How to ground a CB antenna With Best Installation Process

If you have a question about how to ground a CB antenna there have many things that come to. 

Ground a CB antenna from in that word we will know about how we properly Ground CB Radio Antenna and it is explicitly important for a CB radio if you want to get better performance from your CB radio. 

We use CB radio in Car, Motorcycle, RV, Yacht, and Also home, so we need to know how to properly install a CB antenna? How To Ground A CB Antenna?

How do you understand your CB Antenna is already well Grounded? Okay, to check this you need a multimeter or SWR meter to test SWR (Standing Wave Ratio). Is it too high or okay? 

So how do we test SWR? The Multimeter has two probes one is Red and another is Black.

We need to test the Multimeter first so two probes get together and look at the meter display. If the meter needle moves on the right way it’s okay, else meter needle movement is little or doesn’t move oh should need to change the multimeter.

However, take a good multimeter and the first probe connect where it touches your CB antenna mount.

Be careful don’t touch the car body only touch the mount section lower flat surface and the second probe connects a good ground like a battery negative terminal or touches a metal that has a good ground. 

After that look at the multimeter display if meter needle movement is much on the right way great your grounding system is well connected otherwise if you get some unexpected results, need to re-grounded it properly. So Let’s Start…

• What is the CB antenna Ground Plane?
• Best place to mount a CB antenna
• What Materials Need For CB Radio Grounding
• How to ground a CB antenna Properly?
• Bottom Line

What is the CB antenna Ground Plane?

A CB radio ground plane means a reflective unit while the antenna is the reactive unit that is most suitable for grounding a CB antenna. 

Almost all vehicles use the car metal part as a ground plane like the car body, bumper, and Chassis. There has some system that does not need a ground plane because instead of a ground plane, they use the coaxial cable’s shield.

Most of the time we are making a mistake mixing ground plane and no ground plane hardware. We should keep in mind that ground plane hardware and no ground system hardware are not interchangeable.

What is the best place to mount a CB antenna properly?

The first thing we need to decide is where we will mount my CB radio Antenna.

When we do install a CB antenna keep in mind how easily we get a grounding plane, like installing an antenna near battery negative terminal or best car metal ground plane.

You may be interested in fixing radio reception problem in a car

• Car Roof 

That’s the best place ever to install and ground your antenna because you will get great ground surface coverage here. If you want a good strong signal you will install the antenna on the roof.

When you install the antenna on the Trunk lid, Fender, Bumper, or other places in your car you will get a weaker signal than the rooftop.

• Trunk Lid

Trunk Lid is also a better place for a ground antenna. There has a many metal parts car body. A screw behind the trunk lid will be a perfect location for grounding the CB antenna.

The thing to be bothered is the hinges pose, hinges possibly won’t get a proper ground but we can fix it by taking some straps, to attach strap one on the trunk lid section and another one on the frame.

• Bumper/ Fender

The antenna can be installed on the front side Fender Or Bumper panel but we will get a few weaker signals than the roof. However, If you have to decide a Magnetic Mount CB Radio Antenna Install on the bumper that should not be a good decision.

What Materials Need For CB Radio Grounding:

How to ground a CB antenna Properly? With the Best Installation Process.

Before diving into the full process some important points we should be remembered

• Keep the ground bond section dry.
• Use rust preventing process for the grounding bond section.
• Make sure to clean the grounding strap bonding section periodically.
• When we test continuity to make sure to plug out the coaxial cable cause if it is plugged in and test then we get some unexpected readings.

Today we will show you install a Firestik CB Radio Antenna a jeep wrangler also make a clean ground. 

For this installation, we use the JK antenna mount it’s a popular jeep antenna mount. It’s mounted to a spare tire carrier. Also, we use some extended links bold for making a strong connection between the jeep and the JK mount bracket kit.

Step 1: Set Bracket With Grounding Wire

The most important thing is the bracket needs to be properly grounded first and most people make a mistake here. So be careful about the bracket grounding.

However, set the bracket with the backside spare tire carrier and connect the grounding wire with the bracket supplied bolt properly set the ground wire behind the flat washer. Make sure the grounding wire connected jeep best grounding place like jeep metal frame mousetrap.

Step 2: Set The Firestik Antenna Bottom Part

Now we move on to how we mount the Firestik antenna cause that’s important so this is the part where lots of people make the mistake.

The first thing we want to do we need to remember we ground the bottom side of the JK mount bracket. 

So the bottom post set the bracket hole. When we do that don’t contact grounding material to the post hold the post properly. We don’t want this post contact with this grounded material.

Step 3: Set The Firestik Antenna Upper Parts

When we slide it up the post next put the plastic washer. The plastic washer is small but it makes the bonding strong also the most important thing it does is make an isolation between the antenna and grounding material.

It works as an insulator between the antenna mount and the antenna grounding post.

Plastic washer set it down next flat metal washer then lock washer then put on the top antenna mount and spring make sure the bonding is strong. Use a wrench to make the bonding strong. 

Check our guide about Sirius radio antenna fix.

Step 4: Test The Grounding By Multimeter

After proper installation now to test the bracket grounded, the bottom side cable connected to the grounded and make sure the upper side antenna mount is not grounded.

At first, we need a multimeter it would be digital or analog doesn’t matter there have two probes one is black other red.

The Black probe connects with a battery’s negative terminal not to touch the battery’s positive terminal with the probe.

The positive terminal is marked by a ‘+’ sign while the negative one is marked by a ‘-’ sign. 

If you are not properly contacted with the battery terminal then find the best jeep body ground. 

Now take the red probe contact with the lower post where the antenna cable mounts then if you get any resistance value (digital meter) or needle movement on the right way (analog meter) that would be great it grounded perfectly.

If we touch the red probe on the upper post antenna mount and get some reading that would be wrong so also check this.

Bottom Line:

At last, point remembers we ground the lower part post where connect the coaxial cable plug. The most important part creating a good ground to find the best metal part of the car body please refuse plastic or other objects. Another one is to make sure your multimeter is good.

Thanks for watching and I hope you learned something today on how to properly mount a Fire Stick or other CB radio antennas that require a ground plane on your Jeep Wrangler. There are more mount options out there that may work better so do your research.