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What kind of antenna do you have ? If it a fiberglass whip you may or may not have a tuning rod that may be in the tip of the antenna. If you have a metal antenna then you should be able to adjust it . First,get an external SWR meter and attach it to your radio with a 12" section of jumper coax from the radio to the transmitter side of the meter then your antenna coax goes to the other connector. Now loosen the tuning rod using the alan wrench and set screws on the antenna. Next , place the whip or rod to the bottom and bring it 1/4 " then key you radio and check your swr on channel 1/40/and 19. Write down the numbers you get and then readjust and recheck it. Always writing down the results until you are at least a 1.5:1.
I took a "Pringles chip" rounded container and wound 8.25 ft of fine copper wire around it from top to bottom with a screw up top(bore into cardboard) holding it in place, and a***Shiny" screw **attached to the metal bottom. Then i took 8.25 ft. and placed it inside of the Pringles can. I punched a hole into the plastic lid and pulled through the wire to go to ANTENNA INPUT. Sitting it on top of the radio I let the metal bottom touch the GROUND by a screw. I keyed the radio it matched the same as my Antenna did. It keyed the exact same 1.5 watts and swinging to 4 watts when I whistled on my PC68Xl Uniden 40 ch. CB radio. Make sure both ends are stripped of enamel coating by scraping it off. I use a cigarette lighter for this or my teeth, or rough sandpaper, or nail polisher. The screw up top of canister is not important --it just holds the wire,so to easy wound the wire. I gapped it about 1 inch apart between windings.
Go to CH 20 and set radio SWR switch to CAL. (The RF only reduces receiver sensitivity to limit meter needle damage from very high power radios.) Key mic and use the SWR dial to move meter to the "set" mark on the meter. Now set the switch to SWR and key mic. The meter should be below 2 for a good match or below 3 for a fair match. If needle goes into the red or above 4 the antenna will have to be adjusted by using an allen wrench. If SWR it too high the antenna wire will have to be lowered. If it is already as low as possible you may have to trim a minute amount off the wire antenna at the bottom end. Do not trim at the top where there is often a small ball on the end. Before doing any cutting you should get another SWR meter to put in line between the radio and antenna to be sure where the problem is. Also double check all the connections. Make sure the inside wire of the coax is not shorted to the ground side. Sometimes people will forget the nylon insulators when assembling the antenna to the clamps. The lead center wire goes on the bottom bolt using a blue eye connector below the nylon insulators on both sides of the clamp plate. The shielding should be twisted and attached to the mounting plate using a yellow eye connector. Soldering the wire into the eye connectors is recommended. The center wire should not be touching any grounds.
Locate and remove two (2) phillips screws that secure the top of the plastic panel that surrounds the radio. The plastic dash panel will pull off once the screws are removed as shown in the photo above. The front of the radio is held in with two (2) 7mm bolt screws at the top of the radio. Remove the 2 bolt screws. There is a hidden radio that secures the rear of the radio and is located under the radio. Pull the ashtray to its extended position. You will need to lay on your back or side and look behind the ashtray, up to the bottom of the radio. Once the ashtray has been pull to its extended position, you should be able to locate and remove one (1) 7mm bolt screw as seen in the photo above. Once all screws have been removed, the radio can then be removed. Pull firmly on the radio to remove it from the dash. The radio will most likely resist pulling from the dash. The antenna cable which plugs into the rear of the radio is very short and gives the radio resistance when trying to pull the radio out of the dash. Continue to pull firmly and the antenna cable will unplug itself as the radio is pulled from the dash. Unplug (1) blue, (1) white, and (1) black wire harness connector(s) from the rear of the radio. There will also be wires extending from the rear of the radio with a plastic connector attached to the wires about 4 inches from the rear of the radio. Unplug this small connector. The radio can now be completely removed from the dash. Set it aside. You will need to remove the plastic brackets attached to the top and bottom of the GM radio. This will be shown in detail in the "Mount New Radio" section.
THE OLDSMOBILE ALERO DONT HAVE A EXTERNAL ANTENNA MAST. THE OLDS ALERO HAVE WIRE GRID ANTENNA INCORPORATED INTO THE DEFOGGER GRID IN THE REAR WINDOW.THE GRID ANTENNA HAVE A REAR WINDOW ANTENNA MODULE MOUNTED BEHIND TOP OF THE REAR SEAT BACK. THE RADIO ANTENNA CABLE GOES TO ANTENNA MODULE LOCATED TOP OF THE REAR SEAT BACK.
After installing the antenna, follow these steps to adjust the standing wave ratio(SWR). 1. Turn on the CB. 2. Set S/RF/SWR/CAL to CAL. 3. Key the Mic and rotate SWR CAL so the meter points to CAL. 4. Unkey Mic. 5. Set S/RF/SWR/CAL to SWR. 6. Key Mic again and note the actual measurement on the SWR scale. Refer to the following table to interpret the reading.
1:1 - 1.5 Great 1.5 - 2:1 OK 2:1 - 3:1 Not So Good Higher than 3.1:1 Terrible
The ideal standing wave ratio (SWR) is 1:1, or a meter reading of 1 on the SWR meter's top scale. A SWR ratio of 1.5:1 to 2:1 is excellent for most mobile CB antenna applications.
Check the SWR on Channel 1 and Channel 40 If the SWR is higher on 1, make the antenna longer If the SWR is higher on 40, make the antenna shorter Most antenna's are adjustable. Make small adjustments at a time.
Remove rear retaining screws of RH front wheel splash shield for access to antenna lower retaining bolt.
Remove lower retaining bolt.
Remove radio antenna nut (18865) from top of motor tube and remove electric antenna through fender/splash shield access.
Disconnect signal cable and motor wire connector(s).
Installation
To install, reverse Removal procedure.
Tighten top radio antenna nut to 6-8 Nm (54-70 lb-in).
Tighten lower electric antenna retaining bolt to 5.8-7.8 Nm (51-69 lb-in).
Check operation of electric antenna and radio chassis .
Automatic Electric Antenna
mast
Mast, Power
NOTE: A power antenna mast which is bent or broken can be replaced without replacing the motor and tube assembly. Removal
Remove radio antenna nut (18865) and radio antenna stanchion (18919) .
Loosen retaining nut inside tube using 14 mm (9/16 inch) socket, and slide nut part-way up mast.
Raise antenna to run plastic drive wire at bottom of mast out of motor. Note direction of teeth on plastic drive wire.
Saw off damaged portion of antenna mast. Remove burrs from mast and slide nut and contact tube off stationary tube.
Installation
With the teeth on the plastic drive wire facing toward motor on antenna, push end of plastic drive wire of replacement mast assembly down into tube. Push it around curve at bottom of tube until end enters drive mechanism.
Run motor down while pushing on plastic drive wire until about 305 mm (12 inch) of wire has been drawn into the tube. Stop motor and insert bottom of antenna mast into tube. Lower mast.
Slide contact tube and radio antenna nut down antenna mast. Tighten nut to 0.45 Nm (4 lb-in).
Raise and lower antenna several times to ensure proper operation.
Check your antenna. Make sure it is getting a proper ground. If mag mount; make sure base of antenna and where you put it are both super clean. Check where whip goes into coil or base. Make sure all allen screws are tight and whip is not either all the way down to the base or up to the top. If antenna is mounted; make sure that it has a good ground. You might have to remove some paint around the base to get a good connection. DO NOT TRANSMIT WITH A HIGH SWR. YOU CAN BURN OUT THE EXPENSIVE POWER OUTPUT TRANSISTOR. Hope it helps.
Tom
Make sure your Antenna SWR reading is 1:2 or better, also have your antenna as hish as possible with a sufficient groundplane and remember that indoor antennas will not be anywhere as efficient as an outdoor one. If you have lots of surrounding buildings or trees this can effect your TX and RX.
Hello richf, With out a complete rundown of what you have, I'm sort of guessing here, but I'd say offhand that you are not using a base antenna. Most "full waves" are usually mobile fiberglass antennas. If this the case, Get the antenna above the metal siding, you might be getting a "reflection" back from the metal skin and causing a extreme high SWR which will cause damage to your radio, from a short period of talking. Either go higher up to clear the siding or put up a mast pipe and order or buy an Antron 1/2 wave base antenna. Those are a 3 piece fiberglass base ant. that is tunable for different situations. Run roughly about $50.00 but solves so many problems,,,Let me know more info and I'll try to help the best I can,,, Mechanic
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