HELP:Electrical CB Radio Problems

[CanuckinTX]

Hello Yall,

I am trying to install my CB radio and run power to it. I tried using the smokers wires to do so. I cut the pink wire with the blue strip and the white wire with a black strip from the connector. I then crimped the CB power wire to the pink wire and the negative to the white wire. Once I powered the truck on it did not power on and blew the inline fuse on the CB wire. Then I switched the wires around in case of a problem with polarity and then blew another fuse. I have not done anything else yet anyone have any advice?

Thanks
Sam

 

[gm350reratliff]

Are you blowing the fuse supplied with the CB or the fuse for the cigarette lighter? That circuit might not supply enough amperage for some radios. If you’re just blowing the fuse supplied with the cb, you may have a wiring issue, connection at the radio or a problem with the radio itself.

 

[Bumbo]

Things to consider:

• Arbitrarily swapping polarity may permanently damage the radio if it does not have input protection for reverse polarity.
  
• Test the radio with a direct connection (though the radios fuse) to a 12v battery to see if normal operation resumes.
  
• Look at the box or the back/bottom of the radio to see what types of amperage rating it has.
  
• Radios should not use much of any amperage unless it is transmitting, so your issues may not be related to high currents.
  
• You may have an internal fault in the radio if its blowing a fuse immediately upon connection.
  

 

[CanuckinTX]

Are you blowing the fuse supplied with the CB or the fuse for the cigarette lighter? That circuit might not supply enough amperage for some radios. If you’re just blowing the fuse supplied with the cb, you may have a wiring issue, connection at the radio or a problem with the radio itself.

It is the inline fuse for the cb

 

[Bumbo]

It is the inline fuse for the cb

What is the rating on that fuse?

 

[AuSeeker]

Since no one else has asked, have you tested the wires with a multimeter to make sure which wires is hot/+ and which is ground/-?

IMHO no electrical work should be done without using a multimeter!

 

[CanuckinTX]

Since no one else has asked, have you tested the wires with a multimeter to make sure which wires is hot/+ and which is ground/-?

IMHO no electrical work should be done without using a multimeter!

Yes that was the first thing we did forgot to mention that.

 

[Powder_Hound]

I ran an add a circuit to an empty “always on” circuit within my fuse box on the kick panel. This allowed the power for CB to be isolated and on separate circuit which helped simplify matching correct fuse size for CB.

 

[81runner]

Getting here a little late, but last time I messed with a cb in a vehicle, it was a pretty substantial load to power the built in amplifier. A lighter wire won't cut it at all, that circuit is too small to power a cb.

 

[Bumbo]

Getting here a little late, but last time I messed with a cb in a vehicle, it was a pretty substantial load to power the built in amplifier. A lighter wire won't cut it at all, that circuit is too small to power a cb.

Yes, true, but unless the failure is happening at transmit, the radio should be able to turn on and be idle and listen to stations until you hit the TX button.

Most my radios all use < 1 amp idle or in receive.

 

[Ausumm]

I originally went thru the fuse box with mine.
Ran it direct to the battery to eliminate noise.
Turns out the problem was the "computer" in my new head unit.
(I play songs off a USB stick)

 

[CanuckinTX]

What is the rating on that fuse?

3 volts 250 amps

 

[TowMeOut]

3 volts 250 amps

I'm assuming that's 3amps, 250 volts.....A 250A is more than double your alternator output.

Let me see if I'm getting this right. You checked polarity of the power with a meter then attached the power cord for the CB. When you powered up the truck it popped the inline fuse in the cord. Then "just in case" the polarity was backwards you swapped it around to no effect (popped the fuse again).

CB radios are limited by law to less than 5 watts. Wikipedia lists the max at 4 with a max of 16W for the single side band. Even with a really inefficient transmitter that shouldn't pull more than 3 amps (36watts) so I'd guess that fuse is sized appropriately. That power plug should easily provide enough current for that purpose. Most of the radios I've had in the past came with a lighter adapter cord, made to plug right into the socket.

Was this a new or older radio? Maybe it's been bouncing around the bottom of a storage bin for a while and ended up with some debris in the power or microphone connection. A short might explain popping the fuse the first go around. I hope that the polarity swap simply popped the fuse and didn't do any permanent damage.

I'd try and get my hands on another cord for the unit and go straight to a battery. If it blows the fuse again I'd guess it's toast. These days you can't afford to have most units like this serviced.

 

[CanuckinTX]

I'm assuming that's 3amps, 250 volts.....A 250A is more than double your alternator output.

Let me see if I'm getting this right. You checked polarity of the power with a meter then attached the power cord for the CB. When you powered up the truck it popped the inline fuse in the cord. Then "just in case" the polarity was backwards you swapped it around to no effect (popped the fuse again).

CB radios are limited by law to less than 5 watts. Wikipedia lists the max at 4 with a max of 16W for the single side band. Even with a really inefficient transmitter that shouldn't pull more than 3 amps (36watts) so I'd guess that fuse is sized appropriately. That power plug should easily provide enough current for that purpose. Most of the radios I've had in the past came with a lighter adapter cord, made to plug right into the socket.

Was this a new or older radio? Maybe it's been bouncing around the bottom of a storage bin for a while and ended up with some debris in the power or microphone connection. A short might explain popping the fuse the first go around. I hope that the polarity swap simply popped the fuse and didn't do any permanent damage.

I'd try and get my hands on another cord for the unit and go straight to a battery. If it blows the fuse again I'd guess it's toast. These days you can't afford to have most units like this serviced.

My dad is an EE and brought home a DC power supply and we hooked the CB to that and had no issues so luckily I did no damage to the CB. It did not blow the fuse when we hooked it up to the power supply.

 

[n2jwc]

I'm assuming that's 3amps, 250 volts.....A 250A is more than double your alternator output.

Let me see if I'm getting this right. You checked polarity of the power with a meter then attached the power cord for the CB. When you powered up the truck it popped the inline fuse in the cord. Then "just in case" the polarity was backwards you swapped it around to no effect (popped the fuse again).

CB radios are limited by law to less than 5 watts. Wikipedia lists the max at 4 with a max of 16W for the single side band. Even with a really inefficient transmitter that shouldn't pull more than 3 amps (36watts) so I'd guess that fuse is sized appropriately. That power plug should easily provide enough current for that purpose. Most of the radios I've had in the past came with a lighter adapter cord, made to plug right into the socket.

Was this a new or older radio? Maybe it's been bouncing around the bottom of a storage bin for a while and ended up with some debris in the power or microphone connection. A short might explain popping the fuse the first go around. I hope that the polarity swap simply popped the fuse and didn't do any permanent damage.

I'd try and get my hands on another cord for the unit and go straight to a battery. If it blows the fuse again I'd guess it's toast. These days you can't afford to have most units like this serviced.

You got that right, especially if it is a newer CB. Just not worth the fix.

I will have to agree, I have some ham (amateur) radio buddies who run 25W 2-meter rigs off the cig plug without problems. It isn't perfect and can introduce some noise, however it should easily power the CB. And as other have stated, in receive only mode you should be less than 1A of current.

A multimeter would help for both voltage and current measurements.

John