Plug a CB radio into the cigarette lighter socket
by David Harvey VK2DMH on Monday, August 17th, 2009 | 1 Comment
I would rather not go to the trouble of wiring my mobile CB radio hooked into my cars DC power supply in the normal manner.
Can I buy some sort of adapter that lets me plug it into a cigarette lighter outlet?
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While connecting your mobile CB directly to the battery terminals (via a 2 amp fuse) is the best way to hook up your radio, plugging it in to the cigarette lighter will do fine – and it does have an extra advantage. Using the lighter plug for power, and a smaller antenna with a magnetic roof mount, will let you remove or hide the radio when you are parked, to discourage theft.
The trade-off is that a smaller antenna is quite inefficient, and a significant percentage of your transmit power will be wasted as heat. The bigger the mobile CB antenna – up to the full 27 MHz quarter-wave 9-foot whips – the more effective it will be. (These CB whips are usually 102 inches long, by the way.)
A small CB antenna is fine for chatting to the cars or trucks close by while you are traveling, but if you plan on getting the maximum distance possible, then use a rig that has single sideband (USB and LSB as well as the standard AM mode). Wire it in to the DC power properly – like directly to the car battery with a 2A fuse close in the positive (red, +) lead to the battery. (Some hams insist you need a fuse on the negative (black, – ) lead as well!)
Do yourself a favor and please use a mobile antenna that is at least 5 or 6 feet long… The longer, the better in this case, because it is more efficient. Make sure it is properly checked with an antenna analyzer when installed, or at least checked with an SWR meter.
And by the way… make very sure your vehicle is a 12 volts DC, negative-ground vehicle. Most modern cars are twelve volts and negative ground. Some old VW beetles were 6 volt cars as well. If you have a positive-ground car, or a 24-volt truck, the wrong voltage either won’t be enough or will be too much. Too little volts won’t work at all, while too much voltage will produce black smoke from your cb radio, and that is always expensive to repair!
Cheers,
David VK2DMH