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Have you ever gotten extremely frustrated with the inability of your CB radio to transmit clearly? Tired of people not responding to your transmissions? I have found that people will either tell me that I sound like I'm in a box, or they can't hear me at all because very often people don't respond, even riders in the same group.
You can do a couple of things to make sure your CB radio is geting the most out the factory design. If you are a little more ambitious, you can modify the antenna system to make it work better than factory. After all, it should not be too much to expect a $1000 system to perform at least as well as a $40 radio from Radio Shack.
First of all, tune the antenna using an SWR meter. Your antenna does not come tuned for SWR from the factory and any CB radio's performance is highly dependent on efficient SWR. Assuming your radio is otherwise healthy, SWR is THE most critical factor of CB radio performance. A 4-watt radio can be heard for hundreds of miles under the right conditions, but can't be heard at all if the antenna is not tuned properly. In fact, if SWR is too high it can cause permanent damage to your radio (I am hoping like heck that this isn't my problem!!). You will have to take the seat off and install an SWR meter inline in the antenna coax between the radio and the antenna. Tuning your antenna consists of trimming the length to minimize SWR. That's where the SWR meter comes into play.
Secondly, since the Wing uses a grounded antenna system, make sure you have a good ground connection. The antenna is grounded through the bracket in your trunk.
Wind-noise can be a problem on a motorcycle that other vehicles don’t have. Headset microphones are typically not the same quality as a handheld either. Covering the mic with some foam should help minimize wind noise. Also, keep the mic close enough to your mouth to allow speaking normally, you should be able to get by with the average headset microphone.
Finally, the grounded antenna system on the Wing's CB radio is not the right design for a motorcycle in the first place. This is something that Honda's engineers need to re-design. CB radios on motorcycles do not perform well with grounded antenna systems. Why not? Because antennas in a grounded system radiate their signal using the "ground plane" and there is insufficient ground plane on a motorcycle to reflect the antenna signal well enough to achieve good, consistent transmissions. Combine that with the fact that the GL1800 frame is aluminum, and you really have a big problem for radio transmission. Aluminum does not work well for radio transmission! This is why military backpack radios use an ungrounded antenna system, there isn't enough ground plane on the frame of a back-pack to work with a grounded antenna. The same situation exists on a motorcycle, and especially with an aluminum-frame motorcycle.
I am in the process of converting my Wing to a "No Ground Plane" or NGP antenna system. This requires a different kind of antenna. I have found the hardware to mount my new antenna to the factory mast. It will require insulating the existing mounting bracket from ground. It will also require installing a new coax. In a NGP system, the coax length is critical. Without going into the physics of radio frequency (RF) technology, suffice it to say that the coax length needs to be in multiples of 9 feet as it works with the radio's wavelength. A 9-foot coax length is too short to work over the entire bandwidth of a 40-channel CB radio, so 18 feet is the shortest length that will work properly. The NGP antenna is a specialized antenna, but commonly available. The coax itself becomes a substitute for the ground plane that is lacking in the motorcycle itself. Unlike the factory antenna, you can get an antenna with a tunable tip, whereas on the factory antenna you have to physically shorten the length, which is unforgiving if you make a mistake.
I just ordered a NGP antenna system from Firestick Antennas. I will replace the fold-over antenna mount with a quick disconnect. I will post some pictures of the mod and a performance report as soon as I am finished with the project.
You can do a couple of things to make sure your CB radio is geting the most out the factory design. If you are a little more ambitious, you can modify the antenna system to make it work better than factory. After all, it should not be too much to expect a $1000 system to perform at least as well as a $40 radio from Radio Shack.
First of all, tune the antenna using an SWR meter. Your antenna does not come tuned for SWR from the factory and any CB radio's performance is highly dependent on efficient SWR. Assuming your radio is otherwise healthy, SWR is THE most critical factor of CB radio performance. A 4-watt radio can be heard for hundreds of miles under the right conditions, but can't be heard at all if the antenna is not tuned properly. In fact, if SWR is too high it can cause permanent damage to your radio (I am hoping like heck that this isn't my problem!!). You will have to take the seat off and install an SWR meter inline in the antenna coax between the radio and the antenna. Tuning your antenna consists of trimming the length to minimize SWR. That's where the SWR meter comes into play.
Secondly, since the Wing uses a grounded antenna system, make sure you have a good ground connection. The antenna is grounded through the bracket in your trunk.
Wind-noise can be a problem on a motorcycle that other vehicles don’t have. Headset microphones are typically not the same quality as a handheld either. Covering the mic with some foam should help minimize wind noise. Also, keep the mic close enough to your mouth to allow speaking normally, you should be able to get by with the average headset microphone.
Finally, the grounded antenna system on the Wing's CB radio is not the right design for a motorcycle in the first place. This is something that Honda's engineers need to re-design. CB radios on motorcycles do not perform well with grounded antenna systems. Why not? Because antennas in a grounded system radiate their signal using the "ground plane" and there is insufficient ground plane on a motorcycle to reflect the antenna signal well enough to achieve good, consistent transmissions. Combine that with the fact that the GL1800 frame is aluminum, and you really have a big problem for radio transmission. Aluminum does not work well for radio transmission! This is why military backpack radios use an ungrounded antenna system, there isn't enough ground plane on the frame of a back-pack to work with a grounded antenna. The same situation exists on a motorcycle, and especially with an aluminum-frame motorcycle.
I am in the process of converting my Wing to a "No Ground Plane" or NGP antenna system. This requires a different kind of antenna. I have found the hardware to mount my new antenna to the factory mast. It will require insulating the existing mounting bracket from ground. It will also require installing a new coax. In a NGP system, the coax length is critical. Without going into the physics of radio frequency (RF) technology, suffice it to say that the coax length needs to be in multiples of 9 feet as it works with the radio's wavelength. A 9-foot coax length is too short to work over the entire bandwidth of a 40-channel CB radio, so 18 feet is the shortest length that will work properly. The NGP antenna is a specialized antenna, but commonly available. The coax itself becomes a substitute for the ground plane that is lacking in the motorcycle itself. Unlike the factory antenna, you can get an antenna with a tunable tip, whereas on the factory antenna you have to physically shorten the length, which is unforgiving if you make a mistake.
I just ordered a NGP antenna system from Firestick Antennas. I will replace the fold-over antenna mount with a quick disconnect. I will post some pictures of the mod and a performance report as soon as I am finished with the project.
