Help needed with CB in the Colchester area.

Hi All,

Anyone able to give a new landy owner a help with his new CB?

I have a Midland Alan 78Plus multi B. This is connected to a Moonraker Tornado Stinger Mobile CB Antenna via a pSM-1 vehicle mount which is attached at the rear right off the 110.

This is grounded by the cable and the steel plate that comes with it so I dont think its a ground plane issue.

The CB is connected and powers up ok. I can call out and i see the TX signal go up. Doing chanel scans etc I cant hear anyone . Maybe no one is on. I thought that also.

Just need a bit of a hand to get past this part. Any help gratefully received.

Have you swr'd the the aerial?

No I didn't as it said it was pre swr'ed. VSWR 1:1.5

Is it just a case of getting a patch lead and a swr meter plug it all together, setting it one side, key the mike, switch it to the other side and re key?

Pre swr'd aerials usually still need checking. My mini springer was sold as pre swr'd, but when checked was a mile out. Try a longer aerial and check the swr

Is it grounded correctly ?

fine tune swr your aerial first then if you dont get any reply when you ask if anybody can hear you its probably nobody has theirs on

Hi Guys, An update as sucgh.

Prob 1. I had snapped the ground on the antenna wire when doing the initial install . Fixed now and got good ground continuity

Prob 2. SWR, I bought a SWR meter from Maplins where the guy tthat sold me it used to work in a CB shop. Bonus. We SWR'ed it and its coming back at a good SWR apparently 1:1.2.

So now, as Channi, says I reckon its just a case of no one is on so no one to speak with. Probably get a radio check / chatter on the net on the way to Peterborough LRO show.

Thanks everyone for teh help/pointers. Much appreciated