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CB Radio Transmit is very Weak - Recieve is Fivers!! HELP!

14K views 13 replies 8 participants last post by  LarryM 
#1 ·
Went out for a ride the other day with a couple of riders and found out the transmit on my CB Radio is very, very weak, almost non-existent. My receive side is L/C and works like a charm. When transmitting I see the TX indication in the dash and also a very faint "roger beep" when I release the transmit switch. Has anyone ever experienced this and if so, what was the fix. Appreciate assistance. SWR was good at installation.

Thanks
 
#2 ·
Have you tried new cords or swapped out helmets to see if any of that is causing it. Mine did what yours is doing except when I transmitted with almost no sound the TX light did not light. J & M replaced my cord at no charge.
 
#3 ·
Silverhawk,

It could be the cabling like Greg mentioned. However, that sounds like an issue with the TX section (circuitry) of the radio. Could well be SWR. I have a power/SWR meter that we could check it with, assuming it has the typical CB connectors on it (I don;t have a CB on mine so don't know what the install looks like. I also have a 250W bi-linera amp we could hook up to it to see if it will TX then, but that is not a very good test because you have to de-tune the radio to use that AMP. If TX section is already weak, it won't prove much.
 
#4 ·
Thanks for the replies guys. I'm going to pull the plastic and check all connectors. Finally found my paperwork so I know where things are supposed to be and where they are supposed to be hooked up.

Richard, since you are so close, I may be hooking up with you in the not too distant future...after I do some digging inside. Thanks for the offer.
 
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#5 ·
GoldWingrGreg said:
Have you tried new cords or swapped out helmets to see if any of that is causing it. Mine did what yours is doing except when I transmitted with almost no sound the TX light did not light. J & M replaced my cord at no charge.
Actually I haven't. That should have been the first thing to check. Guess I'm getting a tad hazy in my old age. Thanks for reminding me of basic trouble-shooting techniques. :lol: :tools1:
 
#7 ·
When you are discussing transmitting, the first thing you have to do it determine if it is a transmitting power problem, or a modulation problem, which is easy to do, but you will have to query your friends.

When you key up the mike, do they hear a lot of noise in the background? If so, it is a transmitting problem. If you can break squelch fairly easily on their CBs, the background noise is fairly low, and it is just your voice that is low in volume, it is a modulation problem.

Until that is known, suggestions on how to fix the problem are hit or miss. Those two problems require two distinctly different troubleshooting approaches.
 
#8 ·
TravelinLite said:
Silverhawk,

It could be the cabling like Greg mentioned. However, that sounds like an issue with the TX section (circuitry) of the radio. Could well be SWR. I have a power/SWR meter that we could check it with, assuming it has the typical CB connectors on it (I don;t have a CB on mine so don't know what the install looks like. I also have a 250W bi-linera amp we could hook up to it to see if it will TX then, but that is not a very good test because you have to de-tune the radio to use that AMP. If TX section is already weak, it won't prove much.

The connectors on the Antenna are different
More like the kind on the back of a stereo rather than the kind you find on the back of a standard CB.
 
#9 ·
LarryM said:
When you are discussing transmitting, the first thing you have to do it determine if it is a transmitting power problem, or a modulation problem, which is easy to do, but you will have to query your friends.

When you key up the mike, do they hear a lot of noise in the background? If so, it is a transmitting problem. If you can break squelch fairly easily on their CBs, the background noise is fairly low, and it is just your voice that is low in volume, it is a modulation problem. Until that is known, suggestions on how to fix the problem are hit or miss. Those two problems require two distinctly different troubleshooting approaches.
Modulation issue: Seems as if this may be the culprit. When transmitting, I can break rcvr squelch and co-riders can hear me. But, the volumn level is very, very, very low ... they can barely hear me close by. When approx 100 feet away, they cannot hear me at all. And I can just barely hear the roger beep. I'm still going to have to do some additional first level trouble-shooting before I can pin the problem to one specific area. However, it may just be a loose connector or a broken pin somewhere. The saga continues. :roll: :lol:
 
#11 ·
My wife has been experiencing the exact same problem intermittently with the J&M 2003 CB on her V-Star for 2 years. We've tried just about everything and still haven't determined the cause. I removed the headset from her helmet and sent it to Sierra Electronics and they replaced the upper cord. It worked OK for a long time and the problem occurred again. This year at Americade a techie from J&M checked the headset and cords and replaced the bottom cord free of charge. Once again it worked OK for a while and then, boom, out of the blue the problem occurred again. My wife and I needed new helmets recently so we both got new J&M headsets for the helmets. We thought that would eliminate the transmit problem for sure but it occurred again on our recent trip to Hal's BBQ. The CB was working great until we arrived at the entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway and all of a sudden the transmit quit Working. We checked all of the connections on my wife's bike and on my bike and it still did not correct the problem. We rode for several miles and checked all the connections and moved the ground wire around a bit and I also cleaned the quick disconnect connection on her antenna and all of a sudden everything was working again. The CB worked fine for the remainder of our trip. At this point, I'm thinking the problem must be somewhere in the the antenna ground. I expect it may work OK for a while but I wouldn't be surprised if it acts up again anytime. If the problem occurs again, the first place I intend to check is the antenna ground.

Good luck with correcting your problem.

Ed
 
#12 ·
SilverHawk said:
LarryM said:
When you are discussing transmitting, the first thing you have to do it determine if it is a transmitting power problem, or a modulation problem, which is easy to do, but you will have to query your friends.

When you key up the mike, do they hear a lot of noise in the background? If so, it is a transmitting problem. If you can break squelch fairly easily on their CBs, the background noise is fairly low, and it is just your voice that is low in volume, it is a modulation problem. Until that is known, suggestions on how to fix the problem are hit or miss. Those two problems require two distinctly different troubleshooting approaches.
Modulation issue: Seems as if this may be the culprit. When transmitting, I can break rcvr squelch and co-riders can hear me. But, the volumn level is very, very, very low ... they can barely hear me close by. When approx 100 feet away, they cannot hear me at all. And I can just barely hear the roger beep. I'm still going to have to do some additional first level trouble-shooting before I can pin the problem to one specific area. However, it may just be a loose connector or a broken pin somewhere. The saga continues. :roll: :lol:
I don't mean to step on any toes here, but if his description is accurate, he does not have a transmit power problem. The antenna and grounds cannot cause a modulation problem.

I would first follow GoldwingGreg's suggestion and swap out the headset by trying a different helmet.

Have you checked to see if mike volume is ok with a passenger headset? If not, when you get a second helmet to test, hook it up to the passenger input. If it is bad there, you can rule out the CB as being a problem.

I am making an assumption here that the CB used to transmit ok with the same headset. If not, let us know.
 
#13 ·
Just had a Honda CB installed by Honda Dealer and had the same problem on my '05 goldwing. Took it back a couple of times to the dealer and it tested ok between bikes in the shop but could not Xmit on the open road, Rec. was great. Finally brought it to a Comm shop and they put the SWR on it, ended cutting off about a half inch off the ant. I can now transmit for almost one mile. I checked with the Honda dealer and was told when they install the ant. they only check it by voice, they do not put a SWR on it.
 
#14 ·
I can understand not checking the SWR when installing the antenna. These bikes are normall ok without it. Most mechanics aren't that savvy when it comes to electronics, especially something old and rare like CB.

But when you take the bike back for a problem and they say they can't find anything wrong with it after not even checking anything, that's a sad statement about that dealer.
 
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