friday night i went to go take my girlfriend home and when i started my jeep the cb got full of static, normally i have the squelch button half way and the RF gain all the up and ive never recieved this much static before until now, i have to turn the squelch about 3/4 of the way up and then i never hear anyone at all. since then when the jeep is off the static like jumps up and down, the NB/ANL are both on and the static gets worse with them off even with the engine off. i have a cobra 29 NW ST WX that was just bought about 3 months ago, with a 4ft barjan antenna and a 50 ohm coax cable, the SWR reading on channel 1 is about 1.1 and channel 40 is about 1.5, i hooked up a brand new antenna and got a slighter higher SWR (i didnt tune it yet) but the static is still there, i have checked and cleaned all connections, im tempted to hook up my older cobra 29 and see if this still happens, any idea whats wrong?
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help me with a static problem
- Thread starter playinmud
- Start date
the world we live in is full of stray RF floating around everywhere.
have you noticed that every time you drive by a convenience store, the static gets louder?
there is a very good chance that the static you are hearing is not coming from your vehicle or the radio itself.
did you know that cordless mouses and keyboards are notorious for interfering with cb radios?
with all that said, if you want to find out of the noise is coming from the power wires or from the antenna, here is a simple test to do:
turn the radio on.
do you have the high static level?
if yes,
unplug the antenna connector from the back of the radio.
did the noise go away?
if yes,
then the noise is coming in from the antenna.
if the antenna has always been mounted in the same place on the vehicle, and this noise was not there until recently, i would say that your jeep is not the culprit, that its something in your immediate surroundings that has changed.
if someone in your house, or one of your neighbors just bought some new electronic device of some sort, that could be your culprit.
ok,
lets say that the noise did not go away when you unplugged the antenna connector from the radio.
that means that your radio is picking up noise from the power wires.
go buy one of those car stereo power line filters and install it.
make sure you are running both positive and negative wires right to the battery.
this is the only way to ensure a clean signal path.
if you have your radio powered from the cigarette lighter, or have the ground wire going to the vehicle chassis; you need to change that situation before you move on.
here is something that you could just buy, and install that might make the problem go away:
http://cgi.ebay.com/NOISE-FILTER-w-...VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247
good luck,
LC
have you noticed that every time you drive by a convenience store, the static gets louder?
there is a very good chance that the static you are hearing is not coming from your vehicle or the radio itself.
did you know that cordless mouses and keyboards are notorious for interfering with cb radios?
with all that said, if you want to find out of the noise is coming from the power wires or from the antenna, here is a simple test to do:
turn the radio on.
do you have the high static level?
if yes,
unplug the antenna connector from the back of the radio.
did the noise go away?
if yes,
then the noise is coming in from the antenna.
if the antenna has always been mounted in the same place on the vehicle, and this noise was not there until recently, i would say that your jeep is not the culprit, that its something in your immediate surroundings that has changed.
if someone in your house, or one of your neighbors just bought some new electronic device of some sort, that could be your culprit.
ok,
lets say that the noise did not go away when you unplugged the antenna connector from the radio.
that means that your radio is picking up noise from the power wires.
go buy one of those car stereo power line filters and install it.
make sure you are running both positive and negative wires right to the battery.
this is the only way to ensure a clean signal path.
if you have your radio powered from the cigarette lighter, or have the ground wire going to the vehicle chassis; you need to change that situation before you move on.
here is something that you could just buy, and install that might make the problem go away:
http://cgi.ebay.com/NOISE-FILTER-w-...VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247
good luck,
LC
LOL!!!
yeah, that wouldve been alot less typing!
well. i hope you found my ponderings interesting at least!
take it easy,
LC
yeah, that wouldve been alot less typing!
well. i hope you found my ponderings interesting at least!
take it easy,
LC
LOL!
i like the way you put that mackmobile.
playinmud,
static is a very ambiguous term, so instead of trying to get rid of it, we try and quantify it, and reduce it as much as possible.
so, say you drive your jeep out into the middle of nowhere.
