Question about wiring my CB into a cigarette adapter to power it

[hidesertwheelin]

I have a Cobra 18 WX ST II sitting around that I am going to install in my truck. I want to wire it up to a 12v cigarette adapter to power it. The problem is, this particular CB has 3 wire to hook up, Red (power), Black (ground), and Orange (memory). I have not been able to locate a 12v adapter that has 3 wires, only 2, which makes since, since the orange wire is for memory. Is there another way I should be wiring this up?

 

[AlbanyTom]

I would connect red and orange to the + side, and black to the - side of a regular cigarette plug. Double or triple check that you have the + and - right. If you do it backwards you are likely to kill the radio when you plug it in. Whatever is in "memory" won't stay remembered when you unplug it or when the power to the lighter socket goes out, but who cares, it's a CB radio, you shouldn't need to have anything stored in memory in a cb radio.

Purists will say that you shouldn't run a cb on a lighter plug, but it'll be just fine. It's only 5W.

 

[prerunner1982]

It's not so much the wattage that's the issue with powering a CB through the cig lighter it's the noise that it may pick up. I say may because it may not, seems to vary by vehicle. I have had some that do and some such as my current Jeep that does not have this problem.

 

[hidesertwheelin]

It's not so much the wattage that's the issue with powering a CB through the cig lighter it's the noise that it may pick up. I say may because it may not, seems to vary by vehicle. I have had some that do and some such as my current Jeep that does not have this problem.

Would it make a difference if it was plugged into a Deep Sea 12v plug? That is what I am doing with it.

 

[4x4junkie]

A Cobra 18 would probably be OK on a cig-lighter plug, though it's output performance might be reduced slightly (it's primarily SSB radios that can't be operated reliably from a cig-lighter socket).

Yes, red & orange go together for "+", and no the radio will not retain the last channel it was used on if it is unplugged/power removed from it.

 

[AlbanyTom]

I haven't had any trouble with electrical noise in modern vehicles, either 2m fm or 10m ssb. I believe that most modern vehicles are pretty quiet, electrically. But maybe I've been lucky. If you do have noise, I don't know how much you'd get from going directly to the battery anyway. People I know that have had noise in vehicles have had to do all sorts of shielding and grounding on the source side of the noise, because the antenna is going to pick it up anyway.

The main reason to not use a lighter plug is beyond around 25w output, most lighter plugs are too lightly wired to handle it. The reason I know this is that I'm lazy, and ran two different cars on lighter plugs, and we routinely use lighter plugs to temporarily use 2m radios in other people's vehicles for public service events. Some radios, some cars, are fine at 50-75W, many or most are fine at 25W, I've not seen one not work at 10W.

 

[gary in ohio]

Tie the red and orange togeather. Why you need memories on a 40 channel device is beyond me.. If you must have them then orange to the battery and red/black to switched power

 

[Hilldweller]

That radio uses the orange wire (constant power) for weather alerts; it's supposed to be wired to an always-on circuit. The other is supposed to be wired to a switched source. They assume that you'll always want your radio turned on and it will come on automatically when you start the vehicle.

That radio will likely have an annoying hum, btw.

 

[BettysNephew]

If I recall hooking the orange to an always hot also allows the radio to stay on the last channel selected when turned off/on. It may also keep the weather alert active as stated above.

 

[hidesertwheelin]

Thanks for the info everyone. I'm not even really worried about the weather channel. I live in California, it's not like we have much in the way of weather here besides "nice".

 

[Hilldweller]

Thanks for the info everyone. I'm not even really worried about the weather channel. I live in California, it's not like we have much in the way of weather here besides "nice".

I think that alerts would also include fires.
That radio's NOAA band reception is marginal at best anyhow.