Cb Radio Wont Transmit

[nor7cal7]

hello gentlemen and ladies,

Recently installed a cobra cb radio i had lying around from my last pickup. its hard wired tot he battery (yes with an inline fuse) and it is grounded under a bolt in the dash. The radio turns on and the mic keys up when i click it. but i thought hwen you adjusted the squelch at soem point it was supposed to become static? anyway, it doesnt do that and my cousin came over and i cant pick up any transmissions from his rasdio and he cant pickup any of mine.
i fabbed an antenna bracket to mount in the tie down system of my tacoma. the line is ran under the cab and to the bed. Now my question is since we have a composite bed, the antenna has to be grounded or the bracket has to be ground? i ran a 12 guage wire with the ring is sandwiched between the stud and the bottom of the bracket, ran tot he frame where i grinded off the paint and bolted. ? what am i doing wrong, or is the cb just toasted? i couldnt find any internal broken parts.

[the.phantom]

don't know your radio, does it have a RF gain ( recieve radio frequency amp)
if down all the way you can have squelch off and won't recieve any static !

on the antenna there are two parts, the ground nut and the wire leading
ONLY the ground nut ( side that bolts to chassis ground) should be at ground, if you did the other conductor no reception ;-D

and for any kind of distance work the antenna if say 30 inches tall and mounted in the bed well it has the ground from chassis and sides of the cab to keep most of the signals out of the radio, i would mount it on the top part of the bed say on a corner by the cab myself

where about in norcal?

[nor7cal7]

i live in redding! WHere do u live the.phantom?

Thanks for the reply back, heres an image to clarify if i have the atenna set up right im a little confused on your explanation.

[the.phantom]

shucks, they moved this post and i played finding it
ya it should work by the diagram !

do you even get a transmit light when you try and send?( quickly as don't want to oook the final amp )

ok one last idea! did you trim the coax cable? maybe you have it shorted?????
that would do the same problem !
if you have any kind of voltmeter you could check it? ( about $4 at harbor freight)

a bit too far for you to drive here ( sacramento)
and then find the radio is toast ;-(

don't know the radio but it is set to CB and not PA, and not external speaker ( ya i am reaching here i know)

i'll check back as i have this bookmarked now

[nor7cal7]

the.phantom,

man do i appreciate the help! its hard to find soemone on these things doesnt get their panties in a bunch when you ask a question.

I can take a lift on and off a truck, work on engines, all that jazz but when it comes to anything electrical besides a stereo system, im not the best at it...but i found the problem.

First thing was i had the ground running to the antenna! On a normal pickup, you dont necisarily have to ground the antenna becasue the metal bed is grounded tot he frame, but it would be better to ground it anyway. thats where iw as wrong, the antenna doesnt need to be grounded the bracket needs to be grounded. i was shorting out my antenna and it was transmitting, but coem to find out my radio is toast anyway. i ahd a cobrad 25 ltd or something and it just wasnt working. My cuz gave me a cheaper cobra, and bam! no problem. i appreciate the help!

You wheel your rig at all?

[the.phantom]

no problem! glad you have things under control now !
i'm a old fart and got my 5 lug tacoma as a last set of wheels
but only drive about 1K miles a year. got on to cb back in 74 in colorado
and got out around 76 when the channels were fullof clutter ;-D

i still have a portable cb that plugs into cigarette lighter and a magnet mount antenna

check for a PM