cb problems

90 royale the cb seems to come on but can't get anything out of it. the channels show up on the display. everything is plugged in and wires look good. speakers work for the radio. don't know what else to try. . bike has 185 k on it

Might be a dumb question, But have you checked your squelch setting and made sure it is turned right down? The more it is turned up the stronger the signal coming in needs to be for the radio to respond.

If you have not already tried it disconnect your antenna lead from the antenna splitter box and test from the center pin on the connector to the tip of the antenna. You will have some resistance but it should be relatively low. An open circuit here would make your radio seem pretty dead except for very strong signals that mange to get through.

If you substituted the antenna for a fiberglass type at some time check continuity from the base of the antenna to the tip and flex the antenna while doing this. Fiberglass antennas have a thin wire wound up the shaft which is soldered to the threaded base. It is not uncommon for this wire to break away from the base.

Last try connecting the antenna directly to the CB bypassing the splitter by either using an adapter to fit the cable directly to the CB or by running another cable from the antenna to the radio. For simple testing purposes cable length is not important (as a matter of fact some exports claim it is not important at all while others claim it is).

A point of interest Some radio exports claim, that on vehicles with little or no ground plane, performance can be improved upon by installing a full 18 foot length of CB coax cable and bundling (not coiling ) the surplus into skein type bundle and tucking it away somewhere. The added outer coax is supposed to help create a better ground plane.

Another possibility.. Did you know about the button that switches from headset to speakers? You could be sending the sound to the headsets

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Ben

Prairiehammer suggested I do that to my VR. I coiled the extra cable in a figure 8 under the seat. Taped it down. My CB performance increased dramatically! From what the manufacturer said, the antenna and the cable are pre-tuned at the factory....so if you install it as is...you are pretty close already. My SWR tests came out very nice!

fwiw...