I used to have the 5' firestick mounted on my back bumper with a spring mount on my pickup and it worked great for several years. It took a beating bumping into things but still worked. I had the inexpensive model uniden cb and it matched perfectly, it did not have to be trimmed.

 

Actually Firestick II's don't need trimming (Cutting) if that is what you meant. They have a adjustable tip. I also like the fact that they are top loaded, rather than some of the Wilsons that are bottom and middle loaded.

And in all honesty I had a friend with a Wilson 1000 Magmount and I had the 5' FS II, and we sat side by side on a mountain and compaired the signal and audio with someone out in the distance. And it wasn't any reall difference. We had about the same signal strength and audio strength. Abd the only whay we walked on one another was by being the first to key up. If I keyed up first I walked on him, and if he keyed up first he walked on me.

The only thing is that the FS II has I higher drag coefficent seeing it is bigger than the stainless whip on the Wilson 1000.

Unless you get a beefy magmount, you will most likely blow a FS II off the roof at some point. I blew off my 3' FS II doing 70 into about 30MPH head winds gusting to about 40 MPH using the 5" K40 single magmount. Ripped it off 3 times, before I said screw it and threw it in the trunk. I ran the 4' FS II with a Tri-magnet mount. Then it never blew off.

 

I understand how the antenna is adjusted, this was a long time ago and for some reason I remember adjusting the antenna by checking it with a trim meter, and we used to call it trimming the antenna, but like I said that was along time ago. I was not talking about out performing other antennas, just how is was matched perfectly to my cb, and it lasted a long time. Also I did not have it mounted on my roof, that would not be smart, but had it mounted on my rear bumper with a spring mount and it worked that way for about 10 years with no problems. It did look redneck, but I was in savannah, georgia in the service so I fit right in. I don't remember if it was the 5' or 6'.

 

I appreciate this thread, it's been very helpful. So far from my understanding, i should get something similar to a galaxy 939 and for an antenna a firestix II 5' antenna.

That setup should let me contact almost all Semi's / CB Users on the highway, correct? Will I need 1 or 2 antenna's?

My other problem is that I plan on mounting these to the railing on the bed of my truck (F-250 in my sig) I also plan on having a tool box in the bed. I will also be doing off roading and driving through heavily wooded area's. Is there any suggestions as to a mounting system? I would like to mount them to the rear post holes in the bed.

Do you have any suggestions or comments as to improvements or likewise? Also, I would like information on where to order these parts from for a good suggestion. I can do computer parts and guns and such, but CB radios I'm still new to.

Thanks Guys

Matt

 

If you just want channel 19, the galaxy is a lot more radio than you need. For just that Freq look into the uniden they talked about a page ago. If your going to use a solid mount, I would skip the loaded fiberglass mast and just use a SS whip. As long as you don't have height problems, a full 1/4 wave mast will perform as well as the best loaded and for less money.

I've seen all kinds of mounting adapters to put ***** on the bed rails. I built one to fit my Pace Edwards Explorer Rails out of 2x6 box steel and had it powder coated. The Local machine shop let me dig through their scrap metal for a piece I liked, I took to my office, chopped the ends at 45 degrees, drilled a 5" hole in the bottom, and cut out the template on the top.

The two production adapters I've seen, one has a 1x1.5" tube that goes down into the stake pocket hole, then a flat plate is welded to the top. The other is just a flat plate, with four bolt holes to run self tappers into the rails.

 

thanks for the info. Does that channel change from state to state? Does anyone know where I could find that information?

Also, do you guys suggest 2 or 1 antenna's?

Sorry for hijacking the thread

 

The general Freq is ch19. When your on the interstate system, alot of people should be on it too.

You only need 1 antenna. Co phased antenna's offer a gain boost, but unless your familiar with the system the improvement is not worth the cost or effort.

 

Thanks for the info. I will be doing a bit of research because the item says a 48" antenna max for the truck stake hole mounts.

Also the answer to your question in your sig is either:

A: A Puma

or

B: Chupa thingy

 

Didn't I tell you stop making up animals?

Around here, the people I talk to wouldn't use anything less than 108" whip, I've use both the bolt down and stake pocket mount with ball, spring and 1/4 wave whip with no problems. You might try looking at other mounts if they don't want you using anything taller, unless you want a 4' loaded mast.

 

My point about the comparo between the W1000 and the FS II was that really they perform about the same.

While 108" whips work well, they just tend to hit everything where I live, and going down the freeway they flail all over the place.

Also just throwing out some info here. Co-phased arrays, have a transmitting pattern of a figure eight for the most part when they are roughly center to the ground plane, and are of Approx 102" to 110" Apart. Roughly 1/4 wave length. Closer spacing sometimes will mess with the radiating pattern, and or sometimes make it tough to match up the system.

When set up right this makes the creates a directional transmitting pattern, which causes transmit/reception nulls to the side. The reason you see Co-phased antennas on Big rigs is this benifit to them as adjacent noice is nulled out and the transmit powere is focused forward and rearward for better range.

Ideally setting a single anttena in the dead center of the ground plane makes the trans/receive signal mor omni dircetional. Shift that antten toward the rear of the car and it makes a radiated pattern mor twoards the front. NAd vice versa if you shift the antenna towards the front.

I do understand that setting the anttena dead center is easier said than done, and isn't always the preffered placement. I used to like my antenna toward the trunk area of my car, for a little directivity which was benifical for hunting signals for rabbit/fox hunting.

 

Does anyone have a suggestion for a mounting bracket to mount a whip antenna to the center of a two lid/door toolbox in the bed of my truck? (both lids/doors open towards the cab)

 

You'll need an "L" bracket. Better Built to used to have some nice aluminum ones, but you can bend one up out of diamond plate pretty easy. Bolt it on side of the box, usually pointing toward the tailgate.

 

I just got a Radio shack CB radio and mount and mic.... so ill be ordering the firestik II and some coax and a PA horn and ill be good to go!

 

On the CoAx, you have two main choices. RG58 is going to be the most prevelent, but I prefer mini-RG8U. There is slightly more shielding than RG-58, so it rejects slightly higher freq bleed through.

 

I am guessing you mini-RG8U, you are referring to Belden RG-8X. You can also get LMR240 which is the 0.002" smaller than RG-8X yet is just has about 0.1 to 0.2 db attenuation loss as RG-213/214. From 30Mhz -1.5Ghz. even though you only need it around 27Mhz.