CB Radio not transmitting

My radio shack Model: TRC-503 CB radio with a standard ball mount for the antenna does not transmit anything. I can receive transmissions fine but when I go to talk all you here on other radios is a bunch of squeelin. I have messed with the squelch and volume and the ground on the ball mount seems fine.

When I installed it, I did not hook a SWR meter to it. Does anyone know if I have to hook one up to calibrate the radio?

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Can you post your findings once you figured out what it is? I have a like problem in that if we are all in a parking lot together all they hear is a squeel no matter how I have stuff set then magically out on the trail I come in loud and clear about half the time.

let use know what fixed it mine started it at the end of the last ride. But I feel I have the wrong anntena I have a non grounded anntena and I think when it started wiping around it grounded itself. I not sure if I mess up the radio or not I have to get a new anntena for sure.

I would check all your antenna contections. Normally something gets loose or the antenna goes bad. The saying goes "its better to have a cheap radio and a nice antenna than and spending it all on the radio" Just my two cents.

The problem of squealing when your near the rest of the group is caused by feed back. If you have mike gain on your CB turn it down when close to others.

If you are far away from others and all they hear is a squeal it could be your microphone or it's connection try keying up and while talking wiggle the mike connection if others hear your squeal intermittently it's the connection. That plug takes a lot of abuse on a trail-ride, and I've personally never really liked the type of plug that Radio Shack uses.

You should allways have your antenna tuned "adjusted" for your radio but unless you've had your radio modified, the low power of a factory radio won't burn your transmit finals as long as your cable is good and your antenna mounted correctly. You will not have the optimum range when transmitting but that doesn't matter when talking with your group. Adjusting your antenna's SWR has nothing to do with how well you receive.

Any other radio questions just ask, Ex AF avionics radio tech and CB junkie long before I owned a car.

Hope this helps
Scott

I have a cobra nighthawk (whole front back lights white at night)...

It had a similiar issue... turned out to be a problem with the transmit circuit itself in the CB... I could recieve just fine (about 1.5 miles of reception) but transmit nothing.

Went to bass pro and bought a new cobra cb for $50... now it works great (didn't even have to tune the antenna again).

I have heard TA truck stops service antenna tuning... but not sure about CB repair. They could at least test it for you though.

Tony

mrjeepy wrote:

I have heard TA truck stops service antenna tuning... but not sure about CB repair. They could at least test it for you though.

Tony

Some do, not all it just depends because the CB shops in Truck-stops rent space, but that is a good place to start, the nearest T/S.
Some shops are good, some will rip you off but any should be able to do a bench test of your radio.