I got a cb the other day. I spliced the red(hot) wire to my cig lighter. and the black (ground) to the ground on the cig lighter..
IMHO, the only way to hook up a CB is to wire it directly to the battery.
Red (+) and the black (-) wires should be twisted (ten turns per foot) and add fuses to both wires as close to the battery as possible.
If the CB already has a fuse in-line close to teh CB leave it.
I then mounted my antenna next to my radio antenna and cut a small hole in the firewall for the coax cable. I then connected the cable to the antenna. My question is, do i need to have a ground that touches the metal at the bottom of the antenna and connects to a ground such as the frame or no??? .
First off... mounting the Antenna on the front makes most of your signal go to the rear of the vehicle, per say losing some of the forward signal.
The ground thing... IMHO the ground is the most important part of the CB System. Without a good ground the best Antenna and CB will not work to its full potential.
If there are no insulators between the Antenna Mount and the body grounding point then you may get by with just getting to bare metal.
If there are separations between the Mount and the Frame/Ground Point then run a Braided Strap from the Mount to the Frame, getting to bare metal at the connecting points.
Im getting very confused with the grounding of the antennna.... please let me know! thanks, josh.
As I said above, IMHO Grounding is the most important thing you can do for the CB System.
Use a Multimeter and see if there is a good connection between the Antenna Mount and the Frame of the Vehicle.
Also, using the Multimeter, check the ground from teh CB Chassis and the Body/Frame.
If low readings or no readings then add a good ground.
Don't forget to Tune teh Antenna for lowest SWR, not really needed for receiving but a must for Transmitting.
ltr,