I have the cobra 19 cb in my blazer and with the truck off I can hear people clearly but with it on there is more static and with it running I can barely make out or even here people. The power is taped into the power plug wire before the connector and its grounded to my steering column bolt where my leds and switch are grounded. Any ideas what can make it better?

 

Do you have a "squelch" button or dial on your CB? Play with that and you should be able to get to a point where there is no static at all. Also, do you have a whip? Where is it mounted if so?

 

I don't think the squelch **** is gonna fix his issue. Sounds to me like the alternator creating "noise" in the system similar to what you can also get with car audio equipment with a "noisy" ground. Does it get even worse if you turn on for example the head lights? If you rev the motor does the sound change accordingly? Try powering & grounding it where your OEM radio is grounded. You could also try a ground loop protector.

 

I missed the part where he has it hard wired in...I didn't read far enough

 

Yea adjusting the squelch doesnt help. I haven't noticed it get to much worse if I rev it. Maybe Ill rip my dash apart and ground it where the stereo is grounded. Im hoping it will fix it because the way it works while driving is pretty pointless.

 

So it is worse when you start the truck & drive it? I would describe it as a whiney, static sound. If so, I would definitly say it's a grounding issue. If the alternator is working hard, it will sound worse, like if you had your high beams on, wipers, etc.

 

Taking this a bit off topic, but I'm curious to know...
The actual CB units don't have a plug or anything on them? you have to hard wire them into a power source? I'm just curious since my CB is a handheld, so I have it plugged into one of the charger ports.

 

Yea with everything off cb works great but when started it gets staticy and whiney. I'll have to find a better ground I guess.


Yea you have to hard wire them or they make adapters that you can plug into your cigarette lighter power plug.

 

wire your CB up directly to your battery should take care of that noise

 

Do not plug it into the lighter.

Get your self a capacitor and put it in line.