Has anyone come up with a good mounting location for a CB antennae when pulling a fifth wheel with an F350 CC... I've tried a mount location on the front driver side halfway between the windshield and the grille on a mount located between the hood and the fender...It doesn't have good range...I don't want to put the antennae on the mirror(s) and the unit is 12'9" high so putting it on the roof won't work...
Any suggestions?

 

behind the cab. on the inside of the bed. front left wall. try this thats where my friends is.

1978 F-250 Ranger Explorer 4x4
351M, C-6, Np205, D44, D60 4.10LS

Drive It Like You Stole It!!!

 

I've messed around with CB antennas alot, both on trucks (single and dual setups, steel and fiberglass whips, base loaded, center load, and continuous loaded) and on top of my house and even inside my attic.

What I've found is that the single best antenna money can buy (for vehicle application), for both recieve and transmit, is the standard 1/4-wave 102" steel whip, mounted on a heavy duty spring and thread-on stud mount (so the total length is about 108", an exact 1/4 wave-length on the 27MHZ scale). Incidentally, the whip only costs about $25 at Radio Shack, the spring another ten bucks, and the mount another 5 bucks. Pretty cheap for such a great antenna!

The '102' antenna has superior bandwidth (usable frequency range, if you like to talk on 'funny channels') to just about any other antenna I have tried (the Francis Amazer 8' fiberglass whip is about equal and the Super Penetrator is pretty good too, but it is an ugly monstrosity). I've gotten as wide as about 2.5 MHZ spread out of a 102 before (mid 26's to high 29's, all useable for barefoot TX, only part of it with an amp). The 102 also has superior recieve sensitivity and excellent transmit strength, when tuned properly (SWR match).

The best place to mount such an antenna is in the center of a large flat metal surface, such as your roof. The large flat metal surface gives the antenna a 'ground plane' to work from. A large ground plane (like the roof of a Crew Cab truck) will allow you to get an excellent 'match' (SWR reading) on the antenna and omnidirectional signal output.

The '102' really shines when it's on a good ground plane. I have mounted them right above the dome light in the roof on a Firestik disc-mount (a 3/8 stud mount with huge washers that sandwich the roof metal so the antenna doesn't bag out the mounting hole). It's an easy mount, just pop open the dome light, remove the inner housing, and drill a small pilot hole (1/8") up through the roof. Go up on top of the roof and finish the hole with a 3/8" drill. Put some silicone around the stud, use the rubber gaskets that are provided with the disc mount and it won't leak. Then use 18' of RG8X (mini-8) coax and you're good to go!

I have talked all over the world (skip shooting) with that exact antenna setup. I've also talked quite long distances locally (non-skip) with that setup. If you like to run power (linear amp) with your radio, the '102' can handle plenty. I've put 400 watts through it no problem.

A more expensive stainless steel spring will outlast the chrome plated ones if you live in a wet climate and the whip won't rust cause it's stainless too. The 102 is a tall antenna, so you may want to use a Hustler QD2 quick disconnect with it so you can take it off with a twist of the wrist. I usually just pulled the end of mine down and stuck it in the stake pocket when going through drive throughs and such, just had to remember to pull it back out before keying up the mic.

Anyways, there's my experience with CB radio antennas. Have fun!

 

SoCal, Sounds like you are a world wide bucket mouth broadcaster.

standing by readin da mail

John

 

I kinda like the way this looks:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...p?userid=57341

 

Cant tell about the stuff like so cal can but I and a couple of guys I run with have good luck with the wilson and K40 antennas. I have a wilson 1000 mounted on the truck box, gets better swr on the roof but on the back edge of the box it still works well. Distance to talk/receive depends on the sun spots. I run a lil wil on my ranger in same area and like today we were talking a good 8 miles with no linears, just tuned and peaked radios. Cobra 25 LTD in the ranger, cobra 29 in my F350. My friend runs a galaxy in his dodge dually and the K40 and we both can get out pretty well. I can hear farther than I can talk the way I am set up. Another guy we talk to runs a K40 on his 2000 F250 CC and again we can talk a couple of miles. Dont know what radio he runs but it works, a good mic makes a lot of difference. Go to a big truck stop with a CB shop and they can hook ya up with a good rig with a mag mount if ya are like me and dont want to drill holes in the truck.

Now with a 5er and that big block in behind ya I cannot tell how ya will get out particularly to the rear, but as described it should work for what ya want/need.

 

I mounted mine off the mirrors. Found some straight brackets and drilled holes through mirror mounts and have 36" antennas off of them. Works good. I have a dual set up, one going to the radio and the other the cb. Also plan on getting some rubber grommets and running the wires under my mirror mounts.

 

I use ham radios now and haven't messed with CBs for about 30 years, but same principals apply.

I'd get a short antenna with a nice loading coil and mount it to the roof of the trailer and run the coax back to the truck. Blockage problem solved.

At 27 MHz the loss of the coax will be minimal, especially when compared to the improved performance due the elimination of blockage. If the trailer has any areas of diamond plate on the ceiling that you can use for a ground plane, then that's even better.

 

darylhunter, wouldnt one of those marine antennas with the ground built into the wire work as you are describing? They are supposed to work on fiberglass boats. Only thing with this is like when I had my camper on the back of the truck, once you take it off you still need an antenna to hook up to and that means either another antenna!

 

Yes, that would work - though anything you can do to improve the ground plane helps.

True about the second antenna, but sometimes that's what it takes.

I keep toying with the idea of putting an HF rig in the truck, but now that the sunspot cycle is on the down turn I guess I have a while before I need to get serious about that again.

The whole antenna business gets even more complicated as you drop down in frequency from the 27-29 MHz range (CB and 10 m Ham band) and down to 14 and 7 MHz (20 and 40 m ham bands). All of the loading and tuning bandwidth issues mentioned by SoCal above get that much tougher. Fortunately most of the newer mobile ham rigs are available with automatic antenna tuners.

 

For years, I used to talk on it all the time. Met some great friends too. Now I hardly even turn it on, but still have some of the friendships .

 

The no-ground antennas do work, but not anywhere near as good as a conventional antenna (in my experience anyways). I still have one mounted on the eve of the apex of my house from the last time I experimented with it. Too lazy to climb up there and take it down. That one was hooked up to a powerful radio, but quacked like a true mud duck (poor range, barely got over the static). The swr match wasnt all that great on it either. Couldn't use many funny channels and definitely no amp. It didn't do any better on my camper either.

 

Hank, the Wilson 1000 is about the best mag mount base loaded antenna I've tried. K40 does ok, not quite as good, in a back to back comparison on the same truck and same radio. Neither were as good as a 102" steel whip, especially for recieve. If you have height restrictions, or need a mag mount, the Wilson is a good one. 102's can be mag-mounted, but a tripple-mag mount is the best way so it doesn't blow off the truck. The 3-mag mounts are expensive and ugly... The 7' Firestik (or somewhere around that height) is a good antenna too. Main drawback is they're heavy and need a very strong mounting point. There are alot of cheapie Firestik imposters though that don't work nearly as well.

I agree a good mic does help. Shure makes some great mics! www.shure.com