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CB Radio In my Firebird

20K views 61 replies 17 participants last post by  JesusoChristo 
#1 · (Edited)
I did it.... surprisingly it doesnt look as bad as i thought it would. :lol:

only drilled 2 small holes for the antenna mount. its drilled also into the seam tape so i can easily plug it up if i remove it. also the cb mount bracket is held to the cup holder by 3M double sided mounting tape. and its out of the way and doesn't look too bad.

i also used a 12vlt sorce most people wouldn't think of. i grabbed that CD changer plug in the back trunk and cut both ground and 12vlt hot lines out of it and wired up my CB with it. ran the wires under paneling and behind back seat so no ugly cords or holes cut in firewall to run lines. and the coaxial is layed over the weather stripping and no leaks.

i enjoy cb radios and since i cant drive my 79 (which had this midland 77-888 radio) i thought i would install one on my 98. just goes to show it can be done on a 4th gen firebird.

equipment( for you ham or cb operators) nothing special

midland 77-888 radio
18' fireflex coaxle
4' firestick II antenna






sorry for the product placement. i like low carb monsters.

sorry to people the post was very miss-spelled. i just re read it fixed it. been typing an essay and crap all morning so my brain fried for a sec. all better
 
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#7 ·
Lizard lizard lizard lizard lizzzzzard.
 
#9 · (Edited)
LMAO i GOT onw of those too!!! but i used my FM radio mount, not another separate mount! i simply took the fm antenna out and slipped in the 5 ft, fire-stick, got the connection, and ran my Tram XL, 23 channel, 5watts. wish you made a post about what you where going to do, i would have told ya how to do what i did in my camaro, yours is long though! where did ya get the stick? im still trying to figure out where to mount the CB in my car

EDIT: you should get a cobra or A-static mod-mike, or noise-canceling-mike

I also have an old 70's scanner by PACE w/ crystals the the car, i ran a homemade "Y" split from the old FM antenna to the scanner, if i had a use-able camera i would take pictures...


fm/am radio---------------|---=fm antenna
scanner____/

only problem was i forgot to ground the motorola jacks :( so i gotta remake and re-solder because i made my own...and the scanner would work great in the car if i didnt have to use a power inverter, cause the inverter puts out interference on the scanner, am/fm and cb bands (got a 70 watt pwR inverter for 20 bucks)
 
#10 ·
awesome. i got my antenna at a local shop. its a 4' correction. im looking to get a 100~250watt amp setup to give some range.

and i had thought about doing exactly what you said. pulling the FM antenna out and sliding this firestick in. my power antenna craped out so its just stuck up anyways. but i didnt know how i would wire an antenna for the radio that was worth a damn
 
#11 ·
awesome. i got my antenna at a local shop. its a 4' correction. im looking to get a 100~250watt amp setup to give some range.

and i had thought about doing exactly what you said. pulling the FM antenna out and sliding this firestick in. my power antenna craped out so its just stuck up anyways. but i didnt know how i would wire an antenna for the radio that was worth a damn
they make um, "window antenna's" that glue to the window and send a signal through the window for FM (and CB) but they SUCK. i think you can find pretty good ones though.

so you can get an external antenna like you got for the CB, but for your fm OR
you can get an motorola extension wire and hide it or place it in your trunk somewhere and see how the signal is,
if it sucks (it probably will)
then externally mount it for sure, then you can get a Y split to split off to a scanner or something of your choice, and get pretty good signal. Seeing you external CB mount makes me wanna externally mount a fm antenna as my signal sucks for radio..

i had no power antenna, i had just the...stick? ...*looking for pictures online* so all i did was unbolt an pull down after inscrewing the antenna and put my stick in, an called it a day!

**if you remove the spare there is a piece of metal grounding/holding the then antenna, undo the bolt (red) and disconnect the antenna. it should be like this for yours, but i do not know..**

`
Wheel Tire Vehicle Automotive tire Motor vehicle
 
#13 ·
oh yea, many area's too, locals who have bases. they normally still use CH,19 , 14,21,23,9, and DX (skip) is HUGE the past few years, you can hear Jamaica, south america, even europe... not as popular as the 70's- through 80's though

*you could get in trouble for loud speaker use*
 
#15 ·
Drove a straight truck flatbed for a few years at my old job, nothing really crazy as far as a lot of highway miles but there were a few 5 or 6 hours trips. It was a Sterling Acterra L7500 flatbed.

