General C.B. Questions and question for full hard top owners with C.B.'s

[zombie66]

I know there is some great C.B. radio info out there but I had a couple questions I didnt see answers to.
1) Does anyone know if you lose transmitting / recieving power by using one of the spring loaded quick disconnects for the antennae? And same question for adding a spring to the antennae for trail use?
2) For those of you running full hard tops and C.B.'s. I just aqcuired a full top with a C.B. antennae hole in the middle front of the top that is currently plugged. My thought was to unplug it and run my antennae from the same spot but I wanted to check in and see if anyone had experience with this.
Pros:from what I've read it sounds like the perfect location and ground plane for a c.b. antennae.
Cons: bronco is always parked in the garage so do I use a disconnect? some sort of antennae mount that can flip down the antennae for storage?
Any ideas would help and be apreciated, thanks
Kevin

 

[phred]

The center of the top is the idea place for the antenna. A magnetic mount is an option and so is just unscrewing the antenna from the base. Mine is mounted on the rear bumper due to clearance issues and the signal is ok but not optimal.

 

[zombie66]

I definately want to do this the best and right way I can. At one time I used one of the spring loaded antennae quick disconnects that go between the base and the antennae. It worked great for removing it when needed, but I was always concerned I was losing antennae strength because of it.

 

[Viperwolf1]

You will lose some power in the spring mount. With a properly installed system it shouldn't make much difference though. Hardtop is a good location. Anywhere metal (with good ground) with a lot of height that is unobsured by other grounded metal parts will work well. Otherwise you will affect the directivity (gain in a particular direction) of the antenna. You probably want it to work equally well in all directions.

 

[Bronchole]

Although on paper you may slightly impact the strength of the transmitted signal by using a spring the primary concern is that the match of the antenna is corect. This will be different with and without the spring.

The quick disconnect things will have almost the same effect as the spring. The couple QD's I ran back in the 1980's I wasn't very impressed with. They didn't have a good snug fit when installed so I was concerned that as the antenna was swinging around that it could cause static on transmit and receive. I also wasn't sure how it would impact the 600W foot warmer either

 

[zombie66]

Great advice. I'm leaning towards ditching the quick disconnect idea and just run a spring with the matching antennae and cable. thanks for all the info and help you guys. I kept coming across old threads mentioning the "Wilson" brand C.B. antennae so I will have to look for one of those.

 

[Bronchole]

The Wilson is a base loaded steel whip like the K40. These antennas will not accept a spring. The whip is quite flexable but I don't think that any antenna is going to tolerate being pulled in to and out of a garage often if it is mounted on the roof. It's too sharp of a bend.

Using a spring on this sharp of a bend will also likly result in the spring being bent.

Just throwing out a few warnings for you.

 

[zombie66]

Thanks Bronchole I didnt realize that. Starting to get the impression I need to sacrifice some performance and just mount it on my tire carrier. Im not sure Ive ever seen anyone run an antennae on the roof of their full top even though it's the best location. I'm still not sure what I'll do but thanks for the help. I'm still hoping a full hard top guy or gal will pop in and enlighten me on what worked for them.

 

[Bronchole]

On top is fine. On top and normally parking the garage, not so much

If you mount it on the rack make sure to run a braided ground strap from the rack to the frame. It will help out allot with the antennas performance and make matching it allot easier.

Here is the 102" on the back of mine:

 

[zombie66]

Thanks. Would it help to split the ground strap to the frame and also attach it to a bolt on the hard top? Would that spread the grounding plane through the whole hardtop or am I missing the point? Thanks for the pic too.

 

[Bronchole]

I think you are referring to splicing the shield on the coax..... Don't!

What I was referring to is call bonding. It's a way of making sure that the metal parts that make up the ground plane are well connected (in a RF kind of way) to each other. This makes for a better ground plane and also reduces possible sources for variability and noise.

It is important to use braid, not twisted wire. It has to do with how RF energy travels thru the individule strands that make up the bonding strap. If you decide to mount your antenna to the roof and you want to insure 100% the best antenna system you can then you should bond the hard top to the fenders at the door post on both sides. The fenders should also be bonded to the frame rails on both sides.

The best materials to use for this is 12ga or heavier flat braid, crimp on ring lugs, self tapping screws and zink coated star washers. I have known people to use lengths of coax shield to do the bonding, but its not what I am confortable with.

Good luck on your 10-8 project, 73's & 33's

Apollo 3 out!

 

[gr8scott]

I run a 4' firestick on the top of my tire carrier and often talk to a guy on a neighboring island,
over a hundred miles away. I do live at 3000' though, so that helps. here's the antenna I used:
http://www.rightchannelradios.com/f...tik-fs-cb-antenna-kit-single-antenna-296.html

Be sure to properly tune your radio with a SWR meter, but I'm sure you already knew that.

Scott

 

[Bronchole]

The 4' firestick is perfect for that type of mount because the "working side" of the antenna is above the hard top.

At 100 miles I would suspect that is a short skip, not a direct shot. Still pretty nice.

 

[gr8scott]

I actually have line-of sight with the other island, so I'm sure its not a skip, but I could be wrong.

 

[zombie66]

I run a 4' firestick on the top of my tire carrier and often talk to a guy on a neighboring island,
over a hundred miles away. I do live at 3000' though, so that helps. here's the antenna I used:
http://www.rightchannelradios.com/f...tik-fs-cb-antenna-kit-single-antenna-296.html

Be sure to properly tune your radio with a SWR meter, but I'm sure you already knew that.

Scott

That's a pretty impressive distance and thanks for the link. Are you running a soft or hard top on your bronco?

 

[zombie66]

I think you are referring to splicing the shield on the coax..... Don't!

What I was referring to is call bonding. It's a way of making sure that the metal parts that make up the ground plane are well connected (in a RF kind of way) to each other. This makes for a better ground plane and also reduces possible sources for variability and noise.

It is important to use braid, not twisted wire. It has to do with how RF energy travels thru the individule strands that make up the bonding strap. If you decide to mount your antenna to the roof and you want to insure 100% the best antenna system you can then you should bond the hard top to the fenders at the door post on both sides. The fenders should also be bonded to the frame rails on both sides.

The best materials to use for this is 12ga or heavier flat braid, crimp on ring lugs, self tapping screws and zink coated star washers. I have known people to use lengths of coax shield to do the bonding, but its not what I am confortable with.

Good luck on your 10-8 project, 73's & 33's

Apollo 3 out!

I knew what you meant about not messing with shield with the coax. But I am glad you specifired braided over standard wiring for grounding the top to the frame, etc.

 

[Bronchole]

100 mile line of site? I think I may do some math tomorrow.

 

[half cab]

I mounted two aftermarket motorcycle headlamp ears to my s.tire carrier and the magnet mount antenna sets there just fine and when I need to move it out of the way I just stick it around to the upper rear panel.Gets out pretty good right there.

Gene

 

[nabes68]

any where there is a good ground will work if your not running a linear and not trying to talk to friends 100 miles away a magnet mount will be perfact i have a cobra nightwatch and i run a magnet mount works good for trails and 10 mile + or - range on flat land its all in your swr tuning get a meter stop by a cb shop or truck stop they will have one oh and take it to a cb shop have them tune it tweek it max it out what ever they want to call it should be around 25$

 

[zombie66]

Great advice Gene and Nabes68 . $25 bucks is a smoking deal to have someone tune things up. Thanks for all your input and the pics.