Ironmike4x4

I have a Cobra 18 WXST2 cb and everything is hooked up right. I mounted a 6' firestik antenna to my Surco rack which has no ground plane, but I wired a separate ground wire from the antenna to a ground. I have an auxillary speaker and no matter if it's hooked into the radio or not the whining noise still occurs. Also I know it's not from the engine since it does it with or without the engine running and the key off for no engine power. The connections are all running straight to the battery and grounded. I still get the noise with any other antennas. It's not too big of a deal but it is annoying to hear the slight whining on the speakers when it's surfing through the channels. Any suggestions? Thanks in advanced.

rocket

iTrader: (1)

theres a few good suggestions in here: https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f97/cb-coming-through-my-speakers-84841/

Localmotion

it sounds like a bad ground

aviator

I had that problem on my old truck when ever I ran the heater. You might be picking up noise from there or the fuel pump... you could get yourself a "noise filter" there are two types that I know of... one goes on the antenna lead and the other on the power leads... these electronic gizmos supposedly prevent the problem you are having... they are I believe a series of diodes that basically prevent a "back-flow" of current thus eliminanting the noise...
Of course checking replacing the ground could fix it too...

rollem

Try using a common ground. (ground everything to the same grounding point). just a suggestion. Worked for me once.

Ironmike4x4

Rocket: I searched and that thread was there, I didn't find much help from that.
Aviator: It does it either engine off or on. I have both the orange and red wires straight to the batter so I can use it even with the key out of the ignition.
Rollem: I'll try the common ground suggestion. Maybe everything straight to the battery ground and see what happens.

From the link Rocket showed me I do not have the coax running along side the music speaker wires. I have the correct length from the cb to the antenna with no coiling of the wires. I took the CB out of the radio bezel just to be sure the music radio was not causing the interference and the noise is still present. Like I said, it's not TOO big of a deal but I would like to just get a clear signal from the auxillary speaker instead of the whining noise.

aviator

If you are getting power straight off the battery and it gives you trouble with the engine running or not then that eliminates the power side of the equation, which leaves only the ground as one posible source of trouble or it might be the antenna... have you had it 'tuned'?
Tuning the antenna has to do with matching the antenna to the radio and vehicle's "wave pattern"... basically as I understand the process [only had it discribed to me] the technician will attach a metering device to the antenna and will analyse the performance of the radio in the TX & RX mode and then will make small adjustments to the antenna to maximize it's performance. I'm told it takes about 20 mins. to do around here the price is around $30. Don't know if it will help but if it still makes noise after checking the ground its the last option... a call to a local truckstop or trucking company should lead you to a place that can provide the service...

Ric

I had pretty much the same problem, after trying a few different ground locations, i moved/pushed away the radio wires radio, and no more noise,, the coax, and the radio wires were touching, so, i retaped them, seperated them and its all good now.

Ironmike4x4

I did have it tuned then I took the rack and antenna off. I wouldn't have thought I might need to have it retuned. I may do that after moving the ground and moving the radio wires. I'm now leaning towards the radio wires now since the cb unit is mounted beneath the cd player. I'll update when I get the fix finally.

Ironmike4x4

I think I've eliminated the problem... the wires from the CD player was touching the coax cable. I tried to separate them but being in the space between the radio and cb they still touch. Can I maybe put some type of plastic electric conduit to eliminate it?

millertime_t1

Did you ground the antenna or the mount? Do Not ground the antenna. Only ground the mount. Also try running the ground for the radio (cb) straight to the battery. If this does not help -- maybe find a friend that has a working cb and switch out the coax -- then the antenna --- then the radio (cb) -- this should eliminate possible problems one by one

Ric

you could also try foam, Ive seen a few wires with foam rapped around them to help insulate. either way, worth a shot.

aviator

I dont think that plastic or foam will work so well... the prob;em is occuring because around any wire with energy running through it there will be a magnetic field this field can induce a voltage on the neighbouring wire. This is one reason why the cables on high tension towers are spaced so far apart. Usually the coax cable will be "shielded" this is the thin foil wrap around the wires beneath the vinyl cover,it is usually conected to ground through the BNC connector if this sheild is faulty then you will have the problem you are getting the foam wrap might space them far enough apart to solve the problem. If it does not then you could try this idea take a piece of wire around the coax several times where it comes near the cd cable and attach both ends to a good ground this will act as a shield and should fix the problem.

If you want to have fun with induced voltages you can try this walk under a set of high tension lines and hold an 8 foot flurescent tube straight up over your head if the lines are under load, that is there is a lot of juice running through them, the tube should start to glow and may even illuminate. This works best in the evening when it is getting dark and people are turning on their ovens and so forth. Freaks people out if you do it in a parking lot.