Well I hadn't tried it until you brought it up. I unplugged the external speaker and it sounds surprisingly good without it. I haven't tried it on the highway yet where the external noise would be loudest.

So for now I've taken the external off and put it in the glove box. Can reattach easily later if I need it. That's the magic of Velcro.

Yes, it has screws, but there is no margin to adjust. I think the screws are there just in case someone wants to disassemble it. Comet provides no user manual for this antenna, either with the product or on line.

For those who want more SWR information...

I took a couple readings with the truck outside away from buildings. The SWR is actually better than when I tested stand-alone.

With the short SS460SB, it is 1.3 on both 146 and 446.

With the longer SBB5, it is just under 1.2 on 146 and 1.2 on 446.

On the packaging for both antennas, Comet states the SWR is "less than 1.5". There's not much point in tuning this any further, I suppose.

Definitely not, 1.2:1 is almost perfect, and that extra headache of trying to drop it to a perfect 1.1:1 will gain absolutely nothing.

I've had a TON of Comet and Diamond antennas over the past 20-something years, and of the ones I had to adjust, it was extremely minute for the adjustments. We're talking sixteenths of an inch here! The last one (which I still have somewhere around here) was an SB-10NMO, and IIRC, the adjustment seemed like if I just touched the antenna then took another reading, it would change!

I'm really not very active any more, although I still have my base station ready to go if I ever need it, but I've changed over to just a standard ¼ wave 2 meter antenna and keep a ¼ wave 440 antenna in my truck if I ever need it. For my setup, the ¼ wave gets out extremely well, and if I'm going camping or mountaintopping, I take some super-high gain antennas with me. I've found that even with 50 watts, the Comet and Diamond antennas (at least the older models, maybe they've changed them in the past 10 or so years) would eventually burn up the ceramic caps over time, and the antenna would become "deaf" when this happens. With the ¼ wave whip, I can run my 200 watt amp without any problems, and they are super-easy to tune flat. Just my own experience though, I still like the designs that Comet/Diamond have!

Btw, I have that same SWR meter! Its been going strong for at least 15 years now! It takes a beating (literally!) and continues to work and read antennas perfectly!

Awesome. I was debating whether to order a speaker or not. I'll give it a shot without it then, and hopefully I'll be able to get by without one.

I agree with @flyinhawaiian01 about leaving the antenna the way it is... you've got really good readings there.

I used to mess with CB's a lot of years ago, powered and barefoot.
Some antennas left hardly any room for adjustment when tuning.
One trick we used to do was to clip 1/16" off of antennas to achieve lower SWR's. until we got the readings where desired. Of course this was no whip antennas.

Looks like your set up will serve you well.
Nice job and write-up!

Very nice write up and install.
Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the great write - up I like the approach and that is a great spot for the CB

Some updates after a bit of use.

First, the external speaker. I put it back on because at highways speeds I just couldn't hear. I did get a slightly smaller speaker, though.

Second, the cubbyhole mount. The faceplate was just getting too jiggly for me. So I pulled it out and instead of using a 2x4, I cut down a piece of 2x10 scrap. This means the faceplate now has wood block behind it all the way. I had to drill a hole in the wood for the faceplate wire. Then instead of Velcro I used some Loctite double-sided tape, both to secure the bottom of the block to the cubbyhole and then the faceplate to the block. I also used a sharpie to color the block black around the edges of the faceplate so it would blend in.

Now the thing is totally rock solid. In fact, when I want to remove it, I'm gonna have to work at it.

Did you ever mount your ham radio? I'm interested in the same radio but I'd like to see a clean professional looking installation option.

Nice job. I didn't look at your location until I saw you on 145.145. Howdy from a fellow Denver-ish ham.

The instructions in this thread are exactly what I was looking for. Thanks a ton!

So for the speaker side of HAM I see 4 options...

1. Rely on the built in speaker of the HAM radio.
2. Use a separate speaker which seems to be a popular option.
3. Plug the aux. out to aux. in to use through 4Runner speakers.
4. Bluetooth connection to the 4Runner speakers.

I guess options 3 and 4 could result in feedback or could be annoying having to turn off the radio and go to the specific input within the settings of your 4runner radio receiver each time you want audio.

Thoughts?

I went with option 2 just for the reason you said. I wanted to keep my ham radio completely separate from my truck inputs on the radio. Didn't wanna have the radio on an input just sitting there scanning listening to nothing when I could be jamming out to a good song waiting on some activity from my external speaker.

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I've held off on a speaker for now...mainly cause the Icom 2730a that I have is fairly loud. I have the brains mounted underneath the front passenger seat and I hear all the rag chew in the morning just fine cruising to work on i-70.

I'd suggest waiting on a speaker until you feel you need it. If there is an HRO near you, they have a lot of the mobile units mounted up...so take a listen to see how loud they are with their built in speakers.