Last night I was able to install a new CB on my 2003 Magna. It is a J&M kit, for rider and passenger. I've never had a CB, have only occasionally used one, but bought it to communicate with my lovely passenger (as intercom), and also to prepare for a large group ride I am leading next summer.
So the question is... anyone in the OKC area with a CB, looking for a reason to ride and be a 'CB tester'?
FWIW I recently moved to Norman from Ohio and looking for riding friends anyways. I would join the MOOT gathering, but alas I already have travel plans to visit close friends in Houston.
Hop Along... who is not looking forward to summer if it's gonna be like last August in Oklahoma :???:
I believe Brad is in Norman..
How about a picture or two...???
sounds like fun
Brad is in Norman, we've played a little phone tag but haven't had a chance to meet up yet
Pics, I can do that tomorrow... ;-)
Hop Along
Okay, so the decision was made to purchase a CB kit for my 2003 Magna. I'd kept an eye out for new, or little used, Valk units but they weren't to be found on ebay. So doing some research, and recommendations from friends, brought me to the J&M 2003CB kit, for rider and passenger, with intercom. Additionally, I like this unit for the ability to recieve NOAA Weather channels.
We also bought an inline volume control (I'm hard of hearing, SO is not). The kit also comes with the ability to plug in your Ipod, phone, etc for music.
First Photo: it has a handy handlebar mount for the CB unit itself, with a small Push To Talk button operated by the left index finger.
Here it is on my handle bar... please forgive the somewhat temporary looking wiring and zip ties... I'm also working on my gastank and fitting to make sure the kit works...:
Second photo:Here is some of the wiring and (I guess) relay type box, nestled in the little space that is above the front of the airbox, and between the two little black plastic covers (the ones with one screw holding them on... don't lose that screw. Trust me ). Also in that space is the ballast for the HID bulb I put in after Christmas... little silver box under the other wires. The Big Silver BNC looking connector is a Big Silver BNC connector for the antenna..:
Third Photo: Wired up (temporarily for now.. ) is part of the Antenna. They have a new antenna they call 'Flexpower' which is a little black box (held on with big zipties at the moment) with a small wire coming out of it... the small wire runs up the side of the hondaline windscreen. This photo is taken from the left side of the bike (clutch lever side):
Fourth Photo: And finally, this photo is also from the left side of the bike, but looking at where the seat usually is. The headset is iwred into my open face helmet, with coiled cord and volume control.. Also barely visible is the mini jack for auxilliary sound. There is also a little silver box... a fuse box that I put in place under a Mustang seat.. now that I know it fits-its been there for over a year with no wear on it, I now need to wire things through that because the battery terminals are a little crowded...
There are some extra length to the headset cords and such; they were routed into the tool box and owners manual box next to the battery. Those items were moved long ago to a more accessible spot because I tend to use them alot. Or, at least the toolkit. It now lives in a toolpouch under the headlight.
I am still working on the gastank, so I cn't report on the quality of the unit... I tried to mimic the sound of whooshing air in my garage, but it's just not the same. I can say the auxilliary sound was good. There are better quality speakers available but I don't plan on listening to music much... just communicating. however the unit is not recieving either the NOAA weather channels, or CB. I had initial concerns about the quality of the antenna, but NOT wanting to deal with a 3' antenna or anything else helped me build up the courage to try this antenna. There is alot about the quality of tuning CB antennas that is important... the Flexpower antenna is 'pre tuned'. So this morning I Talked to a J&M technician on the phone. His assistance was two questions:
"Everythings plugged in and the bike is on?" Of course its on... the auxillliary sound works. And yes it's plugged in, double checked that.
"The antenna ground is secured and tight?" Yes, its grounded with another grounded unit... but I will double check.
Other than that he said to send in the antenna no questions asked. So I will try to re-locate the ground and try again, if no luck, back to J&M it goes.
I do wish I knew someone with a CB I test locally with ... I'm 5+miles from the interstate... and as for the weather radio, I can recieve 2 channels in my garage on my little windup radio, I would like to think I could get at least 1 channel with this kit...
So, stay tuned. Gas Tank should be ready for gas Saturday and I will debate in the meantime about shipping the antenna back ASAP, or waiting till after the weekend. problem with waiting, is I have my first road trip in 10 days...
.. and yes, there is even a good view of the slight oily weeping syndrome that seems toe emanate from the airbox ;)
Hop Along
I see you have the air cleaner oil seep... How many miles are on the bike?
at 96,000 miles. Bought very lightly used at 7,206.4 miles. I am looking to get to 107206.4 miles this summer... it will be a stretch but is a goal nonetheless ;-)
I do have to admit, my airbox has a screw or two missing (I had to cut them off after over tightening them cleaning the air filter... ) and the mounting points that hold the fake chrome covers on the side, below the gas tank... those mounts are broken, but there are other reasons for that.
Hop Along
It's just something gen3's seem to do after about 70K miles... My last Magna had more than 80K and it weeped some, and was getting a little worse over time...
Someone suggested a little ring blow by, but I don't know...
Quote from: hootmon on May 16, 2012, 08:30:37 PM
It's just something gen3's seem to do after about 70K miles... My last Magna had more than 80K and it weeped some, and was getting a little worse over time...
Someone suggested a little ring blow by, but I don't know...
Huuuhhhh, after 70k,,,, mine has done it since I bought it at 8K, at 27K now. I bit of silicone on the front left corner of the airbox minimizes it for me.
front left corner sure sounds right! And is also why the CB cables all run along the other side of the bike, to stay clean ;-)
So I've been tinkering with the antenna location a bit. I had the ground strap attached to the frame at the same location as my HID lights; I moved it and the mere fact that the ground cable no longer ran on top of the HID ballast seems to have helped.. some. I did find that if I hold the antenna cables and connector in my hand, at *just* the right spot, I can get the great reception I expect. But then I'm not very likely to do that while actually riding.
