I posted this on Mud a few days ago but wanted to see if anyone here has any other ideas. I assume this is a problem internal to the CB and I will need to get a replacement unit but I want to see if anyone has a good solution for this before I throw good money after bad.
I have a new Cobra 18 WX STII CB that I purchased over a year ago (meaning the warranty is no longer good.) I installed it and went to turn it on and got nothing. So I double and triple checked all of the wires and everything checks out. (Wires direct from battery to CB with new, good, fuses installed. I took both power leads to the battery since I like to have it on when the truck is off sometimes, so no switched power to the radio.)
So, I pulled the CB for more intensive testing. It turns out that it will turn on IF I turn the radio on and then connect the ground. If I turn the radio off and then back on it doesn't do anything. If I connect the wires with the radio switched off, it doesn't do anything. It will only power up if the switch is on and then the ground is connected. Same behavior whether or not the mic is plugged in.
Obviously something is wrong with the unit. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this short of getting a new radio?
Here are the options I see right now:
I have a new Cobra 18 WX STII CB that I purchased over a year ago (meaning the warranty is no longer good.) I installed it and went to turn it on and got nothing. So I double and triple checked all of the wires and everything checks out. (Wires direct from battery to CB with new, good, fuses installed. I took both power leads to the battery since I like to have it on when the truck is off sometimes, so no switched power to the radio.)
So, I pulled the CB for more intensive testing. It turns out that it will turn on IF I turn the radio on and then connect the ground. If I turn the radio off and then back on it doesn't do anything. If I connect the wires with the radio switched off, it doesn't do anything. It will only power up if the switch is on and then the ground is connected. Same behavior whether or not the mic is plugged in.
Obviously something is wrong with the unit. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this short of getting a new radio?
Here are the options I see right now:
- Get a new CB. Same unit since the front firing speaker is a must for installing it in the dash.
- Put a switch on the ground wire to make it think the connection is new. I haven't tested but I suspect this will mean the memory is never going to be saved.
- Get a HAM and bag the CB. I wish I could do this but the group I run with uses CBs exclusively so far. (I would take suggestions for cheap, single DIN units though, same form as this since the space is available, maybe I can get some pressure on them to switch.)
- ????