Alright so I did a ton of searching already. I read a ton of grounding and tuning posts

I have a Cobra 19 CB. I have the Alon antenna mount (still considering Superduty fender mount).


Questions.......

1. What would be a good replacement mic for the CB? I heard the stock one isn't great.

2. I bought a Barjan 500 watt. 4' CB antenna and a Barjan 18 ft coax (RG58AU). Are these any good?

3. I'm already going to take the paint off the mounting holes on the antenna mount to alleviate grounding issues there. Anything else I need to do?

4. My CB is mounted in the back of my Expo center console. The ground for the CB will be wired to the seatbelt bolt (so it's short), where should I get power. The battery?

5. Is there anything I'm missing here? What kind of range should i expect?

6. My friend bought almost the same stuff for his Jeep only with a 3 ft antenna and he gets like 8-9 miles from his, should I expect more range?



I know you guys probably get tired of these kinds of questions, but I suggest someone make a sticky full of this info so it's easier to find

 

I used to use the Alon mount but I switched to the Super Duty Fender mount. I have the power wired to the PS auxilary port on the Bezel. And for the ground I used a bolt underneath the cup holders. The seatbelt bolt probably is just as good though. My signal still isn't that great though. Need to figure out how to make it better. So I'm watching this thread haha

 

8-9 miles is a good range.

depends more where you mount the antenna than how big it is (though bigger certainly helps! the more antenna above the roofline the better. best place really is the center of your roof, get a nice reflecting surface.

 

bumpity

 

I'll bump this again, I know there are guys with CB experience. Any help would be nice

I tried to research the products I got and I couldn't find much

There are a ton of replacement mics out there, I didn't know if anyone had a favorite or if they were all pretty much the same

 

have you tuned your antenna ? and why not make a mount for it
i grounded my CB to the trucks computer ground under the floor

 

and as far as power i just ran it to the back of the cig lighter, the only problem with that on high gain the cb will pick up the trucks noise's

 

Something I would like to add is that a GOOD antenna is important, if your using a cheep Firestick your not going to get much range, but a good antenna such as a Wilson will get you out much better, I have had better luck with cheep 102 inch METAL whips then I have any fire stick, how ever they dont call them "whips" for no reason lol. I personally have a Wilson 2000 Trucker that is about 4ft long but works much better then any Fire stick or fire stick like antenna I have used. I havnt used it in 5 or 6 years because I havent had a CB in my truck but I have been thinking about putting one back in and If I do that Wilson 2000 will be going back up ontop of my truck. After looking up the Barjan 500 it looks like an antenna I wouldnt use (Looks like a nock off of a Fire stick) if it was me, but thats just me.

Also as far as the feed back, there are filters you can buy that you can put inline on your Power wire to help cut the amount of feed back.Im not sure where to buy one now, but I have used them before and they didnt get rid of all the noise, but did greatly reduce the amount of feedback.

 

I have a Cobra 25 "Classic" NW, and a Wilson lil' Wil 3' antenna, and i have gotten right round 12 miles with it. You for sure want your power and ground to go straight to the battery, otherwise there will be interference. The extra work of running the wires is totally worth it, its much clearer. If you wire to anything else, especially the cigarette lighter you will get interference from all the electronic components in your truck. my biggest problem was when i turned the heat/ac fan on, it would make a whirring noise through the CB, and it would get louder the higher i turned the fan up. Your best bet for an antenna, if you've got the head room, would be a 102" steel whip. If not, go Wilson or Firestik. Right Channel Radios has all the good stuff, and they're really great about fast shipping and good service. Thats where I ordered all of my stuff from. Hope that sheds a little light on the topic. make sure that before you start transmitting though, to tune your antenna to your radio, otherwise you could seriously damage or completely ruin your radio - I speak from experience. lol

 

Thanks for the replies guys, when I go to work on Monday i will look into these antennas

I didn't wire anything up yet, I wanted to get opinions first

Can the cobra 19 be tuned?

 

yeah the tuning is in the antenna.

http://www.firestik.com/Meas-SWR.htm

 

What do you guys think of this antenna http://www.rightchannelradios.com/wi...tenna-361.html

Will this work good with the cobra 19? I know it's not the best, but it's a perfect fit in my expo center console

How crucial is the choice of coax that I have? Should I get brand specific coax, or is it all about the same?

 

Bump day

 

antenna looks good.

I have Astatic shielded cable, 12 ft I think.