How To Tune Your CB Antenna | 48in Fire Stick Antenna
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- This video will show you how to properly tune your CB antenna. For this demonstration I will be using a Midland 1001LWX CB with a ground plane 48in tunable tip Fire Stick antenna. As mentioned in the video, below you will find links for the SWR meter and short CB Coax cable.
Equipment:
Workman SWR Meter for CB Radio Antennas SWR2T
Learn more: www.amazon.com...
RG58A/U COAX CABLE 3 foot Jumper for CB / Ham Radio - Workman CX-3-PL-PL -Made in the USA
Learn more: www.amazon.com...
Swr = standing wave ratio. Swr starts at 1! 1=perfect! Swr needs to be below 1.25 to be safe not to hurt your final. A final is inside your cb and is the power behind the transmission. A swr of 1 compared to 1.25 can mean the difference of someone hearing you and not hearing you. I've noticed the closer you get to 1 the more it means on you hearing someone else then them hearing you = sensitivity. Let's talk coax! Best to have shielded coax wire. The more connections between cb and antenna the less sensitivity you will have! Hope this helps anyone watching this video and thank you to the maker of this video for helping the average person feeling comfortable hooking up a cb radio. Remember everyone to be respectful when transmitting and enjoy the original internet!!!
yes the original internet, thanks for watching
Love that T-Shirt Brotha!
This is my shirt for when someone says “tell us a little bit about yourself” lol, thanks for watching
Very helpful video! thank you!
Just finished setting up my first CB and got my antenna tuned damn near perfect.
Thank you! Glad the video was able to help.
@@Georgia4Low
Grow up little boy and stop wearing clothes in public with immature disgusting filth printed on them, where every man woman and child is assaulted by your depravity!
How pathetically uneducated, immoral, and Godless, thus very anti-American.
How sad to know that your father and mother utterly failed to train you how to be a real man, a true gentleman of moral character. Instead you act like just another ignorant BLM street thug.
Thank you, Sir! One of the best videos I've seen on SWR meter tuning. I plan to put a CB radio in my Jeep JK soon. Very helpful. Really enjoyed this.
Thank you for the support! Share with your friends
love the shirt. This is a great video on swr. There are many lackluster ones on other channels.
Thanks for watching!
I know this is an older video, but, if you read the instructions that come with all meters like this one, it says to unkey before switching from FWD to REF. This is to prevent damage to the finals.
Even with a basic radio such as this one, the momentary open when switching between FWD and REF, the VSWR will be extremely high (near or at infinity) and can do expensive damage to the final transistor(s)
You won't have that problem if you use a cross needle meter (shows FWD, REF and VSWR all at the same time) or a digital meter that displays all information on a LCD or LED screen. These types of meters require no adjusting to calibrate as they are self-calibrating.
Thanks for the additional tips and for watching
Thank you for the video. i'm new to off roading with a CB radio and needed help tuning my firestick. cheers!!
I hope the video helped. It’s an easy process and welcome to the offroad world.
I just got that same radio too. Need to install it now. Waiting on my SWR meter, Antenna and cable and gonna be good to go. Obliged! Stay safe out there. I'm also American as F*ck.
Thanks for watching and have fun getting everything installed!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸
FWD is forward power / REF is reflected power
Yes I found this out later for sure. Thanks for watching
so much info. thanks. wish you showed how to run power to it.
Thanks for watching
Another excellent video! thanks brother!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the support
This works for non amplified cb units but if you pushing power like a 200 watt system you can risk burning out your cb if the basic SWR meter is off. Get a antenna analyzer like a Rig Expert AA-35 it tests your antenna SWR without using your CB, it will check your Omms to make sure your at 50 Omms, if not maybe your coax is bad, or your grounding might need a better point of contact, it also has a feature that lets you use a hand held radio so you can listen to a tone and make adjustments to your Antenna length without going back and between the antenna and the analyzer reading. It’s not much more involved than a basic SWR meter and is a lot more accurate.
thanks for the information. I have no working knowledge of the higher powered CD (200watt) so thanks for helping me understand.
@@Georgia4Low if you’re going off road how far do you need your CB range to be? On the road with semi trucks we really don’t use more than 10 miles range to get traffic updates but when you’re off road you can be too far for cell towers and a lot more miles for CB communications than what we have on the interstates?
Our CB use off-road is just to communicate with others in our group so typically not using a CB past a few miles.
@@Georgia4Low I have never been off roading before and didn’t realize that you all went in groups just so you can look out for each other. That’s good I just seen that movie Into the wild and that is a horrible way to die.
That was a great movie for sure and true story. Yeah it’s best to have others with you on the trials.
