Toyota FJ Cruiser Modifications(Mods) & Information: CB Radio

Monday, May 2, 2011

CB Radio

Well, my dad had an old CB in his shed and I noticed it when I went for a visit. The middle of the antenna was missing a cover and it looked a little old. The cigarette lighter adapter didn't even work and I had to buy one from Radio Shack. I spray painted the antenna flat black. The center was also a copper wire wrapped around a nylon cylinder that had screw threads on both sides. Unfortunately, nylon doesn't hold up very well when screwed into metal. I left the antenna in the back and it snapped the nylon thread after the tire changing place I went to threw my old tires in the back. I then soldered the wire to the top part of the antenna, epoxied over that, wrapped it in wire loom and electrical tape. This wasn't sturdy enough so I bought some heavy duty shrink tubing at Home Depot. This did the trick. I also didn't have a bracket and I wasn't about to dish out over $40 for the Bandi mount. That's the cost of a cheap CB radio! So I took an old piece of metal from my homemade axe and shovel mount and drilled some holes into it to fit the antenna bracket. It fit nicely with a screw that I had to cut to the correct length so that it would not touch the door.

Overall the bracket was flimsy as certain folks pointed out. So I went back to Home Depot and found a much thicker chunk of metal from which I plan on making the next generation bracket.

So a fully functioning CB radio for $11 --> $6 for the cigarette lighter adapter with fuse, $2 bracket and $3 for shrink wrap = $11. Seeing that purchasing a cheap CB is about $30, the bandi mount is $40 and an antenna is another $35 or so, I think I made out. I'm also not planning on using it much so it made sense not to spend $85-$100 for a CB setup. I would also have to tune it, which would cost another $30 or so for an SWR meter. This one was already tuned for the antenna it came with.