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good spot for putting a ground wire

LONO100

Explorer Addict
Joined
March 23, 2011
Messages
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City, State
Bay Area CA
Year, Model & Trim Level
03 sport trac XLT
hey all, im installing a cb radio in my 2003 sport trac and was doing a fuse tap to power the unit. where is a good spot to place the ground while still keeping everything looking clean? any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

btw, ive searched previous threads on fuse tapping, but i cant find any that show where folks were placing the ground.

thanks
 



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i serched how people were grounding there stereo amps and sure enough there was a picture of someone grounding up above the brake pedal which i think will work for me.
 






I've hooked into the ground above the brake pedal.

What type of C.B and whip are you using? I have my Uniden Pro 510XL mounted to the center console and I had a magnet mount whip mounted to the roof.

I had the coax cable running under the rubber floor mat to behind the rear seat and tucked under the plastic trim beside the door jam and ran up through th weatherstripping like the wires for the offroad lights. I still need to mount my new fiberglass whip to the truck but waiting until I can fabricate my steel rear bumper and mount it to that.

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yeah, i used a lot of the tips you gave me before when i was still researching for a cb radio. i ran it under the rubber floor mat and under the plastics trim on the door jam too for the coax and up the door. i powered it tapping into fuse #16 and grounding the radio in the same spot you grounded yours. im testing it now, i got good power to the radio, but i need to tune this antenna i think. its an old K40 magnet mount type of antenna i bought off this weird old lady and im not sure if its just really out of tune or if its not working at all. i took pictures of my install and ill post them in a few minutes. if you see the post, let me know if i hooked anything up wrong, your thoughts and/or suggestions.
 






im not getting any type of sound out of the radio at all, not even static. im not sure what i did wronf just yet, but im troubleshooting now. ill post my results. either way, its my birthday, my day off, i got a cooler full of beers, my dog chilling in the front yard and im having a ton of fun trying to figure this out!
 












ok, im getting static, but im not getting anything else. i have a small hand radio, and tuned it to channel 1, did the same with my cobra 19, and i cant get them to communicate. any ideas?
 






Could be a bad antenna.

I would say that you have a bad antenna. If you have a multimeter, check for continuity between the antenna whip and the center pin on the plug. If you have continuity there, that is good. Next, check to see if you have continuity between the antenna and the outside of the plug. If so, this is not good. You'll probably need to find a new antenna.
 






Happy Birthday dude!

We have a knowledgable bunch on the CB FORUM . (no reflection on you Jerry! )
 






:party::chug:HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!

How far away are you going to try and tune in the two radios to each other, if you're too close to each other it won't read. I'd say it's your whip at first call but I'm not there.

If you have any truck stops around you go there and get together with a trucker and they'll help you pinpoint your problem and help you tune your radio in.
 






thanks for the birthday wishes fellas. i couldnt find my multimeter, and when i finally did, the battery was dead. then my old lady took me out for dinner so i didnt get a chance to test the antenna. im already physched to get this project going again in the morning. if i cant figure it out, theres a truck stop not to far down the freeway, i might go down there and ask those guys whats up. thanks for all the advice. ill update my progress tomorrow.
 






ok, so i didnt have much time today to play around with the cb radio, about 45 minutes, but heres where im at now. i dont have an swr, im still trying to find a place in town that sells one, if i cant i will have to buy one from ebay. i did fiddle around with the antenna height, lengthening it a few milimeters at a time and then driving up and down the freeway trying to pick up users on channel 19. after doing this a few times and adjusting the squelch, i was able to pick up very fuzzy signals and people talking back and forth on the channel. i tried to key in a few times to see if they could hear me, but i think only one of my transmissions came in to them.

im going to disconnect the antenna tomorrow and test it with my multimeter since i got a new battery for it, and i dont have a swr yet which might take a few days, but from what i was able to get out of the radio so far, does anyone know if i need to replace this antenna, or should i just try to get my hands on that swr and try to tune it? any help would be really appreciated. thanks guys.
 






SWR isnt a part or tangible thing. Its how your radio and antenna are working together in laments terms. My dad helps out at a CB shop around my area and he set mine up. I would invest in an SWR meter to check your antenna. Idk what kind of antenna you have, but you get what you pay for. Wilson makes some of the best antennas on the market. I can talk about 40 miles with my "Little Will" and a Magnum 257 radio (40 watt amp built in).
If your antenna has an adjustable SWR, there should be a screw you loosen and the antenna then adjusts up or down (to increase or lower the SWR respectively). If it's all the way down and you need to lower it more, clip the top of the antenna with tin snips or something like that.
PM me if you need more help or explanation. I dropped a txt to my padre to see what he says.
 






thanks for the info scope. i actually do have and swr meter and i couldnt get it to tune better than right under 2.0 for channel 20. i tested my antenna with a multimeter and determined that my old krusty antenna was bad. i found the last cb dealer in the bay area and bought a brand newmagent mount with adjustable antenna. after just 5 minutes of tuning, channels 1,40, and 20 are all reading at 1.0! im loving my new cb radio. that thing makes my commutes so much more interesting, and i cant wait to take it up to the mountains when me and my buddies go roading and camping this month. how are you able to get 40 miles of range? is that because you powered up the wattage in your radio? i heard that that was illegal. how much would it cost to get something like that done?
 






Oh i didnt mod it :) look up a magnum 257 ten meter radio. Its 40 cb channels and the lower HAM channels. It comes with a built in mini-amp. My dad has the bigger magnum 357 which has a ridiculous output but the number escapes me. We live in IN and he talks to FL on his mobile radio hahaha.

But yes its "illegal" to up your radio's power. But the fact of the matter is 20 years ago people cared, now it's not regulated and you cant get in any trouble even if you tried.

If you take it to a shop it's fairly cheap to do. Only ups it by 10 watts or so but that could be 10 miles of talk. I'd recommend a moblie amp unit if you wanna do something like that though. More bang for your buck. We have a midnight Special 250 watt amp that's tiny and fits under my driver's seat.
 






thanks scope, im gonna go see my local cb guy and see if he can tune mine up to 10, or if he has a mobile amp like you were talking about. thanks bro!
 






no problem. :) haha. any questions shoot me a PM or email. I'd like to be more helpful on this site but most of the questions arent in my area of knowledge :(
 






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