CB testing this coming week

[Lightspeed]

Pete, a quick low cost test will be to connect the supplied telescopic antenna ( it should have a white plastic cover on the central loading coil if I remember correctly) then power up and press the PTT talk button on the mike. At the same time look at the red LED sinal meters, which should light, showing that the radio is transmitting.

No lights? It could be in battery pack low power consumption mode: This turns off all of the unnecessary illuminations and might also turn the radio to low power. I seem to remember that this light function is controlled by pressing the centre of the channel selector rotary knob.

Little or no signal meter segments lit up on transmit? Possibly the radio is set to 1/2 watt mode. Again from memory, I think there's a toggle switch on the rear to select power. Set it to High and try again.

Hopefully results will be positive and the radio is transmitting OK ( Otherwise new output transistors will need to be fitted by a competent radio engineer.

Check for receive circuit and speaker: Connect antenna and mike as above. Its a speaker mike so the output sound from the radio comes from it. Turn on. Rotate the squelch control fully anticlockwise( Outer ring around channel control knob). Adjust volume control and you should be hearing static from the mike. Rotate the squelch control slowly clockwise; At some point the static noise should be cut. If it passes these tests, you know that its both receiving and transmitting.

Moving on to making an antenna, first thing you'll need will be to purchase or borrow an SWR meter and patch leads. Without this it will be pot luck that your antenna will match your radio. If mismatched it will not damage the receive side of the radio, but transmitting into it could burn out the transmitter output transistor(s).

I recommend a vertical antenna for CB as that's the polarity in greatest use. Either a purchased ready to go silver-rod type antenna or a home made version constructed from a telescopic fishing rod is the way to go. The latter has big advantage of being very covert and ultra portable. If you want to give one a try let me know and I'll give you specifications on what's needed and how to assemble.