On Sunday I got the solar controller and CB radio mostly wired up. The solar controller powers the CB radio on it’s load terminals, so it will disconnect the CB radio from the battery, when the battery level drops below a certain point.

Got the antenna mount bent in, so it wasn’t bent out too far — risking get hit by trees. The following weekend, me and dad used some vise-grips, and bent the mount inwards. It was too far inwards then, but I was able to bend the metal gently outwards, until perfectly straight. It still leans a bit forward (the opposite of the truck below), but there is nothing I can do about that as the hood rail leans forward. At speed, the antenna stands up perfectly straight due to wind resistance and spring. But in general, it’s pretty straight, and doesn’t look bent.

On Sunday, I was finishing up my install and removed the antenna connection to tighten it up, and solder the connector. I checked one last time for a ground fault with an ohm meter, and I was good. Of course, I forgot to unplug the radio first, and the poor connection caused the inline fuse to blow. I was afraid I could have fried the radio. Picked up a new fuse on Autozone, plugged it back in, and now we are up and going again.

Still need to tune the radio as the SWR reading is unacceptably high — 3.4 on Channel 19. Last night was dark and rainy, so that didn’t happen. I think I may have a problem with grounding the ground plate, to the hood rail, something dad warned me about. But I didn’t really want to pull the paint off the hood rail in fear of exposed metal rusting. There is an extra hole in the mount for a ground screw, and I may just run a wire from the ground plate to a grounding post under the hood. I probably should have tested this first.

I still also have to mount the radio. But I am making progress one step at a time, at a painfully slow speed. Pictures once it’s all up and running.