Matagorda CB tuning party

I need mine tuned!!!

By the way, for those who want to give it a shot and avoid sanding the tub/frame, I would recommend you pick up a couple of ground straps ($5/ea at AutoZone) and maybe a couple of self-drilling screws. That way we can ground your frame to the tub (if it hasn't already been done) and the antenna/mount to the frame or tub. It's not as "proper" as true, flat metal-to-metal contact, but it's easier and quicker and sometimes ends up working just as well (YMMV).

Yes, proper grounding is necessary for proper operatoin.

Well, yeah, that would be nice, but I guess that's the point of doing it whenever we can, so that they're ready for the next time. At least everyone should be pretty close by the time we all head home.

I'll bring my SWR Meter as well, but you really need to get them dialed in before Friday morning for the road trip out there.

You should install it. It's really not that hard. Just run the power to your battery through the firewall wherever you JK'ers do it, put the antenna on the mount, and run the cable through the cab to the radio. Should be good to go

That said, if you run into problems, it could be a pain, but hey, that's what we can take care of this weekend.

CRUX wrote:

jdldx3 wrote:

I was thinking about buying a cb for the trip.

Guess I will. Probably wont have time to install before Friday.

I have a handheld you can borrow bud.

Thanks

jdldx3 wrote:

I was thinking about buying a cb for the trip.

Guess I will. Probably wont have time to install before Friday.

I have a handheld you can borrow bud.

N2rock wrote:

Paul08Wrangler wrote:

I thought I just said that

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Paul- you know everyone ignores you! :jk:

Yea, I know.... :conspiracy:








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I was thinking about buying a cb for the trip.

Guess I will. Probably wont have time to install before Friday.

... I just elaborated a bit.

Paul08Wrangler wrote:

I thought I just said that

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Paul- you know everyone ignores you! :jk:

I thought I just said that









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Yeah, you need to tune it on your Jeep. Otherwise they would just be tuned from the factory. But the tuning has to do with how your particular vehicle and antenna interact with each other, so it's unique for every vehicle.

For best results, do the tuning in whatever configuration you do your wheeling (i.e. doors on or off, top on or off or up or down, windows up or down or off, etc), and make sure there's nothing (trees, telephone poles, buildings, people, etc) within a good 50-foot radius of the Jeep.

Paul08Wrangler wrote:

..::Ryan::.. wrote:

I'm not bring my jeep, I'm riding with adam. Can I bring the antenna and tune it on someone elses?

It doesn't work that way, coax length, bracket, and where it's mounted all makes a big difference in tuning. Even the little plastic cap on the top of the antenna makes a difference in swr's.









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O ok. That makes sense.

..::Ryan::.. wrote:

I'm not bring my jeep, I'm riding with adam. Can I bring the antenna and tune it on someone elses?

It doesn't work that way, coax length, bracket, and where it's mounted all makes a big difference in tuning. Even the little plastic cap on the top of the antenna makes a difference in swr's.









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I'm not bring my jeep, I'm riding with adam. Can I bring the antenna and tune it on someone elses?

Guess we'll try mine again.

Adam, you had mentioned you had a spare rubber I can have. Get your minds out of the gutter, filthy bastards :mischievious: . I lost the rubber tip to my antenna.

Good plan! Count me in for needing a re-tuning... I haven't re-done it with my new antenna. I know I'm getting 2 miles (in city) with it. Which isn't too bad considering the many buildings between the two points. But I also know that I should've re-tuned it with the new antenna. I just never bothered

Hey all,

I met up with Dutchboy this past weekend to tune his CB with my SWR meter, and it turns out I screwed it up, which explains why it went from bad to even worse. Sorry, buddy, I just realized I got the REF/FWD order mixed up. That's what I get for not refreshing my memory before-hand.

Anyway, it's become apparent that a lot of people haven't really gotten that done yet, and it's pretty important to do to get the farthest-reaching, cleanest transmit signal, and to keep your radio from burning out (yes, really). It's a really good idea to get this done.

Actually, let me rephrase: tuning is mandatory if you want acceptable CB performance.

I couldn't hear Dutch clearly for more than about a quarter mile, but he could hear me nice and clear a mile or two down the road. I haven't tested how far my signal can reach, but it should be a good 5 to 10 miles on a decently straight highway on a clear day (or even better a clear night), if everything's tuned properly. But hey, a quarter mile's good enough, right? No way. First of all, you can easily be farther than that in a decent convoy, but more importantly when you're out on the trails not only is a quarter mile not all that far, but line-of-sight impedance mean the signal may not make it just over the hill.

So with that in mind, I'll be bringing my SWR meter, a jumper (short coax), refreshed tuning memory, and some printed notes to make sure we all keep it straight. I'll show the first person or two how to get it done, and after tuning they can show the next person, and so on, until everyone's satisfied.

So if you've got a CB but haven't tuned it yet, we'll get you taken care of. If you've got a CB but haven't installed it yet, we can help with that, too, but go ahead and get it installed before-hand if you can, and we'll get it tuned for you.

The more people we have with good, working CB installs, the better and safer we'll be not only in a convoy (as mudhound most colorfully illustrated over July 4th), but especially on the trails.

If you can, go ahead and reply if you know you want to participate.