cable failure or ant.???

[rmacleod]

I am new to the forum and am learning allot about radio communication, and since i am new i have some tech ?'s that need to be answered. I was given a Uniden PC-122 CB radio and it seems to work great with a 3ft (approx) base loaded mobile ant. but when i try plugging in a 8ft (approx) ant my volume drops drastically and i seem to loose RX signal. I inspected my cable (RG-8u) and noticed that the connector on one end has separated so that the wire wrapping is visible and not touching the connector. Could this be a problem? Or could it be that i have to much cable (50ft)? I did play with the connector a little bit and realized that when not screwed on but just pushing the peg in the radio not letting the threaded portion come in contact with the radio it makes the volume increase and I can hear people? Any help would be nice. Thanks everyone!

- RMACLEOD

PS I think your form is great!


</p>

 

[rmacleod]

I am new to the forum and am learning allot about radio communication, and since i am new i have some tech ?'s that need to be answered. I was given a Uniden PC-122 CB radio and it seems to work great with a 3ft (approx) base loaded mobile ant. but when i try plugging in a 8ft (approx) ant my volume drops drastically and i seem to loose RX signal. I inspected my cable (RG-8u) and noticed that the connector on one end has separated so that the wire wrapping is visible and not touching the connector. Could this be a problem? Or could it be that i have to much cable (50ft)? I did play with the connector a little bit and realized that when not screwed on but just pushing the peg in the radio not letting the threaded portion come in contact with the radio it makes the volume increase and I can hear people? Any help would be nice. Thanks everyone!

- RMACLEOD

PS I think your form is great!


</p>

 

[Moleculo]

The first thing to do before you do anything else is to get some coax with connectors attached properly. If you see a connector separating like that you need to replace the connector. If you don't know how to solder one on, get someone to show you. Don't fool around with something that's screwed up like that...it's too vital to get right.



Moleculo


</p>

 

[Moleculo]

The first thing to do before you do anything else is to get some coax with connectors attached properly. If you see a connector separating like that you need to replace the connector. If you don't know how to solder one on, get someone to show you. Don't fool around with something that's screwed up like that...it's too vital to get right.



Moleculo


</p>

 

[Moleculo]

With radios, the RF ground is passed through the shielding of the cable. Your antenna also needs to use that shielding. For example, if your a antenna is a 1/2 wave wire dipole (most basic antenna), the center conductor connects to one leg of the antenna, and the shield to the other. Your scanner's antenna would be affected by this also, but depending on the sensitivity of the scanner's RX circuitry, you may not notice it. The RG8/U cable you're using is fine. Basically any 50 ohm cable will work fine, but with a 50 foot run, you need the larger diameter coax like RG 8/U, LMR-400, etc.



Hope that helps explain it fairly simply.



Moleculo


</p>

 

[Moleculo]

With radios, the RF ground is passed through the shielding of the cable. Your antenna also needs to use that shielding. For example, if your a antenna is a 1/2 wave wire dipole (most basic antenna), the center conductor connects to one leg of the antenna, and the shield to the other. Your scanner's antenna would be affected by this also, but depending on the sensitivity of the scanner's RX circuitry, you may not notice it. The RG8/U cable you're using is fine. Basically any 50 ohm cable will work fine, but with a 50 foot run, you need the larger diameter coax like RG 8/U, LMR-400, etc.



Hope that helps explain it fairly simply.



Moleculo


</p>