no power lines, cell towers, or anything else around to interfere with you.
you shut the jeep off, to eliminate any engine noise, and turn on the cobra 29LTD.
now, with the squelch all the way down (counterclockwise), the RF gain all the way up (it should always be all the way up, unless you are at a truckstop), and the NB/ANL on;
how many S-units (sometimes referred to as "pounds" on the air) of static do you have?
the answer should be zero.
meaning that the meter on the radio sits pretty much all the way to the left, or at least very close to it.
now, if that number is much above 1 or 2, then you might have a bad ground connection or something like that.
now start the jeep.
did that add any S-units of static?
if so, then you can start filtering the power wires, and do the things i already suggested. (you should run the wires to the battery anyway, just for peak performance)
now, drive back into town, and watch the meter move up as you pass things.
when you get home and park in your driveway, with the jeep running. look at the meter.
higher static level than out in the woods?
jeep off, same thing?
sorry, there's not much you can do about that.
this modern digital world is just not nice to CB radios, and to make matters worse, no one that can change that cares about CB radios.
so, most likely, you are just experiencing the same frustrating noise that we all deal with when we drive in the city.
good luck,
and please feel free to ask any more questions you come up with.
there are a million things to know about this hobby, and you have just opened your first can of worms. LOL
later,
LC
i like the way you put that mackmobile.
playinmud,
static is a very ambiguous term, so instead of trying to get rid of it, we try and quantify it, and reduce it as much as possible.
so, say you drive your jeep out into the middle of nowhere.
no power lines, cell towers, or anything else around to interfere with you.
you shut the jeep off, to eliminate any engine noise, and turn on the cobra 29LTD.
now, with the squelch all the way down (counterclockwise), the RF gain all the way up (it should always be all the way up, unless you are at a truckstop), and the NB/ANL on;
how many S-units (sometimes referred to as "pounds" on the air) of static do you have?
the answer should be zero.
meaning that the meter on the radio sits pretty much all the way to the left, or at least very close to it.
now, if that number is much above 1 or 2, then you might have a bad ground connection or something like that.
now start the jeep.
did that add any S-units of static?
if so, then you can start filtering the power wires, and do the things i already suggested. (you should run the wires to the battery anyway, just for peak performance)
now, drive back into town, and watch the meter move up as you pass things.
when you get home and park in your driveway, with the jeep running. look at the meter.
higher static level than out in the woods?
jeep off, same thing?
sorry, there's not much you can do about that.
this modern digital world is just not nice to CB radios, and to make matters worse, no one that can change that cares about CB radios.
so, most likely, you are just experiencing the same frustrating noise that we all deal with when we drive in the city.
good luck,
and please feel free to ask any more questions you come up with.
there are a million things to know about this hobby, and you have just opened your first can of worms. LOL
later,
LC
Very true. Not all noise in a receiver is "static". "Static" is the electrical noise from lightning, or from driving on a highway during extremely dry weather (and with a little sand blowing - that increases the amount of static noise). On a smaller scale, it's the little shocks you feel on a dry day when you get a bunch of clothes out of the dryer, right when the buzzer goes off. They are localized, unfocused areas of voltage differences that, nevertheless, can make themselves known in a shocking way.
Most of the electrical noise we encounter in radio is just that: "electrical noise", but not "static". It's caused by electric motors, timers, thermostats, controllers, and dozens of other things, many of which didn't exist thirty years ago but which are indispensible today. In motor vehicles, the usual culprits are electrically operated motors, such as the fan, other rotating electrical equipment (alternator), pumps (fuel pump!), the vehicle's computer, the ignition system ... any electrically driven equipment, OR equipment that produces an electrical signal, can and will generate electrical noise.
How to get rid of it? First, you have to find it. Then you can generally install bypass capacitors across the terminals, or chokes in series ... it depends on the offending equipment.
And don't be surprised if you take your vehicle out into the boonies and find a place where the S-meter reading is absolutely S0, and then turn on your cell phone and/or laptop computer and see the reading climb to S9.
They generate noise, too. Ain't technology great!