My CB blew the inline fuse on the power wire after only 15 minutes of “on” time. I have it wired to plug into the cig lighter. No signs of a short on the wires. Could this be caused by untuned antennae? I’m going to replace the fuse (and tune the antennae) and see what happens.
Eric,
This can happen if your SWR (antenna tunning ) is really bad, no antenna ground or a short in the antenna. all of these will cause more amperage to be drawn then should be. It is possible that the fuse was just old and ready to go… were you able to repeat this with a new fuse? I would also check for a short or bare wire that could short out…
It was a brand new cb. I will replace fuse, tune antenna, and see what happens. When it was on it was not sending or receiving well.
What do you mean by antennae ground? I have a firestik with one of those insulating spacers where its bolted to the bumper.
the bracket itself needs to be grounded to the body or you wont get a good SWR reading. Most brackets are powder coated or painted which wont ground well. I ran a ground wire from the metal to my tub…
rightchannelradios.com/testi … stallation
BTW… you could have a faulty CB radio too