My first day with CB, a dissapointment

[polakatl]

I got my Midland hand-held and Little Wil antenna setup today (no SWR yet). I took a drive on rural interstate i16 in south GA to test out the radio. I mainly listened to what was going on and got a radio check here and there. I was surprised when the trusty V1 went off with constant on KA and I came up on a trooper parked in the bushes in the median.

The cop was next to an exit so I pulled over, called in the bear, and decided to listen to the CB for a while. I left after 15min and not once did I hear anybody say anything about the speed trap. Traffic was light but constant so there were plenty of truckers passing by.

It was just my first day with the radio so I'll let it fly, but an obvious speed trap like that should have been mentioned on the radio.

One more thing: when I turn the squelch down I can hear all kinds of noises my car makes. For example the power windows make a quite natural motor noise, window sprayers sound like window sprayers, the engine can be clearly amplified by the radio, and I can hear my AC compressor.

Any fixes for these interferences or should I just use squelch to get rid of them?

[cell21633]

you can use squelch, but that will cut out any weaker signals that you may be wanting to hear.
ideally, the radio should be hooked directly to the battery. this helps lower the noise floor, so you can turn down the squelch. the midland handheld connects through the lighter adapter, which can pickup tons of electrical noises.
antenna location and amplification has a lot to do with how far you get out. you're probably running barefoot, so make sure you have plenty of metal directly underneath your lil wil, and get an SWR test as soon as you can. mine were way off even on the rooftop.

[Super Dave]

I'm just asking but you were on ch 19? (Not trying to be a smart ___!) Could you hear any other talking at all? Did anyone respond when you called out the trap? Maybe the antenna range you have is messed up and they didn't hear you? If you were on 19 for 15 minutes and could hear other chatter but nothing on the LEO that is a bit strange but nothing's perfect I guess.

On your noise problem, there are also inexpensive noise reducers (I can't think right now what exactly they are called) but you place them on your wiring and it will cut down on engine noise. The "Shack" sells them as well as other places. Or try another fuse to connect your wiring to. The best way as said before is to directly wire to the battery if possible.

Now I have heard in some states other channels are used but I don't know if that's true and I think thats out west and in GA I would think for sure would be 19. Maybe go out today and just try to start up a conversation to make sure others can hear you. Just try "radio checking" *edit* never mind after re-reading I see you did do this - sorry.

Hope this helps. In the end, CB is just a tool. Like anything else, works sometimes, sometimes not. All you can do is have enough tools in your arsenal to hopefully reduce further your chances of getting caught. I'd give it another try.

[polakatl]

Hope this helps. In the end, CB is just a tool. Like anything else, works sometimes, sometimes not. All you can do is have enough tools in your arsenal to hopefully reduce further your chances of getting caught. I'd give it another try.

I agree with that. Nothing is perfect.

I was on 19 and could hear them talking every now and then. I didn't get a copy on the bear trap i called in, but i did get my radio checks verified.

I haven't given up. It was just disappointing because on my first day I found the perfect trap that I was expecting the cb to help find. I really had a good testing "environment" and it didn't prove itself.

Does SWR adjustment help in receiving or is it for TX only?

I had the antenna mounted on my passenger side of the roof and I tried the trunk lid. I couldn't tell a difference, but then again there is no way to unless I have a friend with CB.

[Super Dave]

I am by no means a CB expert, I have only been using mine for a few months. I believe that the SWR definetly does help in transmitting, but it doesn't make a difference in just hearing. I have not had mine adjusted yet either but I don't do a lot of transmitting.

Usually RW'07 is on here he is pretty knowledgeable on the subject - I'm sure he will chime in on these questions.

[Lucky225]

yes, SWR is for transmitting more or less, but your receive should be fine as most rigs are running illegal amps anyways =)

[RW'07]

I got my Midland hand-held and Little Wil antenna setup today (no SWR yet). I took a drive on rural interstate i16 in south GA to test out the radio. I mainly listened to what was going on and got a radio check here and there. I was surprised when the trusty V1 went off with constant on KA and I came up on a trooper parked in the bushes in the median.

