How much power are you running? That rig is huge.

LOL it's the standard 4 watts AM (it does 12 watts on USB/LSB.) It's huge because the radio is a Lafayette from 1976, see here;
http://www.wikiradio.org.uk/wiki/in.....Telsat_SSB-100

I do have a linear amp, and when that's hooked up, strange crap happens to my Samsung 58" plasma in the living room (digital electronics go haywire, volume control kept turning itself down non stop until I unplugged the TV)

Wow, I'm amazed that little amount of power would cause problems. Are you using ethernet or WiFi? I can't see WiFi being affected by CB. But an ethernet cable (or any other cables) may be acting as an antenna. You could try winding the cable in a tight coil close to the ends. What could help even more is putting ferrite chokes on your cables: http://www.radioshack.com/product/i.....ductId=3012599
You can get better deals on them on Ebay.
Yeah amps can definitely cause problems. A friend of mine literally fried his answering machine. Gotta make sure your coax is good thick stuff, SWR is low, and the antenna is as far as possible away from your shack.

no wireless. I think it messes with my moms computer in the other room too. I have several feet of standard cheap rg58 connected to the radio, which runs out my window. On the end it's soldered/spliced to heavy duty RG-6, which is a few feet, then I stripped 9 feet and change of the shield and dielectric so the center conductor is exposed, and I planted the shield along the ground with a screwdriver.

I get an SWR of about 1.5 or 2.

The chokes can go on the antenna wire?

No the chokes go on the ethernet cable. They are called chokes because they choke the RF energy from traveling any further down the cable. So you wouldn't want them on your antenna. It's good to have them on all the other cables going into the cable/dsl modem and your router.

Ideally, you want the SWR to be 1.5 or less. You can run with 2, but no more and it's wasting energy and may shorten the life of your equipment.

And I would never run high power into an antenna that close to my house. Ideally, a vertical antenna like that should be mounted on a mast above the roofline of the house or at least in a clear area of the backyard at least 20-30 feet away from the house. Verticals radiate outward toward the horizon so a lot of that energy is blasting directly into your house. It's no wonder you're having interference problems. And if you're running more than 300 watts, you want to use RG-8, RG-213, or LMR-400 equivalent or better coax.

I don't have any possible way to mount anything on the roof or higher. I could probably run it in to the backyard and hang the end of it from the tree.

I don't know how long I can run the cable. My next door neighbor has a mast, but that's at the other end of the house. I don't have any way to keep the wire straight.

Well I know money is always the issue. I don't know how much you're willing to throw into it. I also haven't seen your house so I don't know how you can get something up on the roof. But there is tons of information online about antenna mounting options. If I were in your situation, and had the money, I would buy a professionally made base station vertical CB antenna like a Solarcon A99 and mount it on a pipe anchored to the side of the house or a chimney mount. This might cost you a couple hundred, but I guarantee it would be a heck of a lot more effective than what you have now and shouldn't cause as much RFI problems. Hopefully you don't have power lines running along the property because then you can't put up anything that could come even close to falling on the lines.

I don't know how much you spent on the linear, but if you spent a lot on it you would've been better off spending that on an antenna. Without a good antenna, all that RF is going nowhere. And antenna performance affects both transmit and receive signals.

You could try building a rigid base antenna, but unless you have a source for copper or aluminum pipe that is lower priced than the hardware store, it's difficult to save much money doing that.

I just realized while reading this; https://www.audiosystemsgroup.com/RFI-Ham.pdf
that my radio isn't grounded. In fact, nothing in my house is, sadly, because whoever installed power in this place decided not to include a proper ground.

The linear was given to me for free a long time ago. I've had it for about 5 years but only decided to try it out this last month. I discovered that there was a faulty component inside and i blew a copper trace (now soldered over) Failed component is a "FR502" diode, which was acting more like a short circuit. the linear seems to work fine without it.

I'm not going to worry about a roof mounted antenna right now. We're moving more towards Dallas in the next month or two so it would be a waste to try installing one. I do want a good antenna, though, after I move and get a job, something I can use on 10 or 11 meter bands when i get a license.

(though I suppose since the shield itself is grounded outside....)

You are right, grounding is very important especially in areas with lots of lightning like Texas. A proper station grounding setup can cost as much as a good antenna setup, but it's very important for safety and it carries away stray RF. But as far as lightning protection, what I've just done is keep antennas disconnected from radios when I'm away or if thunderstorms are in the forecast.