Greetings from Chile. A radio amateur CE3 ENC
Thanks for watching!!
Most helpful, thanks.
Thank you for watching
Good video, My question Is how was the SWR when you shut your doors and closed the spare tire rack ??? I notice alot of metal on the tire rack that would be above the mount and affect the antenna radiation is why I ask. Thanks
Never really tested with the carrier closed or the doors. The CB works great though.
I would bet with doors and Spare rack shut you would see some differ maybe not alot, But the SWR is more of my concern with that big piece of metal on the rack itself then when you are closed that metal would be right up on your antenna. Okay just bring that info to your attention. Been doing this since the 60s just about seen it all Have a Great Day !!!@@Georgia4Low
@davestran thanks! I have a different tire carrier now but what really help is I ground the antenna base with a braided bonding wire.
Love your videos!
Thanks for the support!!!
Can I put a 20 foot cable in my cb antenna thank you
A nice British man that goes by DX Commander on you tube explains that you should have as short of coax cable as possible to connect from your CB to your antenna to avoid power loss, if you need 20 feet use 20 feet, but the quality of the coax is more important than this myth of 18 foot length.
I know you said 3 is danger zone. I bought a cb radio at a swap meet and it reads 3 and my antenna grounded. You think my tuning is just really bad or I bought a bad cb?
I would start with tuning the antenna, confirm proper mount and ground.
I don’t worry about channel one and 40 just tune it to the channel you use most is best to get your radio to perform the best but great video
If you play with it long enough and away from buildings like out in the country or near a park you can get the needle to just flicker and no more then you have it tuned as good as you can get it and the antennas with the tuneable tips are the best antennas and if you are in Nz hi tech antennas are the best
Thank you for watching Sir!!
Love the tee
It’s how I was born!! That’s for watching
You should get away from any structure, swr will be high around buildings.
Yes you are correct and I did mention that in the video. Thanks for watching
Can I run a T and install two fire sticks and get better distance or will one do the same as far as range goes
Sorry I don’t have any experience in running dual antennas but I’ve seen it done so there must be a way.
I have a 4 door long bed dually and my antenna cable don't reach help please
I would take some basic measurements using a tape measure. Start measuring the route in which you think is best for the cable. This should provide a general idea on length
do you remove the swr meter or it need to stay connected? my guess would be it need to stay there since the calibration is in this box..
It doesn’t need to remain, you can disconnect it once completed.
How do you keep the tuner adjustment ring from moving? I get it set but after a few days I notice my swr warning light comes on, on my radio. I check antenna and see the adjustment screw has moved. I guess due to road vibration. Any suggestions?
I have not encountered this problem. are you using the rubber boot/cap that slides over the tuner adjustment ring? The rubber cap seems to be a snug enough fit to not allow the ring to come unscrewed/loose. maybe try a small dot of blue loctie.
@@Georgia4Low that nut is a jam nut. Run it down and jam the bolt locking it in place.
Oh. I see. Yours has ref instead of cal. Same thing. The different channels have to start from a reference point or a calibrated reference point. Once the antenna is tuned The SWR reading will be the same across the board or it may be lower in the middle, around channel 19. Now about that. The travelers channel is 17 on the West Coast and 19 across the United States. Local areas may have different rules. Such as logging roads. You definitely want to hear about a truck coming down the road fully loaded with logs. Those guys will run you over.
Yea, you forgot to close the tailgate before measuring
Mine has never came loose to date. That was another person commenting.
Quick question: I am new to cb radio system, should I take SWR meter off after tunning up? Or leave it on all the time?
I would disconnect it. I’ve seen some leave it inline but I have no experience with leaving inline.
@@Georgia4Low Whats some good tips without a SWR meter because I dont got one and I am only going do 1 car an dont want to buy the wires and meter and only use it once?
@@jasonjr2500 I’m not sure how you can properly tune the antenna without a SWR meter. Sorry it’s beyond my knowledge
@@jasonjr2500 You can use the SWR meter in your radio but understand that it won't be as accurate as a meter. Better if you hit up your friends and borrow their meter instead.
You can leave it on but there is no advantage to doing so since you won't be calibrating every time you transmit. You can use the online SWR meter for that. Adding more components and coax only adds more potential problems in the future, plus now you have to mount the meter. Leave it off for simplicity.
Another tip is to do this in an open field with no obstructions
Yes, I believe I did mention to be away from structures. Thanks for watching
I forgot on my original comment sorry to all!
If 1 is higher then 40 tge antenna is to short
If 40 is higher then 1 the antenna is to long
Damm he’s got a pretty mouth !
Thanks for watching! That’s all I can say at this point.