The cop was next to an exit so I pulled over, called in the bear, and decided to listen to the CB for a while. I left after 15min and not once did I hear anybody say anything about the speed trap. Traffic was light but constant so there were plenty of truckers passing by.

It was just my first day with the radio so I'll let it fly, but an obvious speed trap like that should have been mentioned on the radio.

One more thing: when I turn the squelch down I can hear all kinds of noises my car makes. For example the power windows make a quite natural motor noise, window sprayers sound like window sprayers, the engine can be clearly amplified by the radio, and I can hear my AC compressor.

Any fixes for these interferences or should I just use squelch to get rid of them?

I'm here Super Dave :wink:

To polakatl, the simple CB and antenna test is to go on the interstate in a pretty busy business day and ask this one: breaker 19, can I get a radio check please! And see if you get any answers to your call, usually it's like this: radio working driver, or, cheQUE is in the mail driver, if you're getting call back answers to your radio check, everything is very much ok, that issue was due to lack of vigilant truckers, they did not bother to give the smokey bear alert on the air, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't, nothing much you can do... so let's take it from here, see if they can hear you with a radio check request :wink:

I myself using the Midland 75-822 with a Wilson 5000 with a short load, since Jan '06, and extremely happy with my investment

[polakatl]

RW-07: do you have your midland plugged in to the cig lighter? I have it getting power through the lighter socket and it gives me a lot of electrical and engine noise. With the car off I get 2 bars of noise on the radio and with the vehicle on its about 3-4. With 3-4 bars squelched I am missing transmissions.

I tried a socket wired directly to the battery and that did nothing for the noise. I will need to see what it does on AA bats.

The way it is setup now I can barely hear what people are saying. Its just too noisy.

Once again I have the Midland 75-822 and Little Wil.

I think I should have gone with the Wil 5000

[RW'07]

RW-07: do you have your midland plugged in to the cig lighter? I have it getting power through the lighter socket and it gives me a lot of electrical and engine noise. With the car off I get 2 bars of noise on the radio and with the vehicle on its about 3-4. With 3-4 bars squelched I am missing transmissions.

I tried a socket wired directly to the battery and that did nothing for the noise. I will need to see what it does on AA bats.

The way it is setup now I can barely hear what people are saying. Its just too noisy.

Once again I have the Midland 75-822 and Little Wil.

I think I should have gone with the Wil 5000

Yes, it's plugged into a triple power extension cord (Garmin and XM the other devices on the power outlet) and the extension cord into the cig lighter, bought the Midland brand-new, never ever done any tuning on it, but I also drive a 2007 car bought obviously brand-new, have no electrical issues at all... unfortunately your car is giving a lot of electrical surge that effects the effectiveness of your CB, try to get one of those things that you attach anywhere at the back of your car, but it's gonna be on a METAL part of your car and then to touch the ground, that's how you let the electrical surge disappear, no idea if that's gonna solve your electrical problem but that's an easy step and a cheap one, but again you gotta find a metal part underneath the bottom of your car, do not attach to the bumper if the bumper is not a metal one, if you don't know go to any service shop and ask them to show you where to mount that anti-static band or whatever its name with...

Your problem has nothing to do with the antenna, btw, are you using its original whip or a short load different than the original whip?

[polakatl]

I'm using the original whip. I noticed that I do not get the electrical noise when the antenna is unplugged. That doesn't really say much since the coax grounds to vehicle ground and thats how its getting in there.

What puzzles me the most is how real the noises are. The rad. fan sounds like a fan, the engine has a nice growl to it, and the power windows sound as if I put my ear to the motor.

If I hook the radio up to my stereo and turn up the volume its like playing a racing video game (with static in the background)

This is on a 01 honda accord by the way.

I have seen a lot of cars in Poland with the static straps underneath the car, but I haven't ever seen it in the states. I'll look into it. Maybe I can hang a thick wire from the chassis to the ground and see if that does anything.