J&M Radio

[Millsaps2]

Just installed a J&M radio on my FJR1300 and it does not seem to be working correctly. I get a ticking sound if the squelch is not set correctly and it is not receiving signals very well. The intercom works fine. I have not had the antenna tuned. How should the extra cable be coiled from the antenna? What should I check? All the cables from the radio are routed under the tank above the engine.

 

[Mr Bill]

Just installed a J&M radio on my FJR1300 and it does not seem to be working correctly. I get a ticking sound if the squelch is not set correctly and it is not receiving signals very well. The intercom works fine. I have not had the antenna tuned. How should the extra cable be coiled from the antenna? What should I check? All the cables from the radio are routed under the tank above the engine.

I use a no ground plane firesik antenna, with a no ground plane antenna you have to coil the extra wire and then pinch the coil in the middle so you DON'T have a round loop. I packed the extra wire under the tail section and all the wires pass under the gas tank. My J&M came with a filter that works pretty good to remove the engine noise. You may want to measure the SWR or have a radio shop measure this, because if your antenna is not working well you can easily burn up the radio.

 

[SlowRunner]

Agree with Mr. Bill. I also have a J&M, no ground plane and use a Firestik antenna. Extra antenna coiled in same place and wires are running along side the gas tank.

+1 on the SWR test. Easy to do and improves the performance of the radio.

Make sure that all of your ground connections on the radio electronics are good grounds. I've been very happy with the J&M. If it doesn't work for you don't be afraid to call their customer service. They are generally very helpful.

 

[Millsaps2]

What length antenna are you using? Did you ground to the frame or to the battery?

 

[RonBB]

I grounded the J & M to the battery. The antenna was grounded through the mounting at the antenna. You might want to check out this old thread on CB antenna's: Clicky

 

[Jaycen]

Just installed a J&M radio on my FJR1300 and it does not seem to be working correctly. I get a ticking sound if the squelch is not set correctly and it is not receiving signals very well. The intercom works fine. I have not had the antenna tuned. How should the extra cable be coiled from the antenna? What should I check? All the cables from the radio are routed under the tank above the engine.

I use a no ground plane firesik antenna, with a no ground plane antenna you have to coil the extra wire and then pinch the coil in the middle so you DON'T have a round loop. I packed the extra wire under the tail section and all the wires pass under the gas tank. My J&M came with a filter that works pretty good to remove the engine noise. You may want to measure the SWR or have a radio shop measure this, because if your antenna is not working well you can easily burn up the radio.

Mr Bill, you running a J&M radio on your bike? last time we rode you didn't have it, but that was 2 years ago......I'm looking for bike to bike comm with my dads goldwing, would have been really helpful on our trip to the Gap last week.

 

[RonBB]

I'm looking for bike to bike comm with my dads goldwing, would have been really helpful on our trip to the Gap last week.

I found that when riding with GoldWings that my J & M system could overpower the GoldWing CB's (even on the lower power setting) when they were fairly close-Say less than 300 ft. or so. The low power setting and a bit of distance eliminated this. It was noticable when on group rides.

 

[Jaycen]

I'm looking for bike to bike comm with my dads goldwing, would have been really helpful on our trip to the Gap last week.

I found that when riding with GoldWings that my J & M system could overpower the GoldWing CB's (even on the lower power setting) when they were fairly close-Say less than 300 ft. or so. The low power setting and a bit of distance eliminated this. It was noticable when on group rides.

what is the solution to this?

 

[RonBB]

I found that when riding with GoldWings that my J & M system could overpower the GoldWing CB's (even on the lower power setting) when they were fairly close-Say less than 300 ft. or so. The low power setting and a bit of distance eliminated this. It was noticable when on group rides.

what is the solution to this?

Once I realized what was happening I just tried to stay a little futher away (500-600 ft or more) from the GW's and keep the power setting on low when riding with GW's. The fellow (an avionics technician) I ride with the most has a GW1800 with the Honda CB and once we figured out the issue we just kept further apart. I'm not sure if you could do this on a "Duckling Style" club ride. Best of luck.

 

[FJRandy]

Just installed a J&M radio on my FJR1300 and it does not seem to be working correctly. I get a ticking sound if the squelch is not set correctly and it is not receiving signals very well. The intercom works fine. I have not had the antenna tuned. How should the extra cable be coiled from the antenna? What should I check? All the cables from the radio are routed under the tank above the engine.

First some questions....then some possible answers.

Does the ticking sound you hear increase and decrease with engine RPM's? If so, MAKE SURE the power/grd. connections are tight. Also the power leads and/or the antenna cable might just be picking up spark plug noise. Routing directly above the motor is not a good idea when it comes to CB noise. Route it to the side as far as possible.

What type of antenna do you have, and how long is it? A non ground plane antenna requires 17 feet of cable. This is why this type of antenna is NOT recommended for use on a motorcycle. A gorunded antenna only requires a minumum of 9 feet of quality antenna cable. (RG58U) 12 feet is better. In either case, coil the excess into a "figure 8" and then tighten the end loops to around 1" or so. ANY cable left coiled into a circle will severely affect the performance of the CB.

How long is the antenna? Any length below your head height is useless. You should have at least 70% of the antenna length above your head for good output.

