[RawhideKid]

Originally Posted by Magicbox51

I do not agree with the need to keep grounds separate, but that's just me. To me, grounds are very important and good bonding at ground potential is essential in any transmitter application. With a coaxial output from the transmitter, an ungrounded output can lead to weird RF transients, although at 5 watts, not enough to cause any problems. At higher wattages, RF can do really weird things.

Thanks,

Well, with an SWR box that antenna is not only the chicken wire, but it is also the shield on the coax, the shield providing the ground plain potential and the chicken wire becoming the antemma. I have done something similar with an all fiberglass body vehicle. Had them install the wire into the roof while making the body in the mold. This was for a Baja 1000 team vehicle and it actually worked very well, was working 60+ miles with 25watts.

One thing folks fail to realize is that the CB is chassis Negative, and when you place the antenna shield to vehicle chassis, you now introduce a Positive battery potential to the chassis of the radio. Now, put 12v Positive at the red wire, which is radio above chassis potential, it does want to do funny things, not least of all, make smoke because you have reversed the polarity on the CB chassis. Now, I will not say that ALL the CB radios are this way because it has been a few decades since I was employed to remedy these situations and the industry has evolved, but I am thinking that the CB was pulled from a shelf where it has sat since the 70's or 80's and is not a brand new one with the possible new sophistication. We will see.