Where is the best place to mount a cb antena? I know if you mount it right in front of the radio antena then it will hit it at high speeds, so is it best to put it on the left side in the hoods crack?
Thank you

 

The best place for transmitting power in all directions is right in the middle of the roof. Of course it might not look the best there, but that's usually the rule for antennas-high and ugly. The antenna uses the vehicles metal body as a ground plane. So having as much metal in all directions as you can gives the most power in all directions. If you put the antenna on the passenger side roof rail or hood, you will get the most power toward the opposite lane of traffic with little toward the shoulder of the road. The truckers have it figured out the best. The usually use two antennas on each side, phased together so they get maximum talk power forward and rearward. This gives them max talk power with truckers that are usually going the same direction they are.

 

hey,
im trying to put my whips onto my new truck, and i cant get them to work, i know it has to be somethign with the ground (when i turn my radio on nothing happens....no static or anythign at all) when you cut into the coax cable, the outer wire is the ground wire, right? and the inner insulated wire is the power which is hooked to the antennae, correct? man, its been so long since i dealt with mthese things i forgot how to do it. thanks for any help you may be able to give.
Mike S.
1979 F-100 302
1995 F-150 4.9L

 

That's correct.
Also, the length of coax is VERY Important in installing a CB.

All the connections to be soldered carefully to prevent a cold solder joint.
A Good ground.
The *Loaded* part of the antenna should be ABOVE the ground plane (your vehicle) not hindered by anything.


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Hey Everyone,

Hoping to get a little help in this area too. First, I've read somewhere that for optimum radio receiving and/or transmission (can't remember if just receiving or if on the transmission too) but they suggested putting one antenna on both sides of the vehicle. Now I am considering putting in a CB, VHF, and Scanner in my truck ('96 Ranger) and wondering if I should stick with two antennas per radio and if so, would I be better off waiting until I have my roll bar and lights mounted and mount four of the antennas on the light bar between the lights? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again guys. Have a great day.

James

 

All, One thing you need to keep in mind is the lower the frequency the lager ground plane needed. A CB is very low frequency and needs a large ground plane like the roof. However there are antennas sold that require no ground planes. The most important thing is when you are done to check you SWR with a good meter not the one that is in the radio if it has one. A rule of thumb is your reflected power should be less then 10% of you output power. Reflected power is the amount of power that is coming back down the antenna and back into your radio. To change the reflected power on a base load or long whip antenna you would trim the whip in short intervals till you obtain the lowest possible reflected power. Keep in mind that when you a tuning your antenna that your whole truck is your ground plane so shut the doors when testing your SWR. A good trick if you are not sure if your whip is to short or to long is to rap a piece of wire around the top of the antenna ant let it stick above the little ball by about 2” and take a reading if your reflected power goes up you know you have to cut more off.

If you plan on using two antennas you are creating what is called diversified antennas. When you do this, the lengths of the antenna coax have to be exactly the same length and a perfect wavelength to get proper phasing of the antennas. The length of the cable from the T is not critical. Keep in mind if you use two antennas that you will have a real hard time tuning them if you have never done it before. The only time I used two antennas is for low band fire radio when they are running 30MG and 40MG out of the same radio. This spread is to great to be transmitted out of one antenna.

I recommend a base load antenna (the kind with the little black base) and drill it into the center of the roof. This will give you the best results. I however have not been able to bring myself to drilling a hole in my truck.

If you are putting more then one frequency antenna on your truck make sure that you have adequate separation to keep from bleeding over into the other antenna systems during transmit.

Hope this helps

 

hey,
I'm still having the problem with the ground, i CANT FIGURE THIS OUT! its so aggravating, i cant believe how much trouble this is giving me! the way im set up is a 5/8" hole for my antenna hardware with the live wire connected to it, then a seperate hole and bolt for the ground wire....theyre not touching, what is going on man?
Mike S.

 

>hey,
>I'm still having the problem with the ground, i CANT FIGURE
>THIS OUT! its so aggravating, i cant believe how much
>trouble this is giving me! the way im set up is a 5/8" hole
>for my antenna hardware with the live wire connected to it,
>then a seperate hole and bolt for the ground wire....theyre
>not touching, what is going on man?
>Mike S.

Mike, I am assuming that you have the radio hooked up to power and a good gound corect? Even with the antenna disconected you should be able to hear noise at least. Turn your squelch all the way down and see if you get any noise at all. If you get nothing I think your radio or speaker is not working. Also when you transmit do you see your meter move at all?