Google Image Result for http://www.truckys.net/user_images/THUMB_35225.jpg

This is the box truck version but essentially the same truck only with a hydraulic dump flatbed. Sorry guys, it's too early for me to screw with photobucket this morning
 
#16 · (Edited)
yeah man hey i got info from someone on how to mount a 102" wilson 1000 or base loaded antenna on your firebirds. its ugly as sin but has been done.

under the rear bumper there is a section for a tow hook. sand that down and weld OR bolt a extension on that to come out past the rear bumper about 3" then mount the antenna on that extension. my only problem is the base loaded coil would below the chassis line and i could see bad SWR problems or crap RX from it.

i would almost be up to putting something like a stick of stainless steel screwed to the underside lip of the truck hatch and bolting a base loaded 102" whip on that. that would get some range.

all you would have to do is put a grounding strap from the trunk to the body but those hide easy at the hinges.


Also

the antenna im using is a 4' firestick II like stated. you can get that mount at any cb store. its a 5/8 wave for 27.000mhz frequency. FM and and AM are different and also the higher the frequency the smaller the wave becomes. i have never used a CB antenna for FM radio reception so i dont know if that will pick up better or not? a 27.000mHz wave is 32' tall (i think 32~36 cant remember)

and antennas that send have to be in relation to the wave its transmitting to achieve a low SWR and not hurt the radio. there are 1/4 1/2 5/8 and so on antennas out there.

but there is a reason that all FM radio antennas on cars are of the same length or close to it. it has a relationship to the frequency used on the FM band for radio stations. you cant hook a CB up to a stock FM antenna on a car and transmit a clean wave unless its 102" long whip.

my 79 camaro has the antenna in the glass, funny thing is that that antenna is a dipole that goes up and across the top of the windshield in two directions. it was tuned for AM use. if you notice older cars that only had AM radios and antennas came in more clear than a new 2010 car switched to AM.
 
#17 ·
yeah man hey i got info from someone on how to mount a 102" wilson 1000 or base loaded antenna on your firebirds. its ugly as sin but has been done.

under the rear bumper there is a section for a tow hook. sand that down and weld OR bolt a extension on that to come out past the rear bumper about 3" then mount the antenna on that extension. my only problem is the base loaded coil would below the chassis line and i could see bad SWR problems or crap RX from it.

i would almost be up to putting something like a stick of stainless steel screwed to the underside lip of the truck hatch and bolting a base loaded 102" whip on that. that would get some range.

all you would have to do is put a grounding strap from the trunk to the body but those hide easy at the hinges.

Also

the antenna im using is a 4' firestick II like stated. you can get that mount at any cb store. its a 5/8 wave for 27.000mhz frequency. FM and and AM are different and also the higher the frequency the smaller the wave becomes. i have never used a CB antenna for FM radio reception so i dont know if that will pick up better or not? a 27.000mHz wave is 32' tall (i think 32~36 cant remember)

and antennas that send have to be in relation to the wave its transmitting to achieve a low SWR and not hurt the radio. there are 1/4 1/2 5/8 and so on antennas out there.

but there is a reason that all FM radio antennas on cars are of the same length or close to it. it has a relationship to the frequency used on the FM band for radio stations. you cant hook a CB up to a stock FM antenna on a car and transmit a clean wave unless its 102" long whip.

my 79 camaro has the antenna in the glass, funny thing is that that antenna is a dipole that goes up and across the top of the windshield in two directions. it was tuned for AM use. if you notice older cars that only had AM radios and antennas came in more clear than a new 2010 car switched to AM.
well, a 102 in the rear would look wierd maybe, but we have a radio-shack Vanco 102 inch whip on top our house, and we hooked it up and have a SWR of about 1.4, we dont have a coil on our 102 inch whip because it should not need one (i thought). However a firestick mounted in the rear might cause problems, my vanco fire-stick has the coil at the top so im unsure on if top loaded would help.

My FM radio/scanner are using the same FM antenna because FM sucks on CB length. AM is good....

my CB radio however, has it own antenna (firestick) mounted through the FM stock quarter panel ....hole..

but now my FM/scanner antenna is laying about in my trunk receiving poorly, i need to externally mount the FM antenna or get a window mounted FM antenna(s) (2, one for scanner one for FM)

The reason i didnt link my scanner to the CB antenna is because I didnt want to blow up my old scanner lol..

lol one day i tried transmitting on the fm anntenna, sounded like crap, and didnt get far....
 
#21 ·
you can do alot of stuff ...to that hole. im pretty sure its 3/8 in diameter with the stock rubber piece, yea when you remove the antenna the rubber...mount piece and antenna should be separate, so you can just slide your antenna in the rubber, and secure it using the post they give you behind the spare, just 2 pop rivits you gotta drill.....wish i had a camera...
 
#22 ·
i dunno much abou CB radios, but I'm wondering if its practical to sling the antenna under the car like in the groove just inside the rocker panel...

any thoughts?
 
#24 ·
you wouldn't get very good signal TX or RX, if i have a good visualization of what your saying.

a CB radio antenna must be vertical, if horizontal you are not shooting a incorrect signal, instead your shooting into the ground and the sky, possibility you shot a hard to understand skip....the signal needs to be sent side to side, not up an down. they make antenna's however that go in all directions, known as radials. Great for "DX" or skip..

illistration for post: Slope Font Line Rectangle Parallel


a cb radio antenna to receive the best your antenna should be a full wave. 11 meters
(i think it might be 10?)

they make smaller antenna's such as "fire stick" "Wilson" but most have "coil packs" to make up for the lost antenna to lower SWR (standing wave ratio) so you dont fry your radio. your transmission (TX) will suffer of a half wave, or 1/8 wave. but you will still get out about 5-10 miles. While there are stations running 1000 watts, you can hear them for a good 25mi-50mi even 100 miles depending on land and wattage's they are pushing. you can talk back to them using about 50-100 watts.
Even though CB radio is basically "line of sight", meaning they can talk to you as long a mountain is not in the way. with watts over 5w you can power through the mountain.

This isn't necessarily WHY people Get CB radio's tweeked and get amps for power, and set antenna's 75 ft in the air at their home.

Some of them get them to receive and "shoot" "DX". you can receive DX from a good antenna, at least 1/8 wave, and a good CB, usually on Channel 6...

DX is signals bouncing off the charged ionosphere, which is charged from Sunspots, solar flares etc...
during DX you can hear California, NYC, Britain, Columbia, Jamaica and other good transmissions about 10 seconds long, sometimes longer. However, DX last for about 5-6 hours, but sometimes all day & through the night.. with people running watts, they POWER up to the ionosphere and the same power is then distributed to other states countries miles and miles away.

THE FCC makes it illegal to:
1) run power more then 5 watts on the cb bands.
2) Communicate more than 250(?) miles
3) interfere with tv's and other equipment..< why its illegal to run watts

what the FCC Doesn't tell you is that for four states, they have ONE guy to take CB complaints.
Unless you interfere with someones tv, radio etc. your probably not going to get in trouble, because so many people run power its insane....

hope i answered a few questions you had
 
#23 ·
^^^ You mean like this-



?
 
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#27 ·
^^^ Hahaha! I like your drawing better, looks like a Honda Hatch :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
#34 ·
^^^ nice catfish lmao
 
#37 ·
bwahaha, funny responses galore.

for the record, this is what I had in mind:


but thanks 1369666 for an informative post, I did not now anything about CB radios other than that they are the easiest way to pick out unmarked cruisers. that also answers my question as to why cops don't hide their antennae.
 
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#40 · (Edited)
well, if you put it there not only will the car get in the way of the signal, but your swr's would be something in the range of 7-10 (get a meter from radioshack to test SWR) also your sending range would be about a half a mile, you just cant do it.

However, more and more counties are switching to digital, which requires a small antenna, im sure with digital you could probably hide the anntenna where ever. BUT im not sure.....

as far as the ham radio, STAY ON CB channels and you will be fine.
You can adjust the frequencies for hard to hear/far stations (im jealous!!!)
RUN IT!!! but yea get it fixed, that's a good radio i say!
i also say F THE FCC!!!
you can also shoot skip on frewuency 27.555 (wiki for more off band stations)

BTW Fiarfenox (LOL)
THANKS for the THANKS on my really long explaination on CB.
If you would like to learn more about CB and the many things you can do/cant do.

visit the FCC website
and go to google and look up forums for CB, also try WIKI for learning about DX, watts, how CB truly works, "CB slang" and most importantly 10 - codes....10 codes are great way to talk to a far or unreadable station, 10-1 for example means, (i think) poor transmission 10 -2 good TX and 10-9 means, Say again and so on, its where 10-4 came from...

Cb's are also very good for long bored nights and if your lost on the interstate, simply ask:
Break 19, Driver on 355 looking for I90 and I think i passed it! im at mile marker 1..1..9..headed east bound. help a fellow out? comeback....
and you should receive help from a local driver or base, don't trust everything you hear though...

and remember CB stand for......

CONSTANTLY BUYING!!!
 
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