Ok, as promised Im posting pictures of the final installation of my CB.

I decided not to put it beneath the stereo or beneath the cubby (thats below the stereo) for technical reasons and fear of more radio-interference. Plus I REALLY didn't want to cut into the cubby to make the CB fit plus it would of just looked ugly with the plastic of the dash dremeled. I hate super-permanent mods =)

So after 2 1/2 hrs of sitting in my cab holding the CB in every possible nook, crack, cranny and crevice I finally decided to put it below the glovebox.

I was afraid it might interfere with peoples knee's and feet there but it actually is the ultimate location because it DOESN'T interfere at all, plus it provides an excellent place for the mic coord to hang thats out of everyones way.

I tested my knee's there and I also had my 240lb 6'2 brother sit in there and move around and it was out of the way of his legs as well. MONEY!





I haven't put the ashtray or below stereo cubby back in yet. I had them out to test fittings for the CB and easier access to the wiring (to get power to the CB).





So being somewhat of a perfectionist. Not in the "everything has to look polished and clean" sense, but that I like things to look proportional, functional and not ugly. =) I have to have all my dash lights MATCH. I think it just looks nicer with an all green dash.



I tuned the antenna to my truck and CB. Although I'm getting rather high SWR overall. Channels 1 and 40 measure in @ 2.4 SWR and 19 around 0.2-0.3. I'm using an 18' RG-8X cable with a 3' FireStik (Firefly) hand-tuneable antenna that is mounted 18" rear of my cab on my aluminum tool-box. The mount is grouned to the Coax cable and i have a ground wire going to the bed rail, which the bed is grounded to the frame etc... I was able to talk to a fella about 12 miles away today clear as day and he said I had a strong signal 5-7 and was clear as day to him as well so I did something right!

Anyone got any ideas on the high SWR on the top and bottom channels? Or in otherwords why the 'narrow' band I got goin? Is it the short antenna? Small Ground-plane of my truck?


*I also don't sport any carpet. IT's just so nice hosing out the cab floor after a nasty dirty trip

 

I LOVE the night shot

 

Nice work! You will love that Cobra 25, very good radio. If you find a good CB shop you can have it peaked, tweeked, and roger beeped.

Oh I just noticed your high SWR readings, that's not good. Mine are under 1 for all channels, don't know what's wrong there.

 

thats exactly where i had that exact cb in my first truck(88 pickup). good call on the placement

 

I did that in my 97' Runner, it works well there and i have teh OCbra 19 so it's small enough to be outta the way for passengers