coax cable run to the fittin at the base back to my CB radio. Would different cable get better reception? Is this ground good enough.
I can git pics if needed.

 

Your CB should have two power leads coming off it, a positive which of course you connect to a power source and a negitive which you attach to a ground. Your cable should have a threaded connector on both ends that attaches to your antenna on one end and your CB on the other. Your antenna needs to be tuned to your radio using a SWR meter to optimize your radios performance. Failure to do so could also cause damage your radio. Here's some information concerning SWR tuning.

Advice Pages , How To Use An SWR Meter

Setting the SWR of Your Antenna© - Firestik® Antenna Company

With a properly tuned antenna your radio range should be about 5 miles depending on the type of country your in (hilly or mountainous would reduce your range). RG-58 cable is the proper cable to use for CB radios however 20 ft. might be a little long. You should only have as much cable as you need for the run. Excess cable can cause radio noise. I'm not sure about the ground you're discribing on your antenna, if you want to post a photo of it I might be able to understand what your saying about it better, or if you have a Radio Shack at your location, they can help you get your radio set up properly.

 

where can i git my CB tuned in using the SWR meter and all.
ill try to remember to get pics.
thanks

 

At Radio Shack or a similar electronics store.

 

the aintena should be grounded also, and the proper amount of cable as i ahve been told is 18 feet, so your 20 isnt bad. how high on your truck is your wip mounted? if it is low your truck can block some of the signal also. your CB can also determen your range, some have more power then others. also if you find a radio shop they will mostlikley do the test and tune it for you for around 15 or 20 bucks. atlest thats what it costs around here in Orange County, CA...

 

If thats what it costs in So CAL, it should be cheaper in GA. lol Ill try the radioshack. Thanks guys

 

I know this is a little off topic but does anyone know a good cb shop in or around the Philadelphia area? My Cobra 29 wx is not receiving any signals or transmitting any signals. Besides, I would like a little more oomph.

 

Can't help you there, I'm in Montana. You might see if someone a Radio Shack can help you, or at least tell you someone who could.

 

Hey man look up skirk55 on here. He is local to you and seems to know a few bits about cbs. Might even know a good shop to help you

 

A professional radio shop should be able to tune the antenna for you. Radio shack just sells the stuff. You might be able to do tune it yourself if you feel confident. Get a meter and you can tune the antenna. The cb is plugged through the meter and into the antenna. That is how I tuned mine. The CB does not get "tuned" its, the antenna that gets the "tune". If its not done right the factory settings in the cb will cause certain things to not work and most time that means there will be a "pop" and no more CB. Pm me if you have anymore questions.

 

The Radio Shack here does installs and trouble shooting, so they don't all just sell stuff. Like I mentioned before if they can't help you they could send you to someone who could.

 

Wow you have a different type of radio shack! Our guys are lazy in this area

 

I was thinking the same thing. I wouldn't trust the ones around here to pick out the right size battery for my alarm remote, Let alone have some 17 year old kid know anything about CB's