Hello guys, some may remember me from the CBTricks glory days. Life got in the way n got me away from the hobby. About 3 years ago i changed jobs and have been working at a place that deals with business band and first responders.
my company is strictly business band radio, and not CB... but today we actually did some CB work as the customer is a current UHF user, but this particular truck in the fleet visits sites where the vendors they use comm with drivers on CB so he needed it to work.
this was in a 2024 Mack 18 wheeler, the factory antenna was shorted to ground through the factory antenna mount.
originally i was going to put up a NMO mirror mount to by pass the mount that was integrated into the mirror, but as i started into the project it became more n more frustrating on how to enter the cab with the cable run n how to route it to the overhead console.
so it became the job to just chase the problem and fix it.
they put a ground wire on the mount, which was shorting the stud to ground. someone had been inside the mirror before me and cut the ground wire off, but the ring was still shorting the stud.
i repaired this and then began routing new rg58 cable from the mirror to the inside through the door.
the next issue i found was that the cable was made up of 3 separate cables, linked with male n female Mini UHFs, or Mini PL259s if thats what you call them. the connectors that motorola radios use. this cable wasn't connected to anything. was just loose and unterminated inside the door jam. what the radio was hooked too, i have no idea.... the existing cable that was on the radio when i started, i just taped up and stuffed it through the hole in the cabinet, as i couldnt figure out where it disappeared to, having been taped ingo the factory wiring inside the overhead console.
this was the result of my efforts.
73's
my company is strictly business band radio, and not CB... but today we actually did some CB work as the customer is a current UHF user, but this particular truck in the fleet visits sites where the vendors they use comm with drivers on CB so he needed it to work.
this was in a 2024 Mack 18 wheeler, the factory antenna was shorted to ground through the factory antenna mount.
originally i was going to put up a NMO mirror mount to by pass the mount that was integrated into the mirror, but as i started into the project it became more n more frustrating on how to enter the cab with the cable run n how to route it to the overhead console.
so it became the job to just chase the problem and fix it.
they put a ground wire on the mount, which was shorting the stud to ground. someone had been inside the mirror before me and cut the ground wire off, but the ring was still shorting the stud.
i repaired this and then began routing new rg58 cable from the mirror to the inside through the door.
the next issue i found was that the cable was made up of 3 separate cables, linked with male n female Mini UHFs, or Mini PL259s if thats what you call them. the connectors that motorola radios use. this cable wasn't connected to anything. was just loose and unterminated inside the door jam. what the radio was hooked too, i have no idea.... the existing cable that was on the radio when i started, i just taped up and stuffed it through the hole in the cabinet, as i couldnt figure out where it disappeared to, having been taped ingo the factory wiring inside the overhead console.
this was the result of my efforts.
73's
