Antenna is where I would start…Not sure you said what length the antenna is, but “taller the better” when it comes to CB Antenna’s…Me personally, I only run Predator 10K antenna’s, mainly because of all the antenna’s I have used over the years (1973-to date) I have yet to find one that works any better. There are several different versions of the Predator’s so that they can be ran on just about any application so if there is a over-all height issue Predator should have a antenna that will work, although IMO the best one is the original single coil 10K…Problem with it tho if your mounting it on a mirror bracket, the thing is about 7′ tall…The (SW) dual coil 10K tunes at around 4.5 to 5′.
As for grounding doors and the radios case, usually you do that to try and get rid of engine noises, not to boost signal…If your SWR is low (1.1 to 1.5 then I doubt the antenna needs any further grounding or SWR would be much higher)
In some cases, 2 miles on a CB is not too bad, if the channels are just jammed with traffic, but on a clear day with little noise you should be able to get out at least double that with just a regular 4w radio…
As for your radio, I had one of the first generation Stryker 440’s, which is basically the same as the one you have only it only had one color for the lights “blue”…Great radio.
Two things I would do to be able to contact those stations you hear that are hundreds of miles out, or even 10-20 miles out, is change antenna’s to one that is taller (not shorter than 5′) and install a Amp that is rated 300-400w’s. (4-pill) something like the Texas Star 350 or 500V would be perfect…Or check out some of the custom amps like XForce, Davemade, Fat Boy(if you can find one)…
Just to give you some idea of what a amp can do, in my Toyota Tacoma I run a little Uniden 520xl radio that keys 2w’s and only swings to about 5w’s…I have a Predator 10K single coil antenna mounted on a riser (pole) in the back of the truck which puts the antenna mount even with my roof top…I also have a 1×2 amp hooked up, so that little Uniden radio is putting out over 300w’s…I can talk to some of my buddys with this set-up over 25 miles away on channel 19 in the late afternoons on my way home from work with no problems. (they are on their base’s on the other side of town) I can also get my name called in DX with the same set-up
Uniden 520xl is just a small $50 radio…similar to a Cobra 19…But when you hear it, you wouldn’t know it, plus it has as good of a receive as just about any other radio I have had at triple that price. (or more)
Point is, I highly doubt there’s anything wrong with the radio you have, just need a different antenna and a amp.