 

Not much time except for a quick reply to the two antenna question. The reason truckers use two antennas is for gain purposes. With an antenna on either side of their truck the front and back gain is increased and the side gain is decreased. This is exactly what they want driving down a long, straight freeway. But for most people, an omni type is better, unless you want to turn your truck for better RX/TX. Your scanner, AM/FM, etc, won't be any better off with two antennas. Proper connections, good ground plane, and low SWR are the things to work on.
If you really want two antennas on your truck for a bit of directional gain you need: Two antennas spaced 12 feet apart,(can't be done on your truck, so give and take). Each antenna will need 12'3" of 75ohm coax,(TV coax). One end of the 75ohm coax goes to your antennas, then the two free ends get paralleled together and connected to a single 50ohm coax, forming a "T". That single 50ohm coax length isn't all that important, just keep it as short as possible. Run it into your CB. Good luck!

PS, helpful hint. The power ground on your CB is very important. When connecting it to your chassis, scrape down to bare metal and use a "star" washer to really dig in good and tight.

 

If you care to e-mail me I'll give you my phone number and talk you through it. If there's something I know it's CB's
Dan
Dherron001 @ juno.com

 

From what you have said , the first thing I would look at would NOT be a problem with the antenna . Since you said that there is no receive you should check your mic cord and make sure it is getting a good connection at the plug ( the pins may need spread apart ).

btw - forget running 2 live antennas , it's "practically" useless and the only thing you will gain from it is a headache , just run your coax to one antenna and leave the other one there for looks . If your really worried about being heard just pick up a cheap 100 dollar linear .

 

Hey, would it be a good idea to put dual whip anntenna's in some kind of fabricated plate put inside the rear stake pockets? i think it would look pretty good back there and out of the way.



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I repeat , running two live antennas is a waste of time , for the most part there is no gain in running dual live antenna's ! It's just not worth the hassle . You can put 2 antennas back there , but only run the coax to one of them .

The rear stake pockets aren't the ideal place for the antennas but it will work fine . As far as the stake pocket mounts go , you can find them if you look around . There is an antenna manufacturer in Youngstown , OH called TWINTRONICS they make antennas and mounts . There brand name is ANNTRON . I bought one of there stake pocket mounts and it worked great .
Heres another tip for you . Do not use rg58 for your coax (it's junk) . The ideal coax is called "mini 8 " .

 

There seems to be some confusion about placement of antenna, gain, feedline, ect.
An antenna will only throw out what's put into it. No more, no less. The whip you put on your truck is only half the antenna, your truck is the other half. The antenna is "like" the positive half, your truck the negitive half-or ground plane. Don't confuse ground plane with power ground, like on your battery. Ground plane is simular to the foundation on a house. If it's weak in one spot, the house leans one way. This can be an advantage in RF, if not in construction!
By placing your antenna on center mass, like on the center of the roof, it see's a solid level foundation and the antenna will transmit in a reletively circular, or omni pattern. When you tune your antenna, all your doing is fine tuning your positive to your negitive. The negitive is different, depending on location on the truck.
By moving the antenna one way or the other, like to a front fender mount, you throw the foundation off balance and less power is radiated from the weak spot and transfered in an other direction. The pattern is no longer circular, but might be oval shaped with different lobes shooting out. No longer omni, but directional. This means you might you might be able to talk with someone 10 miles away from the passenger side of your truck, but on the drivers side that same person might only have a 8 mile range. In effect, you're channeling the energy one way at the expense of the other.
The reason someone might want duel antennas is to have a very directional pattern. More like a flashlight than a lantern. Duellies channel pretty well if set up right. The problem is they need to be spaced at the proper distance or they just don't proform well. You see them all the time on each mirror of big rigs. The problem is they can't be spaced far enough apart without fear of taking out trees and other vehicles. The resulting pattern of the duel antennas being so close together is worse than an sigle omni antenna would be! A few installers have been known to take advantage of this by installing two antennas, but only connecting one. Time is money and it's quick and easy doing just one. As long as you get what you pay for, no harm done.
On your truck, to get close to the proper placement, you would need to install one antenna one the front left bumper and the other on the left rear bumper. Then the gain pattern would be perpendicular to a line between the antennas, or to either side of you truck. Not much gain to the front or back. This might be good for camping when you can park your truck and talk to anther camp.

That's it for now. I hate it when Ken complains about bandwidth! (Just kidding Ken.)

 

You guys gotta remember that this guys not trying to build a mega watt shoot-out vehicle . He just wants a cb system that works properly and looks good .
Putting the antenna in the center of the roof is UGLY ! And I'am sure he's not going to put them caddy corner on the bumpers , also UGLY .
I have found that the best place for the average guy to mount his antennas is in the stake pockets behind the cab (but as far away as possible), no drilling , it looks good and performs well .
If you guys want to discuss how to build a shootout vehicle ,start a new thread and I'll jump right in , but lets not confuse the guys that are just trying to put in a simple system .