has anyone ever connected their CB radio power source directly to the interior fuse box vs the batter? The directions for the radio say the unit can only be connected directly to the battery. Power cables are red and black, not long enough to reach the battery without extending the cables. A guy at VIP recommended connecting the positive cable to one of the fuses in the interior fuse box and connecting the negative to the metal bolt in the fuse box. Would this be alright or would doing so damage the radio?

 

I always fuse mine, Most radios have an inline fuse. what model you got?

 

my power cable does not have a inline fuse. Is that required when extending the power cable to the battery? A video I saw on youtube a guy demonstrates how he wired his radio to the battery and he had a inline fuse on the cable.

On another not some people say that if you wire the radio to the interior fusebox instead of directly to the battery that it will effect audio quality and performance. Is this true?

 

On some vehicles you need to run an RFI filter. You can pick up interference from alternators,fuel pumps, coils stuff like that. My friend would always wire his transceiver directly to the batt, so that he could listen to net traffic from his truck all the time, If you straight wire it then yea its a good idea to put an inline fuse on it. they sell inline fuse holders at all auto parts stores. some radios will have more than one fuse sometimes an inline, internal and external on back usually. but you should always fuse it. when i was a teenager i almost burnt my bronco down from not using a fuse on a cb. I would buy some wire and an inline fuse holder from advanced auto. You'll know if you need an RFI filter if you can hear distortion while the truck is running opposed to no interference when the truck is off with radio on. you may pick up some RFI by wiring into an on-board fuse. I've always preferred running a "staight-wire" (inline fuse) to the batt.

 

Well i got the radio working and your input was much appreciated. Unfortunately I did not have all the materials needed to feed the power supply from the radio directly to the battery. So I connected the positive power supply wire from the radio to cigarette lighter jack fuse, and I connected the negative wire from the radio to the bolt that holds the interior fuse panel in place. Then I worked the radio to antenna cable up and behind all the interior trim all the way the back of the truck where it can be connected to the antenna. Still waiting for the prototype antenna mount I ordered to arrive. Im going to try and rig the mount to the spare tire mount and feed the cable through the cargo door using the hole provided for the washer fluid hose. Radio has power when the truck is on so next will be figuring out how to properly tune the antenna and finding a good spot to attach the little metal clip that holds the mic.

Thanks again for your help.

 

Don't try to transmit without an antenna.

 

Why what will happen? I pressed the talk button a couple times and ranted just to see if there was a speaker or anything. Did not hear anything.

 

Hopefully won't hurt anything. But there is a chance it could burn out the transmitter. Or so "they" say.

 

But there is a chance it could burn out the transmitter. x2

 

Cool, post pics when your done, Im thinking about putting an icom in mine when i get my tax money. If you want better range look into Linear Amplifiers(look up FCC Regs.) SWR meters are cheap, it's pretty easy to tune.