Ive had a cb radio in my truck now for about 2 mounths but have only used it for its PA feature. I recentley bought and mounteed a CB antenna on my truck and cant seem to find any chit chat on any channels. any tips?

 

Tune your SWR on channel 1 and channel 40 to get a 1:1 SWR reading. If you get on a major highway tune to channel 19 and you will get lots of truckers talking

 

What CB antenna did you buy? The cheaper one will limit your range considerably.

 

isnt channel 19 the band police moniter?

 

not sure what kind of antenna becausei bought it of a buddy of mine all i know is its about 2 feet tall and black

 

I know the police monitor Channel 19, but I thought channel 9 was the emrgency channel

We use channel 19 to talk and to listen to the truckers on the highways...locate them bears.

Tim C.

 

if for any reason you EVER pushed the button on your CB without an antenna while in CB mode you fried it. but if you styaed in pa mode youre prolly ok.

 

I can get a few miles on my cheapo radio. Your antenna being so short may limit your range. The higher above the cab you can get it, the better off you'll be. Magnet mount on the roof is usually the best.

 

Wrong. I've done this countless time with many radios and they're all working fine. Nothing bad happens when you TX with no antenna all that happens is no one will hear you unless they're next to you.

Ch 9 = Emergency (If I had an emergency I wouldn't use the CB)
Ch 19 = Main trucker channel. Cops monitor this often. Never actually heard a bear come alive on it tho.
Ch. 1-8 & 10= Common private party channels (me & my friends use 4)

 

is there a reason why when my truck is off i get great reception and can hear everyone clearley but when i turn my truck on it gets much more fuzzy.
How do i fix this?

 

Do you hear the motor through the CB? I think mine did this before. Could be when the CB is wired to the battery you mash your motor which juices the battery which could cause the CB to wine a little. I'm pretty sure this is what I determined on mine. I didn't worry about it though.

 

the reception just gets very bad when the truck is on . it doesnt matter if im hitting the gas or not

 

Yea, mine does that as well...well, the noise after turning on. I think it's electrical noise, though I'm not sure. Is yours hardwired, or cig mounted. I've heard hardwiring helps eliminate some of the noise(I need to do that sometime.) Sometimes, when sitting with the car off in a parking lot, you can pick up other people's engines, as well as when they lock/unlock their cars. Kinnda cool.

Having the NB/ANL(forgot what it means) turned on helps mine alot, but I don't think that's found on some of the cheaper CB units.

 

all that i have to say is that a 2 ft antenna wont get you much if you want to hear some chit chat i would recommend a 10 ft whip or 5 ft fire sticks i have had both and pefer the firestick on the old body style my buddies and i have played around with all antennas and found that whips do offer better range and not as much static but it gets old having to bend the whip over into the back of the truck every time you want to go through a drive thru or park in the garage
it also depends on what type of cb you have and whoever said that if you press the button without an antenna ur a moron you must have read your directions nuthing really happens exctpt you dont hear any one and they cant hear you

 

You need clean electricity. Going straight to the positive and negative terminals on the battery should be pretty clean.