I'm lost about the coax as a ground...you talkin bout taking the standard coax and using it as a ground?for what the antenna?or the radio or what?

Using standard coax cable for ground wire. Use the center of the coax as your ground. The outer will act as a shield.

my dad put mine in and i've been wanting to change it because it seems kinda... southern engineered....

he took the ground wire and screwed it to a screw inside the cab in my metal dash. *this is in my 79* he took the hot wire *which does have a fuse in it by the radio* and pulled the glass fuse out of my fuse box where it says CB and stuck the wire between the fuse and the box and shoved it back in there. Now that seems pretty wrong to me. While he was down there he found the wire that makes my radio hold it's preset memory and did the same thing, pulled the radio fuse out, stuck it between the contacts and the fuse and shoved the fuse back in there.

How do I fix it so it doesn't look like I'm a moron? the radio has quit holding it's presets again and the fuse isn't blown so I think I dislodged something when I was trying to fix the stupid heater stuff that's under there.

just so you know ahead of time, my understanding of how all this works is like 0...

Not a CLUE on the radio preset thing...

But the "best" way to wire up the radio would be to run the wire straight to the battery. What I did, is take the power cord for the CB (mine unplugs from the radio, some do not) and extend it with 12 gauge (I think) wire so that it would reach the battery routed where I wanted it. I stripped the ends of the wire, slid some heat-shrink over one end, twisted them together, then soldered them together, pulled the heat-shrink over the joint, and shrunk it.

Then I got the wire routed where I wanted it, with the free ends near the battery. I put an in-line fuse as close to the battery as I could, even though there's one right by the radio, so that I could protect more of the wiring in case of a short. Picked it up at Radio Shack, soldered in the same as described above.

Then, I kinda cheated a little, and got crimp-on ring terminals. Took a little doing to find ones big enough for the screws on my battery clamps for 12 gauge wire. Crimped 'em on, and hooked it up.

Don't take this as absolute, though...I make no claims about being skilled with electronic stuff. (Or much of anything else...)

so running it through the fuse box isn't the same as putting it straight to the battery with another inline fuse? i don't even know how to put it in the fuse box but i'm sure if i got under there and started taking things apart i cld figure it out. just don't know if i'd figure it out before i had to go to work the next day.

this truck apparently came with the under the seat cb that ford was putting in them back then because when we were checking behind the dash to make sure we were going to clear the wires I found another cb antenna wire that wasn't from my Wilson magnetic one on the roof. my uncle had said it looked like a cb antenna the way it's bare at the top and turns out he was right. *shrug* so i've got two antennas. if it's not connected does it still interfere with the one i'm using?