CB problems - promising development!

[Texascanuk]

No RX now

A quick trip to another spyder owner proved that the CB transmits great now and he wants me to help him install the Firestick antenna and cable.

My problem now, I don't hear anything when it is in RX - receive status

I thought it must be something easy that I'm missing.
the speaker volume on the CB is turned all the way up/ or 3/4 doesn't matter
The radio volume is receiving
We swapped bikes and both our headsets receive on his bike when mine transmits
The passenger headset port is the same as the driver port

Squelch is all the way down or one notch up
Mic volume is 2/3
VOX is 1/2
External speakers are off
Question: if I turn on the external speakers and leave the headset plugged in, the RX mutes the headset but the external speakers play radio. Will the CB receive and broadcast through the external speakers if the headset is not plugged in?

 

[Basil faulty]

I have an J&M CB with their antenna that i just installed.
Would be interesting to test.
I ride with a GW and had good success.

if you want to test your unit let me know.

We are camping at the fair grounds.

ride safe
Geo

Are you using the j&m 2003 cb? If so what do you use for a mount? We're you able to find a way to pull the audio from the spyder and input it into the j&m unit?

 

[Texascanuk]

I ended up removing the No Ground Plane antenna and antenna cable and went back to the original cable and the J&M antenna. I had a local spyder rider compare his 2014 with a J&M antenna to our 2012 with the NGP antenna and the J&M antenna setup worked alot better. The NGP setup was giving a range of about 1/2 mile before losing reception clarity completely into garble whereas the J&M setup performed up to and past 1.6 miles to 1.8 miles. At this point the spyder was still being received well without distortion or much fading but the bike I was on using the J&M CB2003 was losing clarity.

This is about the range that one can expect out of an average CB so I'm happy with it. I went and checked the SWR's again after installing the J&M antenna and have SWR at Ch1= 2.7, Ch19= 2.2, Ch40= 1.7. I think we'll just use our systems on the upper half of the channels when we aren't riding with a group who typically use the lower half of the channels.

 

[Texascanuk]

The squeal is back when attempting to transmit. The driver has an EDSET headset and the passenger a BRP headset. When we switch their cords and plug the passenger into the front outlet and the driver to the back outlet the squeal goes away. So I went and bought another BRP headset for the passenger and it cured the transmit squeal. Hopefully this it finally solved

Observation. On a previous outing we were riding with two BMW 1600's one with the midland CB and the other with the J&M CB2003 but both with 1.5 or 2 ft antennas. They could only transmit short distances and had to use me as a link-man when the group got spread out. I'm using a 3 ft Firestick II with the J&M CB2003 on my Yamaha FJR. The Spyder is getting similar range to me., about 1.6 miles.

 

[davehirst]

Inquiring minds want to know how your test with a group of GW riders went? I get constant complaints about my Spyder CB...receive and transmit range is abysmal...I would say you might get 500 feet, and then they still say it's scratchy sounding, and sometimes unintelligible.

Phil

I had the same problem. Installed a ground wire from the case of the CB to ground. Problem solved.

 

[UtahPete]

This whole discussion is very helpful in understanding the issues with 'real' CB on a bike. Thanks.

 

[MercerLake]

Squeal in Radio

You mentioned using a handheld to test your installation on the :spyder2: and getting a "Squeal". The squeal is likely due to audio feedback from the Trike speakers to the microphone of the handheld. To eliminate this get some physical separation between the handheld and the trike , about 20' should do it, and point the microphone/speaker of the hand held away from the trike. Testing and tuning should be done outside of a building. The FIRESTICK does use the shield of the coax as a ground plane and tuning, it will be affected by adjacent metal. There are other antennas available that are true dipoles that do not depend on the coaxial shield for a ground plane or tuning. Biggest problem with CB frequencies is that they require longer elements due to long wavelength. Short antennas for the frequency involved are poor radiators which reduces range. VHF or UHF systems require much shorter elements, so GMRS/FRS radios work well on bikes/trikes. Newer BLUETOOTH systems are even better for clarity and noise reduction. It's only money! :joke:

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

You mentioned using a handheld to test your installation on the :spyder2: and getting a "Squeal". The squeal is likely due to audio feedback from the Trike speakers to the microphone of the handheld. To eliminate this get some physical separation between the handheld and the trike , about 20' should do it, and point the microphone/speaker of the hand held away from the trike. Testing and tuning should be done outside of a building. The FIRESTICK does use the shield of the coax as a ground plane and tuning, it will be affected by adjacent metal. There are other antennas available that are true dipoles that do not depend on the coaxial shield for a ground plane or tuning. Biggest problem with CB frequencies is that they require longer elements due to long wavelength. Short antennas for the frequency involved are poor radiators which reduces range. VHF or UHF systems require much shorter elements, so GMRS/FRS radios work well on bikes/trikes. Newer BLUETOOTH systems are even better for clarity and noise reduction. It's only money! :joke:

I decided the squeal problem was being caused by a short, or at the very least, leakage between the mic input wire and one of the speaker wires in the lower cord of the helmet headset thus setting up a feedback loop. All has been good since I got a new lower cord, which I should have done earlier. I did keep the radios far enough apart to avoid feedback between them.

BT has two shortcomings compared to factory CB, transmit range and power supply. The factory CB never needs recharging nor new batteries!

The guys at Firestik did tell me about keeping the cable away from metal as much as possible, after I had it installed, which isn't real hard since there's so little of it on a Spyder! Relocating the antenna cable is one of my winter Spyder projects. The 17' length makes that a trick!