In discussion with another friend another idea came up. Lots of our discussion focused around our experiences as technicians in the entertainment industry: all the sound equipment in a theatre needs to be on a separate grounding circuit from all of the lighting equipment. The lights draw so much power through the system and have constantly changing levels... and the sound equipment, while also having constantly changing levels, is working with much smaller voltages ( often, millivolts). so we got to talking about isolating a ground on the Magna to use just for the CB. But how they heck does one do that on a motorcycle!?!
then the discussion went back to the HID... which is a hi-lo type bulb... which has a small electromagnet that moves the bulb into the right position in the reflector housing. And so the thought came up: "the electromagnet may be the issue, not the HID ballast".
So this morning I removed the Hi-Lo bulb and put in a lo-only bulb. Helped only very marginally... .and to boot, my hand holding the cable trick isn't working anymore :-\
So I think it's time to mail back the antenna, and hope I get one back before I leave next week on my first summer road trip.
Hop Along
Antenna issues are a complex problem. The "whip" antenna you probably have was, quite likely, designed assuming an infinite, flat, ground plane. Of course, no one has such a nice setup. An antenna in the center of an automobile roof is a reasonable approximation, but there is no way a bike can come close.
Antennas are simple devices, mechanically. It is highly unlikely that a replacement antenna of the same type will behave differently than the one you have.
It is unlikely that a separate ground will help much. Neither will the magnetic field from the HID light have much effect in either direction, since it is a static (DC) field, at least in comparison to the 27 MHz CB fields you are trying to receive.
IMO, the best you will do is to get a solid connection to the frame of the bike, with as few intermediate bolts, nuts, chromed pieces, etc. intervening as feasible. The negative battery terminal is a good place to look, or the (common) ground point where the negative battery cable attaches.
As for holding the ground cable in your hand, that provides a "connection" (capacitive) to your body, which can enhance the reception. The enhancement is probably directional, meaning that reception will be better from some directions, worse from others. Interesting, but, as you point out, not really helpful.
Indeed, the antenna has been sent back to J&M. Meanwhile I am leaving on my first summer trip, and will not have the CB/Weather radio available, though intercom and music will be available.
Good thing the only weather expected on this trip is high's of 90's and little chance for rain....
Iragan, the antenna is actually a different style. It comes pre tuned (which I was, and am, still doubting for effectiveness... but will keep an open mind if it turns out to be a single faulty unit or error on my part). It is a small box, with connectors and a grounding strap. Then it has a small wire:
http://www.jmcorp.com/ProductDetail.asp?ProductID=FPA-HCCB
yes... it says it's for certain Harley models but is designed for those and the J&M factory CB kit.
I will be sure to get back to the forum after a bit and post a follow up... meanwhile my best wishes on this Memorial Day Weekend
Hop Along
Thinking about the ground plane that Lawrence discussed, I had a magnetic antenna on my VW bug... If you had one of these, you could stick it to the middle of the tank...
Yeah yeah, it would be in the way, but it would probably work pretty well! LOL
Quote from: hop along on May 22, 2012, 07:53:40 PM
Indeed, the antenna has been sent back to J&M. Meanwhile I am leaving on my first summer trip, and will not have the CB/Weather radio available, though intercom and music will be available.
Good thing the only weather expected on this trip is high's of 90's and little chance for rain....
Iragan, the antenna is actually a different style. It comes pre tuned (which I was, and am, still doubting for effectiveness... but will keep an open mind if it turns out to be a single faulty unit or error on my part). It is a small box, with connectors and a grounding strap. Then it has a small wire:
http://www.jmcorp.com/ProductDetail.asp?ProductID=FPA-HCCB
yes... it says it's for certain Harley models but is designed for those and the J&M factory CB kit.
I will be sure to get back to the forum after a bit and post a follow up... meanwhile my best wishes on this Memorial Day Weekend
Hop Along
Thanks for the link, Hop Along. This is, indeed, a different beast. As it is designed to run in a fairing, it should not be routed along a metal surface, frame, etc. At least the antenna, and possibly the three coax leads from the box, should be well away from metal. (at least six inches, hopefully more).
If I interpret your pics correctly, you have the antenna mounted up the windscreen, which is about the best you can do on a Magna, IMO.
You would probably like the results better with a "center tuned" short whip mounted to a luggage rack at the back. These are the short CB antennas with a "fat" portion in the middle (which houses a tuning coil). Some folks mount two of these, in an attempt to provide additional gain along the axis of the bike, but I doubt it buys much, because they cannot be separated far enough to have much directional effect. (Mounted to opposite sides of a truck tractor, they may extend the range along the road by as much as 30%, but marketers often claim much more, and neglect to mention that separation is key...)
The fairing antenna is an attempt to provide performance in a hidden antenna, for cosmetic reasons. There is an inevitable compromise between performance and cosmetics, even if you have a plastic fairing to mount it in.
Well, current update is that after one technician gave me notice (when I called) that they would be looking at the returned antenna in the next day-and that I should call back to find out the result (not my idea of great customer service, but hey its busy time I can understand that).
So when I called back a day later, another sales rep took my number to look into it. Then he called me back a few hours later to say it would probably be 1-2 weeks before they could look into it. They did not have much to offer in the way of other troubleshooting tips.
So... hurry up and wait. :(
Glad I actually tried to plan ahead... it's next summer that I'm really needing to use a CB.
Hop Along