CB Issue

droflakcin

droflakcin

New member
So I installed my Cobra 29 Lx over my rear view mirror , Firetik II anteanna on the rear tire carrier and ran all the wires and coax cable and got the CB powered up, Went to do the self check, and the Antenna check comes up as "ANTENNA FAIL" . I then realized i forgot to Ground it, so i did so. Ran the test again, same message popped up.. I switched to the Weather Radio feature and can receive the weather clearly... I need help please. No I dont have a SWR meter to tune the antenna, but I've done it numerous times with the built in meter. But cant tune it because of the "ANTENNA FAIL" message.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
ridg3runner

ridg3runner

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What I'm looking to see from a pic is your placement of the plastic isolator. If it is in the wrong spot it will short your Antenna out and that isn't a good thing. Also, the weather band is on a different wave length, depending on your location it's possible to pick up the weather without an antenna at all. I also need to know how long your coax (cable) is and what you did with any extra you had left over during the routing, you CANNOT coil the extra because it will create a magnetic field of its own. Best thing to do is route any extra and spread it out if possible.
 
Jersey_Devil

Jersey_Devil

New member
I got that message when I first installed mine, now I get antenna warning message every now and again and I just ignore it. Old fashioned dial radios didn't have warning messages. When I got the fail message I just disconnected my wires then reconnected them and it worked.

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ridg3runner

ridg3runner

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Jersey_Devil said:
I got that message when I first installed mine, now I get antenna warning message every now and again and I just ignore it. Old fashioned dial radios didn't have warning messages. When I got the fail message I just disconnected my wires then reconnected them and it worked.

sent from my obama monitoring device
Click to expand...

Some of them can be picky like that but what got my attention on his post is that he said he forgot to ground it then went back in and did so. It sounds like his ground placement is wrong, it's an easy fix but need to see how he grounded it.
 
Jersey_Devil

Jersey_Devil

New member
Don't worry about it. I just checked mine and it still says fail. My radio works just fine. Just go test it by taking to someone on it.
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droflakcin

droflakcin

New member
ridg3runner said:
What I'm looking to see from a pic is your placement of the plastic isolator. If it is in the wrong spot it will short your Antenna out and that isn't a good thing. Also, the weather band is on a different wave length, depending on your location it's possible to pick up the weather without an antenna at all. I also need to know how long your coax (cable) is and what you did with any extra you had left over during the routing, you CANNOT coil the extra because it will create a magnetic field of its own. Best thing to do is route any extra and spread it out if possible.
Click to expand...
I didnt know about coiling the extra, i will go out and spread it out a little more. its 18' and i routed it up around the roll bar.
 
ridg3runner

ridg3runner

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See the white isolator? You have to have that on the antenna side of the mount or your antenna itself will ground out. It is there to prevent the center stud from touching the sides of the hole on the mount. If you simply disregard it like Jersey Devil suggested you WILL end up burning up the finals in your radio. ImageUploadedByWAYALIFE1400603226.513129.jpg ImageUploadedByWAYALIFE1400603251.592837.jpg .
 
Jersey_Devil

Jersey_Devil

New member
ridg3runner said:
See the white isolator? You have to have that on the antenna side of the mount or your antenna itself will ground out. It is there to prevent the center stud from touching the sides of the hole on the mount. If you simply disregard it like Jersey Devil suggested you WILL end up burning up the finals in your radio. View attachment 84088 View attachment 84089 .
Click to expand...

Well then I'm gonna check my isolator but I'm pretty sure it's on the antenna side like u said. When I installed I asked on here about that and everyone said to check my swr which did nothing and the radio works just fine for me......

sent from my obama monitoring device
 
ridg3runner

ridg3runner

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You see the brass stud in this pic? The key here is to prevent the brass part from touching the sides of the hole in the bracket. At the same time, you have to prevent the antenna side from touching the bracket as well so you use the isolator on the top of the bracket as in my first pics. ImageUploadedByWAYALIFE1400603942.951115.jpg
 
tapcola

tapcola

New member
I have the same set up we just had a cb specialist come to our club and talk about this . You need to clean the paint off of the bottom of the mount and reinstall the stud with the plastic on the top . This is how to ground the antenna properly . And make shur you tune it get the lowest swr you can .
 
droflakcin

droflakcin

New member
ok so i took the isolator off and put it on top, took off the wire i ran, It still says fail but not all the time. im going to clean up the bottom of the bracket after i eat, any other tips? I'm also gonna run to Radio shack for a meter if the price is right.
 
TheDuff

TheDuff

New member
droflakcin said:
ok so i took the isolator off and put it on top, took off the wire i ran, It still says fail but not all the time. im going to clean up the bottom of the bracket after i eat, any other tips? I'm also gonna run to Radio shack for a meter if the price is right.
Click to expand...

You need a ground wire, but not like you ran it. The tailgate is a very poor ground source, the ground wire should be ran from either the main tub or better yet the frame. Then terminate to one of the 2 bolts that secure your antenna bracket to the tire carrier. I personally used a 10g piece of 100% copper wire for mine, but I'll be the first to admit it's a bit over kill, but you can never have too good of a ground;)

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tapcola

tapcola

New member
Sounds like you are on the right path now . I didn't have to run a ground to the mount but it can't hurt .make shur you clean the bottom of the mount and check the stud also . We used a meter an ohm the stud to ground to make shur it worked right .we also checked the swr meter on the cb against his high dollar one and it was dam close .

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droflakcin

droflakcin

New member
Well, I got it all figured out, just spend some time listening to the truckers near me, some funny stuff. But thanks guys for all the help, I tuned the antenna without a meter and its around 1.5 on all channels.
 
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