Also, if it's a grounded antenna, DO NOT ground it to the battery! A clean ground to the subframe is fine, but you must use minimum 10 ga. wire.

I don't remember...does the J&M have either a mic gain or RF gain? If so, you might want to tweak those settings to get rid of even more noise. Overpowering a GW radio sounds like too much mic gain.

With all due respect, (Mr Bill) STAY AWAY from Firestick fiberglass antennas!! I learned from experience. I still own three of them. All useless, unless you have exactly the correct (hard to calculate) cable length. I also learned, contrary to popular belief, that the Firestick "non ground plane" antenna is a fake. It needs to be grounded. Firestick just sticks the label on the BOTH the same antennas. Grounded or not, same one. I used one of them on the last two bikes and could never tune it correctly. Now I know why. There's a 4' white "unbreakable" fiberglass whip out there that tunes pretty damn good. I could find out the name. Or get you one for that matter.

Name brand grounded stainless whip is your best bet. 4' is best. 3' will work, but you lose the equivilent of around 1 watt of power.

Hope this info helps.

BTW...I've been working at a CB shop since last December. I picked up a ton of valuable info since then. I'm also in the auto electronics business for almost 20 yrs now.

 

[Millsaps2]

I am using a 3 foot J&M grounded antenna. I have the excess cable in a circle which everyone says is a problem. J&M states the radio should be grounded to the frame but others say it should be grounded to the battery for the FJR, I am currently using the frame ground. From all comments I think I need to do the following-good grounds, cables away from spark plugs, antenna tuned, bow-tie extra cable, neg. radio to battery, antenna mount grounded. Any other suggestions will be appreciated.

 

[RonBB]

Overpowering a GW radio sounds like too much mic gain.

It does not appear to be an an issue of over modulation within the J & M CB it appears rather to be an issue with the automatic gain circuit in the receiver of the GW radios not being able to reduce the gain enough. On a group ride with several GW's they experienced the effect while others with different CB's had no issues.

 

[FJRandy]

From all comments I think I need to do the following-good grounds, cables away from spark plugs, antenna tuned, bow-tie extra cable, neg. radio to battery, antenna mount grounded. Any other suggestions will be appreciated.

Just make sure EVERY electrical farkle is grounded at the battery. The circle of antenna wire is a definite no-no. You might reduce a lot of noise by just making the figure 8 coil.

 

[Mr Bill]

Mr Bill, you running a J&M radio on your bike? last time we rode you didn't have it, but that was 2 years ago......I'm looking for bike to bike comm with my dads goldwing, would have been really helpful on our trip to the Gap last week.

Jay,

How was the trip?

CB's can sound pretty funny if they are too close. You could hold hands with the other bike to make a ground and they will sound great, but let go and you'll sound like Donald Duck. So the J&M has a hi/low switch for power out. I would wait a little and see if J&M comes out with the stereo wireless system.

Bill

 

[Mr Bill]

With all due respect, (Mr Bill) STAY AWAY from Firestick fiberglass antennas!! I learned from experience. I still own three of them. All useless, unless you have exactly the correct (hard to calculate) cable length. I also learned, contrary to popular belief, that the Firestick "non ground plane" antenna is a fake.

Randy,

I guess I got lucky with my firesik (sic). I went from the 4' to a 2' and people still hear me fine. I got tired of everyone making fun of the big-ass 4 footer, well that and I thought the antenna may have been causing some of the fjr speed wobble.

Did you know me and electronics don't mix very well? I always carry a ton of fuses because my wiring tends to make fireworks!

Bill

 

[BobG]

Why not just use a vector voltmeter to determine the proper phasing and signal wave length to the antenna.

( With a vector voltmeter you can tune a metal coat hanger or paper clip, into a great antenna. Frequency matching no problem.)

If you have too much power just attenuate the signal some (3db or so, and play with the power out).

Just make sure all the components are impedance matched.

Also make sure the signal ground is isolated from the supply ground.

Also never use dissimilar metals in your devices. I prefer gold connections.

I once bought enough cable to make 0 degree phase shift (1 full wave length of cable) from transmitter out to antenna in, for a CB radio, the cheap radio worked great. I am very aware of the infeasibility of this on a bike, unless you are using 18g transmitters. It was fun at the time.

 

[indiojoe]

I'am wondering, would it matter if the wires from the J&M were ran under the faring (along side of) instand of under the gas tank?

 

[Millsaps2]

I'am wondering, would it matter if the wires from the J&M were ran under the faring (along side of) instand of under the gas tank?

Last night I moved the wiring from under the tank to inside the fairing on the left side. Routed the cables thru the space behind the glove box and then down the side behind the fairing section that is movable on the '07. Plan to have the antenna tuned tonight and will advise the results later. The antenna coax cable can be pulled from the glove box area to the area by the forks for tuning. I will tie the cables off after the antenna tuning. Grounded the radio to the battery and grounded the mounting bracket as well.

 

[RonBB]

I will tie the cables off after the antenna tuning.

Suggest checking the SWR when the cables are in or very near their final position. While the FJR frame does provide a ground plane to some extent it is not near that provided by say an automobile body. Your SWR very well may change with any repositioning of the cables even though they are shielded (which is the ground plane side of the antenna). Best of luck. If you do recheck it might be helpful to others to repost if the SWR does indeed change with cable repositioning.