New to CBs Not Even Sure I hooked It Up Correctly

[jr1956]

I have an older base CB, 100 WATTS 11 METER STATION,

CHEROKEE 40CH TRISONIC with a Golden Eagle 150 GOLDEN EAGLE amplifier and I installed a PT99 PROCOMM PROTON CB & HAM BASE RADIO ANTENNA,

2000 WATTS I used Low Loss Double Shield Coax Cable RG213U Type Non-contaminating, w PL259 that travels 50 feet from my antenna through my attic down through the ceiling to my base station, no circles in my cable. I have 3 questions.

1) I have read that the golden eagle 150 is for a linear antenna. Is the golden eagle 150 worth using on my set up?

2) using the SWR meter I purchased and following the instructions to test my antenna tx and reception, I get the same readings for receiving and transmitting of 1.1, is that possible? Shouldn’t the readings be a little different?

3) I live in San Diego and at least truckers use CB. I live less than 1/2 mile from a freeway and live on a hill and my antenna is 20 feet above my roof top to the tip of my antenna. Shouldn’t I receive some squawk or at least faint transmissions?

My receiver only shows slight movement where I guess it shows some sort of received transmission but I don’t hear anything. I opened my receiver and verified there is a speaker inside. Any ideas? I guess that would be 4 questions

[jessejamesdallas]

"IF" your radio is doing 100w's as-is...then trying to push that into a amp that does around 150w's is going to smoke the amp real quick...

[jr1956]

I purchased it as a set (Base CB, Amplifier and 12-volt power supply). The seller was using it, so it all come together. Not sure what he was doing but the picture shows it all hooked up. So basically, I should take it off the system?

[jessejamesdallas]

Don't remember any Cherokee radios that would do 100w's...It's most likely a 4w radio swinging around 8 to 12w...So if this is the case, then it's OK to run it with the Golden Eagle 150 which should give you around 150-200w out if everything's working correctly...

[TNT1450]

2) using the SWR meter I purchased and following the instructions to test my antenna tx and reception, I get the same readings for receiving and transmitting of 1.1, is that possible? Shouldn’t the readings be a little different?

There's no such thing as SWR on receive. If your antenna isn't properly matched while just receiving, it doesn't really matter. VSWR only matters when transmitting, because if the antenna isn't properly matched then some of the signal will be reflected back to your radio and possibly damage the final transistor if the reflected power is high. If you're getting a 1.1:1 VSWR on transmit, then your antenna is well-matched.

3) I live in San Diego and at least truckers use CB. I live less than 1/2 mile from a freeway and live on a hill and my antenna is 20 feet above my roof top to the tip of my antenna. Shouldn’t I receive some squawk or at least faint transmissions?

Actually not as many truckers use CB now as they did 30 years ago. Now they're largely using cell phones but there are still a few trucks with CB's installed. But if you're not hearing anything, it's likely that nobody is on. Put your radio on channel 6 in the middle of the day and see if you can hear anyone there. You should be hearing signals on 6 at some point in the day when the band opens up.

My receiver only shows slight movement where I guess it shows some sort of received transmission but I don’t hear anything. I opened my receiver and verified there is a speaker inside. Any ideas? I guess that would be 4 questions

I don't quite understand. Do you mean the meter needle shows slight movement? When you say you don't hear anything, do you mean you don't even hear static coming from the speaker? Turn the squelch all the way down and you should hear static. Make sure the radio isn't in PA mode. Turn the RF gain control up.

BTW, what model number is your Cherokee? I did a google search but can't come up with anything called a "Trisonic."

[jr1956]

Thank you all who replied. I have learned a lot during the CB purchase and the responses received here. As it turns out the CB does not have any sound.

One person suggested the Mic was faulty which could be the case or some internal components. I have sent the CB back and received a refund. The owner confirmed the CB was defective. I purchased a McKinley and it works perfectly. With everyone’s information including an AI site, I learned my antenna is fairly well matched as I was confusing the watts meter with SWR meter.

So I was reading 3+ watts instead of the SWR reading of 1.2 on both channel 1 and 40. Now I can read a meter and talk to family on the CB!!! Thanks again.