By Mud Man (Clarance) on Thursday, November 29, 2001 - 08:58 pm: Edit

I'm getting a Cobra 75xwt with probably a wilson antena(sp?). what else do i need to do after its all connected? Tip tuning? There're no CB shops in my area. Thanx.
Clarance

By Axel Haakonsen (Axel) on Thursday, November 29, 2001 - 10:08 pm: Edit

Ideally tune the antenna, which just involves adjusting the lenght of the antenna to match your specific setup. You need a swr meter to do it.
The CB will still work without tuning the antenna, it just won't work at max efficiency.

By Phillip Perkinson (R0ver4x4) on Thursday, November 29, 2001 - 10:10 pm: Edit

How do you tune a CB radio I have never head of this

By johnvigg on Thursday, November 29, 2001 - 10:23 pm: Edit

you go by SWR (Standing Wave Ratio)
basically you want the lowest possible, so that you "loosing" the least possible, actually less going back into what is producing the signal
i can explain it but this may explain it better

http://www.askjeeves.com/main/metaAnswer.asp?t=m&s=a&en=directhit&o=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fask%2Edirecthit%2Ecom%2Ffcgi%2Dbin%2FRedirURL%2Efcg%3Furl%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Femlab2%2Enmsu%2Eedu%2Fclasses%2Fee315%2Ftl%2Fnode7%2Ehtml%26qry%3DStanding%2BWave%2BRatio%26rnk%3D3%26cz%3D665ce0a93f109ca7%26src%3DDH%5FAsk%5FSRCH%26u%3D0052008083&ac=19&pt=Standing+Wave+Ratio&dm=http%3A%2F%2Femlab2%2Enmsu%2Eedu%2Fclasses%2Fee315%2Ftl%2Fnode7%2Ehtml&io=2&qid=11FE1D24ABF77B4FA6C285E4F7F56123&back=ask%3DStanding%2BWave%2BRatio%26o%3D0%26x%3D25%26y%3D17&ask=Standing+Wave+Ratio

....longer than i thought, you can get a decent SWR meter for about $25
john
n2xnq

By Mud Man (Clarance) on Friday, November 30, 2001 - 02:01 am: Edit

thanks

By joshua on Friday, November 30, 2001 - 10:16 am: Edit

Hey mudman, also another suggestion, is if you are traveling in the highway, a ton of the truck stops have CB shos in em...and they will not only "tune" your CB, but they will "clip and peak" it as well. The cobras work great for that because they can handle the extra power. Its a proccess where they cut off something on the circut board, which allows them to aplify your signal more.
its not legal, but I think that the FCC has better things to do woth thier time, so knobody cares
joshua

By Dean Brown (Deanbrown3d) on Friday, November 30, 2001 - 10:33 am: Edit

John, That's the longest freekin web address I've ever seen! See if you can get them to red it out on NPR

By Shane C. (Qsiguy) on Friday, November 30, 2001 - 04:34 pm: Edit

Here is one way you may be able to get it close. If the CB has a decent transmit meter on it try this. Put in on Ch 1 and press the tx button and see where the meter goes to then put on Ch 40 and do same thing. If they are about the same you should be close. If not adjust up/down until the meter reads the same with transmitting on 1 and 40. SWR meter is better but if you don't have one this should get you close enough until you get the meter.