Google "station grounding" and read the articles to see how complicated grounding can be.

I'm sure though that your interference problems are more likely due to having the antenna so close to the house.

Yeah, having to move soon is a good reason for not installing an antenna!

Thanks! :)

Anyways, my antenna is a pretty terrible hack job. rg-58 spliced directly to rg-6, and poorly. I can occasionally hear someone saying something, lol. I did buy a cheap ($35) radio shack antenna for CB, it's only about 3 feet long and has some kind of load coil at the base. strangely I get higher SWR with that. If I stick the base (magnetic) to my bathtub it gets slightly better. It still murders my cable internet.

You should get an antenna specifically designed for base station use. Mobile antennas are designed to be mounted on a metal vehicle body. All antennas have a positive and negative side. The whip part of mobile antennas is the positive and they use the car body as the negative. That's why it worked better when mounted on the bathtub. Vertical base station antennas usually have rods that point horizontally or downward from the bottom of the vertical whip. These are called radials and they are the negative part. The radial on your makeshift antenna is the RG-6 shield you buried in the lawn. I saw you can also get radial kits for some mobile antennas so you can use them for a base station. There are also "no-ground" mobile antennas that are for mounting on a fiberglass vehicle body such as a motorhome. I'm not sure how good those work.

I have a white fiberglass encased whip that's about 9 feet long. Used to be my dads, IIRC it went on the sailboat he used to have. I don't know if it's for marine or CB.

If it doesn't have any text on it saying what it is, only way to find out is by checking the SWR on CB.

I was looking at cable online earlier, wow it's not cheap! 80 cents a foot or so for LMR-400....

I ALSO think I might swap the so-259/uhf connector with and N panel mount instead.

RG-8 or RG-213 are cheaper. LMR-400 is really for UHF or microwave applications or if your cable run is hundreds of feet. You might want to get a cable with the connectors already installed too. Unless you're really good at soldering, connectors are easy to mess up. On the other hand, you can't get good at soldering and whatnot unless you try making stuff yourself.

You also don't need N connectors for CB. They are only needed for UHF frequencies and higher.

also;
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_pRdhQ34bSb0/T.....2/IMG_2090.JPG

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_pRdhQ34bSb0/T.....2/IMG_2091.JPG

That center conductor is heavy stuff! It's some kind of iron or steel core because it sticks to magnets, and copper coated.

One other thing I feel I should add:

You're probably already aware, but in case you aren't, using amplifiers on CB is illegal. The typical penalty is a $10,000 fine. But these days it's rarely enforced and so many CB'ers (probably thousands) are using them anyway. Probably the only way you'd get caught is if someone sees your amp and reports you or if you're causing interference for some other user of the radio spectrum and they report you. Most professional radio engineers and technicians are able to locate interference sources.

If your equipment is not working perfectly and/or you're not operating it perfectly, it can easily cause interference. It sounds like your amp isn't in the greatest health either. You said you removed a diode and it seems to work fine without it. Every electronic component in a circuit is there for a reason. It would be good and a good idea if you could find someone in your area with the knowledge and test equipment needed to make sure your equipment is in good shape. I know a few CB'ers do.

I'm only telling you this to make sure you're aware of the risks. Personally, I don't have a problem with it. I'm glad to see people interested in radios. But anyone interested in legal, much less limited radio experimentation should get a Ham Radio license. Ham Radio needs more young people too!

For more info see: http://www.ehow.com/list_6833973_cb.....fier-laws.html

Thanks.

I figured an N connector would be easier to deal with than the other, but since all you need to do is solder the 259 afaik, I might be backwards. Maybe I just like hacking things? ;) I saw 75 feet of LMR on ebay with N ends already installed, that's what gave me the idea.

Guess I will just stick with RG8, I'm guessing that's about the same OD as RG6?

I do know about the law for CB radio amps, etc. I'll probably get a replacement part for that sometime in the future. I'm sure I can use that amp on 10 meter if I ever get around to gettin a license and a radio for it :D

I've played around with electronics of all sorts since I was a little kid :D I only recently picked up a temperature controlled soldering station!

RG-8 has an outer diameter of 0.405 inch. There are different thicknesses of RG-6.

If you find an amazing deal on LMR400 with N-connectors, go for it. You can always get adapters for just about any RF connector type.

Wow, I don't have a temp controlled soldering station. Good thing to have though for circuit board soldering.