posted by Admin on Dec 15

Tuning Your CB Radio Antennas

Executive Summary of CB Radio Antennas by Andrew Youderian

Cb Radio Antennas

While a properly tuned antenna will result in strong radio performance, a badly tuned or untuned antenna can result in poor performance and can even damage your radio.

What Is Antenna Tuning?

Tuning is the process of adjusting an antenna so that the radio’s output power is turned into radio signals as efficiently as possible. An antenna’s efficiency is measured by the Standing Wave Ratio, or SWR, which represents how much of the radio’s power is being turned into radio signals by the antenna. The goal of antenna tuning is to achieve as low an SWR reading as possible. While low SWR readings result in the best performance, high SWR readings have more worrying implications than poor transmission range.

CB Radio Antennas Tuning Instruction

Enough theory - let’s tune that antenna! To tune the CB radio antennas, you’ll need to have correctly installed both your CB radio and your CB radio antennas.

1. Find an open area. Drive your vehicle to an open parking lot or field; make sure there are no trees, buildings or other obstructions within 15 meters. To ensure accurate SWR results, make sure everyone is in the vehicle and that the doors are closed when you take the readings.

2. Hook up the SWR meter. Disconnect the cable going to the antenna from your radio and attach it to the connection marked “ANT” or “Antenna” on the meter. The SWR meter is now installed in-line between the radio and antenna.

3. Take SWR readings. You’re now ready to take SWR readings. Flip the switch on the SWR meter to the “FWD” setting.Switch the radio to Channel 1.

Change the radio to Channel 40 and, repeating steps above, take a second SWR reading.

Channel 1 SWR is greater than Channel 40 SWR. Most fiberglass antennas have a tuning screw at the tip of the antenna that you can loosen or tighten to adjust the length of your antenna. If your antenna has a weather cap that covers the tuning screw, make sure it’s back in place before taking your SWR readings.

Channel 40 SWR is greater than Channel 1 SWR. Tuning Goals

The goals of antenna tuning are (1) to achieve SWR readings of 2.0 or less on both Channel 1 and Channel 40 and (2) to match SWR levels on the two channels as closely as possible.

SWR below 2.0. You can expect good performance and safe radio operation with SWR levels below 2.0 on both Channels 1 and 40. Identical SWR on Channels 1 and 40. Identical SWR levels on both Channels 1 and 40 ensure that you have the most efficiently tuned antenna for use across the entire 40-channel spectrum. If you’ve properly tuned your antenna, congratulations!

Other articles, which may be required: HF Radio

TOP Cb Radio Antennas Product Reviews

Cobra HG A 1500 Base-Load Medium Magnet Mount 300W...	Customer Review: Do not have good radius with this antenna, may work well if your driving by a truck stop or something but not good if you want to talk to someone more then a mile away.... Read More	(27)
Cobra HHROADTRIP 40-Channel CB Radio...	Customer Review: I bought this handheld CB radio for my husband because of its portability and the reputation of the Cobra name. He is not a big CB user and just wanted a radio that he could use in both of our vehicles.<br /><br />This radio works exactl... Read More	(44)
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Pyramid CB20 Magnetic Mount CB Antenna...	Customer Review: Click Here for More Info	$17.99
Midland 18-258 40-Channel Glass-Mount CB Antenna...	Customer Review: I've installed this antenna per manufacturer specs and tuned using my SWR meter.<br /><br />Performance of this antenna is worse than bad. It looks nice, the hardware quality is poor. The performance is even worse. <br /><br />... Read More	(16)