[How To] J&M CB Installation w/o a top trunk

[Rmcapozzi]

I completed the install (save for the portable music input as I'm waiting on a grommet) of the JMCB2003 unit on my wife's NT700V. Most of the installs I have seen are all with top trunks making the attachment of the antenna a bit more straight forward.

My wife doesn't have a top trunk on the NT nor is she ever interested in having one so I had to come up with a way to mount the antenna. With a little modifications I was able to use the J&M license plate bracket.

My photobucket site has my pictorial documentation of how I installed the CB unit including the fender mount location of the antenna.

Hopefully folks will find this useful.

 

[Nicole]

That's cool. do you need an operators license to run cb?

 

[Rmcapozzi]

Not today in the USA. I think somewhere in the late 70's or early 80's the FCC gave up requiring license for CB usage...not that many folks paid attention to the requirement originally.

 

[RedLdr1]

Not today in the USA. I think somewhere in the late 70's or early 80's the FCC gave up requiring license for CB usage...not that many folks paid attention to the requirement originally.

It is gone...All the old CB license did was give you official "Call Letters" as there was no test nor any real requirements to obtain it.... Since I was in the military and living on post I had to have a license as the local command enforced the license rule. I guess it gave the MP's something constructive to do checking for CB licenses...

Since I haven't used a CB for a looong time I'm curious how many people use them now. I don't see many antennas at all these days except on long haul trucks and touring bikes... Who do you talk with or is it more of a group ride thing? In my Corvette club we use use Family Radio Service (FRS) / General Mobile Radio Services (GMRS) hand held radios on cruises and also carry them with us at large events. They work a lot better than my old Motorola MoCat CB ever did...and it fits in my shirt or jacket pocket...

 

[Rmcapozzi]

It is strictly to communicate between bikes. We use them a lot when riding with others and it is quite nice when I'm riding the Wing and my wife is riding the NT to be able to talk to each other. Sure beats using hand signals. I suppose if we didn't ride in a riding club with others that also run CBs AND the Wing didn't come with an integrated CB, we may have gone with a different technology.

...

Since I haven't used a CB for a looong time I'm curious how many people use them now. I don't see many antennas at all these days except on long haul trucks and touring bikes... Who do you talk with or is it more of a group ride thing? In my Corvette club we use use Family Radio Service (FRS) / General Mobile Radio Services (GMRS) hand held radios on cruises and also carry them with us at large events. They work a lot better than my old Motorola MoCat CB ever did...and it fits in my shirt or jacket pocket...

 

[RedLdr1]

I suppose if we didn't ride in a riding club with others that also run CBs AND the Wing didn't come with an integrated CB, we may have gone with a different technology.

There is nothing "wrong" with CB, I just drifted away from it. I suspect the biggest reason we use FRS / GMRS is most newer model Corvette owners would faint if someone put a CB antenna on their car... Especially since magnetic mounts don't work too hot on plastic body panels, or on fiberglass like my 1980...which had a GM factory CB option available...

 

[Rmcapozzi]

I'm with you. I didn't take it as you thinking it was "wrong". I was just explaining why we went down the CB route since you asked. It was mostly due to our riding situation. We use to have some folks in our riding club with FRS radios but since CB is still a bit of a "standard" for motorcycle comms, they too converted after riding with us for a bit.

If I needed to talk to someone else in another car nearby I was traveling with, I'd use our little FRS radios as well. They are quite handy and with excellent range!

I never even bother trying to listen on channel 19. Just people spouting nonsense.

There is nothing "wrong" with CB, I just drifted away from it. I suspect the biggest reason we use FRS / GMRS is most newer model Corvette owners would faint if someone put a CB antenna on their car... Especially since magnetic mounts don't work too hot on plastic body panels, or on fiberglass like my 1980...which had a GM factory CB option available...

 

[elizilla]

I have run CB off and on for years. I do it because I'm usually traveling alone, so there's no point in using FRS - who would I talk to? The CB is best for being able to talk to complete strangers traveling the same road I am. I can listen in to find out why all the traffic is slowing down, where the bears are, stuff like that. I don't usually speak unless spoken to, though I am often entertained by being spoken of - the truckers sometimes argue about what kind of BMW that is and whether the rider is really a girl.

It's only good on the interstate, and I don't have a permanent transceiver mounting scheme, just a Ram mount for a handheld unit, so I don't carry it unless I expect to be solo on the interstate for long periods of time.

 

[Phil Tarman]

My first wife and I were heading home to Ogden from Laramie on I-80 in our 180,000 mile '80 Honda Accord. It might have had a 6/1 compression ratio by then and was embarrassing to be at a stop light with because of the smoke from the leaky valve guides. On a good, calm day, on level ground, it would still reach 80mph, but this wasn't a calm day, and I-80 between Laramie, WY and the Utah border doesn't have exclusively level ground. Plus it was one of those days when the west wind was howling. On level ground, with wind, we could hold 65.

Trucks were doing mostly 63, and we got alongside one going down a hill, but couldn't punch through his bow wave. While we were beside him, another truck came up behind us, and we couldn't drop back to get back behind truck # 1. After 1/2 mile or so of that, my wife noticed trucker # 1 leaining out his window and bacically going crazy. He had a CB mike and was hollering into it. So she flipped on my CB and we heard him screaming at us to get that little japanese piece of s**t off the road and quit blocking truckers trying to do their job. Then he saw our Utah plate on our front bumper and started screaming about the bleeping Mor**ns, thinking we were holy, etc, etc. My wife got into a screaming match with this idiot until I took the mike out of her hand, and explained to the guy that our little japanese piece of **** was doing the best it could do and that we were freaking Methodists, for goodness' sake, and that if we could we'd get around him or drop behind him but we were stuck where we were until he or the other truck on our bumper backed off.

About that time, we came to a steeper downhill and were able to get, oh, maybe 50 feet in front of him. For the next 120 miles we were never farther than 100 yards in front of him and ever now and then I'd flip on the CB to hear him still raving and ranting and cussing. I think if we'd had mechanical problems and slowed down he'd have run right over us. When we got home I took the CB out of the car and threw it away. I did not need my wife making any truckers mad!