Just bought a firestik II, and I need to tune it to my cb. Does anyone know of any shops or stores in the hampton roads area that does tuning? I called radio shack, they said they don't know how to do it. Am I better off just buying an SWR meter?

 

Nobody knows?

 

If you have somebody with a SWR meter that should do, but a spec-an would be best. I "might" be able to borrow a spectrum analyzer from work and tune it to your freq range. 26.965-27.405MHz. Where are you located?

 

i don't know if they are still around, but Signal's out @ Frank's truck stop out near chesapeake/suffolk should have one. i loaned-out my SWR meter quite some time ago.

not to cross you, jay, but how does the spectrum analyzer tune antennae? does it/would it require the use of a sig gen in order to test the SWRs anyway? just wondering...did years of CB tuning, just never used a spectrum analyzer.

 

Our spec-an's have a built in tracking generator and you run that through a bridge that is tied back into the input. The output of the bridge hooks into the antenna. Of course, I would use a 6db attenuator pad in-line to the output of the spec-an's tracking generator so that any reception from stray RF doesn't blow out the spec-an.

Basically, you set the 1:1 2:1 and 3:1 VSWR reference levels with 50, 100, and 150 ohm resistors at the end of the cable to calibrate the entire line up to the antenna connection.

Shooting antennas is fun. I even have a HP 7475A Plotter so that you can keep the sweeps on paper. Sort of like a dyno-plot, haha.

 

yeah, i like that kinda stuff, but have never used a configuration as such. i just used meager little SWR meters to calibrate WIlson 1000's and K40's and such. never had the need to run that much equipment for CB...even when i've talked with 'heat'.

 

Ya it's overkill but still neat to see and play with RF theory. =)

 

true.

 

signals is still there...

 

cool! i need a radio fixed...need sideband and swing kit installed.