![]() After explaining that it’s for a CB radio, they say they don’t carry anything like that. I try several electronics stores and super-marts trying to find an SWR meter. I take the oysters and I’m back on the road. I love oysters, so the guy hands me a half-dozen oysters that he had harvested that morning at his property on Vashon Island…or so he says. In the driveway I run into some other grizzled old guy. I buy another shorter antenna with a spring and I’m off on my way, back through the shop of mangled radio equipment, on my way to my car. It’s not a big deal, since the antenna whip is flexible, but god damn it, if I’m going to do this…I’m going to do it right. However, in the course of our conversation it does come up that the new antenna I bought is probably making my bus stand over the standard highway height clearance limit. He says that’s probably what I need, but he doesn’t have any in stock. Anyway, I tell the guy my whole story about troubleshooting my system and say that I think I need an SWR meter. He had a lanyard around his neck with three radios hanging from it, all tuned to different channels. The guy behind the counter was a skinny, grizzled looking dude with a salt and pepper beard. ![]() I felt like I was in somebody’s secret electrical lab. I parked in the driveway and walked into the store, through the back shop area. The place is basically a shack built in the middle of a large plot of land that is covered in dead cars. I went to a local shop called CB Radio World. I decided to do a sanity check with an expert. But, this can be remedied by using an external SWR meter! What’s worse, if it’s off the charts too high, the radio would automatically protect itself by restarting, so my radio wouldn’t stay on.Īfter some more research, I discovered that SWR meters that are built in to CB radios tend to be kind of junky and inaccurate. No matter how I tuned my antenna, I couldn’t find anything between 1:1 or 3:1. The SWR meter compares how much energy you are outputting to how much is being reflected back. Receiving is fine, but you could damage your transmitter while trying to transmit with an untuned antenna. If your antenna is not properly tuned, however, you might end up reflecting that energy back in the form of heat, and frying your transmitter. Ideally, you want your radio transmitter to transmit energy in the form of radio waves. I read up on tuning until I became an expert, but I couldn’t dial it in with my radio’s on-board SWR meter.Ī quick note about SWR: The SWR meter measures the amount of energy that is being output from your transmitter vs how much of that energy is being reflected back as electrical heat. The antenna was properly matched, but for some reason, my standing wave ratio (SWR) was either off the charts too high or so low it wasn’t registering. I installed the new antenna in a better position on the roof (according to what I had learned) and immediately started receiving a much clearer signal. After some hemming and hawing, I decided that it was worth paying for a new antenna to make my free radio work. I started with the easy part and changed out the coaxial cable that runs between the antenna and the transmitter. Either my antenna or my coaxial cable needed to be replaced, and I needed something I could tune. So, I took to the internet to troubleshoot what was going on. Unfortunately, I kept getting error messages and warning signs. My radio comes with the ability to test my antenna to see if it’s a good match. To be sure I didn’t mess anything up, though, I decided to read the manual and make sure I was doing it right.įor those that don’t know, CB radios and antennas require tuning. I wired it in and turned it on, and was excited to be picking up some local signals. ![]() Lo and behold, my girlfriend’s mom got me the radio I requested on my wishlist. The CB radio wasn’t a high priority, so I put it on my Christmas wishlist and decided I would install it if I got one for free. Unfortunately, it wasn’t nearly that easy. The antenna was already wired up, and the power was already run to the spot where I assume a CB radio used to be. The only thing missing was the radio itself. When I got the bus, it had all the infrastructure for a CB radio to be installed. I didn’t make any video of the installation process because I thought it would be a quick plug-n-play option for the bus. However, they are still useful…in theory. ![]() ![]() Okay, I know CB radios are pretty much obsolete. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |