CB Question For You Techies Out There

I broke one of my antennas off of my International...tree branch snapped it in half. Anyhow, I replaced it with one that is supposed to be universal. Now I hear nothing at all on my CB...not even a crackle of static.

Do the antennas have to be exactly the same for this radio to work??

I broke one of my antennas off of my International...tree branch snapped it in half. Anyhow, I replaced it with one that is supposed to be universal. Now I hear nothing at all on my CB...not even a crackle of static.

Do the antennas have to be exactly the same for this radio to work??

You will need to go to a CB Shop and have the antennas "tuned" to the radio with a SWR meter. I'm not an expert but if you have dual antennas I believe they must match. You can ruin your radio if they are not tuned properly. There will be someone that will show up to explain it.

I'm no expert but I talked to a guy when he was installing cbs into a fleet of trucks. He told me its a dying art but there is tuning as tractor man said involved. I don't really know the details but the length of the antenna has to be matched with the radio from what I understand. So basically yea my point in that whole thing was just agreeing with tractor man about having a radio shop do it.

I'm no expert but I talked to a guy when he was installing cbs into a fleet of trucks. He told me its a dying art but there is tuning as tractor man said involved. I don't really know the details but the length of the antenna has to be matched with the radio from what I understand. So basically yea my point in that whole thing was just agreeing with tractor man about having a radio shop do it.

The trouble is finding a shop out here and then having time to mess around with it. :( I am going to have to take my truck into the dealership after this load for a repair, so maybe I can just pick up another International antenna from there. Hate I wasted money on the one I bought though. It's the same length as the original but not exactly the same kind.

Most shops have contact information for a mobile cb shop so to speak. Like a guy with all the gadgets. I know we have a company that comes to our shop. Maybe you can contact them before you get there and have them tune it while your truck is in the shop. Now as far as cost I have no idea but maybe you could ask the company weather or not they would pay for it

As an amateur radio operator of over 40 years, I can tell you the length of the antenna doesn't matter at all unless you're transmitting. You could stick a metal coat-hanger there and it would still receive. If you're hearing nothing (not even static), it's more likely the coax has been damaged in some way, or at least the connector where it attaches to the antenna. Even if the antennas are of different brands, it's unlikely that they'd cause much in the way of a problem.