jazar10

Hey everyone, I recently installed an amp along with the cobra CB radio w/ PA capabilities for work. I drive around and need to tell people where to put stuff, and its getting kinda cold out.

I was wondering, I had the PA working, then the fuse on my old amp blew... I replaced it, and everything seams to be powering up, but when i go to use the PA, no sound comes out of the speakers. Tried different RCA wires. I cant tell the amp turns on because of the led light that is lit up when its on. But what i dont get is that the one side with the power and protection lights, none illuminate. the amp is properly grounded and everything. Only thing is, My REM is hooked up to a switch so that i can turn it on and off when i need to.

Any Ideas? I need this working by next week, im on vacation this week

eagle1978

Could you give me more info on the amp, brand, is it for the stereo or cb, how it's hooked up, ie aftermarket radio or factory, size of power wire, things like that and I may can give you some ideas on what to check for. Too bad you aren't here in va beach or I'd look at it for you.

jazar10

haha true that would be awesome if i was in VA beach

um, its a 600W American Legacy. Its for the CB. Hooked up like a normal amp should be hooked up. I believe its an 8 gauge coming from the battery to the amp. and the same size wire for the ground. The REM is hooked up to the power by a switch though. The cb also has a 3.5mm to an RCA output plug. Tried hooking up a portable cd player to see if something would play, but no sound is coming out. so i ruled out the possibly of a bad RCA wire. Also, i know the speakers work because i used a 9v battery (the small square one) and put the speaker wire positive/neg on the battery and they made a sound like they are still working. The amp has a blue light on the top for show that still turns on even though no sound is given, or the green power and red protection lights never come on...

Could it possibly be the size of the speaker wire going to the speakers? im using the ones that came with speakers, and they are like 24 gauge.

eagle1978

ok, so if I'm understanding this you are using the amp to power a PA speaker correct? if that's what you have setup it's a decent idea except that you may have burned out the input of the amp as rca inputs on a car audio amp, except for few select amps, are low level only use a very low level current for signal and the output of the cb has too much power for the input, even though you have a 3.5mm to rca cable. try hooking up the pa speaker directly to the cb's pa output and see if that works, if so then it's probaly going to be the amp. also 8 guage wire is kind of small for that amp, even though it's not a high current amp, it should probably be a little larger, but that's also from an audio view you know. another thing to remember is that the amp you are using is designed to be used with that "type" of setup and it can't be good for the amp, as I'm sure your aware of now...lol. rad shack used to sell pa speakers that were self amplified, dont know they still do or not and that would be your best route to go in my opinion. good luck with it and let me know if you have any other ?'s, I'll help you out if I can through the web...lol.

jazar10

ok ill try something else through the RCA inputs and see if anything comes out of it. seems to be either than or the amps outputs. Not 100% tho... amp is about 5 years old too, so it could be that too. but my friend n i are going to take a closer look at everything tomorrow

jazar10

my friend and i check the amp on his system, turns out the amp is pulling electricity from something. And all its doing is blowing the fuse. Even if the fuse is in before we start connecting the wires. Fuse is at right Amps. We tried a new amp on my system, and its working perfectly. The amp i was using is junk now. probably because its old

eagle1978

I'm sorry to hear your amp is dead but good to hear you got it figured out.

jazar10

ah its ok... it was an old amp, it happens. Ordering a smaller 300w amp that can fit under the dash for 25 bucks free shipping. So its all good... ill update this i get it and install it

Sfy03

Not trying to hijack this thread...but looks like you got your problem figured out. Need some help with my setup:

Bought a PA Speaker and CB radio a couple of months back and am just now getting around to putting it in. I also picked up a small 250w amp to hook it up to as well.
What I'm trying to do:

Have the PA Speaker play music through my Radio Head Unit - and be able to hook the CB unit up to the PA Speaker as well (so I can play music through the speaker and also talk through the CB through the PA Speaker...not at the same time - seperately)
Thats where I assumed I needed an Amp...so here is where the amp is needed.

I'm not sure exactly how to wire this whole setup up, and could use some help....??

Here is what I'm thinking:
I'm wanting the Amp to have a on/off switch between it and the battery so it only powers on when I want it to (not a big deal..easy stuff)
I'm also wanting to be able to regulate between the Radio and CB playing through the PA Speaker - so I think i need a 3 way switch (off/Radio/CB)
Correct?

I just need a basic idea of how to do the wiring for this stuff!
Sorry for the NEWBIE questions...just needing some help!

Thanks so much for your time..i really appreciate it!!!

jazar10

nah your not hijacking it. I asked it not just for my reference, but for others too.

Now, the part where you said you want to have a switch to turn the amp on when you want it to turn on is completely possible. Just hook up a power to a switch and run the other wire on the switch to the REM on the amp. Its easy as that.

As for the other idea of having the headunit play music threw it along with a cb radio having the ability, im not 100% sure this can be done. There are such things as RCA splitters where one goes into 2. But no such RCA wire (that i know of) that goes from 2 RCA's to 1. If you find one, Please tell me where you bought it because i was thinking of doing the same thing