SWR Meter For Your CB Antenna

[Chicago Mark]

When I was looking for a Hondaline CB system I read the posts here and on the VRCC site on how to tune a CB antenna. My interest peaked once I installed the Hondaline system on my own Interstate. My system came with an aftermarket CB antenna. The base of mine is black but it does fold down like the oem radio antenna. The CB antenna is also about 5" longer than the oem radio antenna. I have to keep the squelch set at around 15 to keep from receiving short undistinguished bursts of 'something'. Tonight I picked up an SWR Meter at Radio Shack along with the adapters needed to connect the Honda system to the meter. I'll try to get my antenna tuned by this weekend and will be glad to help any other Valkyrie owner with yours as well. I'll practice on my own system before offering to test/adjust your system. There's also a decent video on YouTube showing what to do with the Radio Shack meter as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRWKZskxcs0

All the best,

Mark

[MP]

Great.  Do you still have the Radio Shack number for the adapters?
Thanks.

MP

[Chicago Mark]

Radio Shack Power/SWR Meter, 2100534 $44.99
Radio Shack PL259 male to male adapter, 2780192 $4.99
Radio Shack BNC to PL259 adapter, 2780121 $4.99
Radio Shack PL259 to Motorola adapter, 2780208 $3.49
Radio Shack BNC Plug-Moto Socket, 2780117 $4.99

     The older bayonet type connectors on our bikes antennas aren't like they use today. The SWR Meter has two PL-259 connections on the back. If you you can find a PL-259 to female and PL-259 to male antenna connections you can get by with only two adapters. The Radio Shack I was at didn't have those so I had to use two adapters per side. I hope this makes sense. The way I have the meter/adapters set up I can plug the antenna male connection and the antenna female connection directly into the meter.

Thank You,

Mark

[MP]

Thanks, Mark!  You the man!

MP

[Challenger]

If you have to start whacking on the antenna to get the swr down, I use a straightened coat hanger for an antenna, snip away until you are close and then measure it, you can then cut your antenna a bit longer and try it. If you cut too much off the coat hanger, no big deal, just grab another one.

[Chicago Mark]

What a great idea, thank you.

Mark