cb antenna
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Elder User
Joined: Aug 2008
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From: 50450 IOWA
cb antenna
hello all start ou i have a 94 f250 supercab and lookin for a good cb antenna. i have come across wilsons trucker 2000 and 5000 but i think ill mount it on my front fender so question is ive heard you want the coil above the cab is my best option to go with the sw2000? anyone with any these antenns or any infor would really help thanks
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Joined: Dec 2007
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From: woodville, tx
Just a thought... i have had cobra's in every vehicle i have driven, and i have always had great luck with a 4' firestick mounted centerbed rail behind the cab. i have had it explained to me several times that you want it center cab to allow the signal to have the cab as a reflector for better all around signal. but i also had the best with a 12' straight steel whip on a 97 nissan kingcab. with out the boomer on i reach out about 5-7 miles, with boomer about 20-25. the firestick with adj tip is a great antenna for all arouind use...
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For best two-way radio performance, basically you want:
1. As much of the antenna as possible as high and clear as possible.
2. The antenna centered as well as possible over the ground plane (the metal of the vehicle)
3. A resonant antenna.
and
4. As much capture area as possible.
The ideal answer would be a full quarter wavelength whip (102-108") mounted at the top center of the roof.
Very few people are willing to use a roof mounted quarter-wave whip on any vehicle, and admittedly there are problems with this mounting location on something as tall as an F250 unless you live in the desert. (Many years ago, I did have a full quarter wavelength stainless steel whip mounted to the front center of the luggage rack on a station wagon -- it occasionally did bad things to unprotected fluorscent lights under drive thru canopies).
The trick is to try to balance the compromises based on what you are willing to do.
The firestick generally gets good reviews. Basically the firestick is a quarter wavelenght of heavy copper wire wrapped around a fiberglass pole. They wrap the bottom in wide-spaced coils with the wire at the top wrapped in tight spaced coils to take up all the left over wire. Because the wire is coiled (which adds inductance) the actual wire length used is somewhat less than a true quarter wavelength, to achieve resonance. All the different length firesticks (and all the decent copies) are the same design. The shorter firesticks just have more of the wire tight-wound at the top (and slightly less total wire).
A true quarter wavelength antenna will give you low SWR over a fairly broad range of frequencies. Anything shorter than a quarter wavelength uses some sort of loading coil which adds inductance and shortens the overall length. As you move to ANY kind of loaded antenna the bandwidth will be less; generally the shorter the antenna the more heavily it has to be loaded and therefore the narrower the bandwidth. Having narrow bandwidth isn't a problem IF you use the same channel all or most of the time (or you only really care about performance on one channel).
BOTTOM LINE: Use the longest antenna that you are willing to mount in the highest spot you are willing to live with.
REAL WORLD COMPROMIST: A four-foot Firestick mounted on the cowl will do an good job without looking too ugly and without hitting too many obstacles for most people.
There is an excellent thread on the site about mounting a CB antenna on the cowl. I don't have the time to search for it right now, but I think it was in the SuperDuty forum. There is also a very detailed How To article about that installation with great pictures somewhere here on the FTE website.
1. As much of the antenna as possible as high and clear as possible.
2. The antenna centered as well as possible over the ground plane (the metal of the vehicle)
3. A resonant antenna.
and
4. As much capture area as possible.
The ideal answer would be a full quarter wavelength whip (102-108") mounted at the top center of the roof.
Very few people are willing to use a roof mounted quarter-wave whip on any vehicle, and admittedly there are problems with this mounting location on something as tall as an F250 unless you live in the desert. (Many years ago, I did have a full quarter wavelength stainless steel whip mounted to the front center of the luggage rack on a station wagon -- it occasionally did bad things to unprotected fluorscent lights under drive thru canopies).
The trick is to try to balance the compromises based on what you are willing to do.
The firestick generally gets good reviews. Basically the firestick is a quarter wavelenght of heavy copper wire wrapped around a fiberglass pole. They wrap the bottom in wide-spaced coils with the wire at the top wrapped in tight spaced coils to take up all the left over wire. Because the wire is coiled (which adds inductance) the actual wire length used is somewhat less than a true quarter wavelength, to achieve resonance. All the different length firesticks (and all the decent copies) are the same design. The shorter firesticks just have more of the wire tight-wound at the top (and slightly less total wire).
A true quarter wavelength antenna will give you low SWR over a fairly broad range of frequencies. Anything shorter than a quarter wavelength uses some sort of loading coil which adds inductance and shortens the overall length. As you move to ANY kind of loaded antenna the bandwidth will be less; generally the shorter the antenna the more heavily it has to be loaded and therefore the narrower the bandwidth. Having narrow bandwidth isn't a problem IF you use the same channel all or most of the time (or you only really care about performance on one channel).
BOTTOM LINE: Use the longest antenna that you are willing to mount in the highest spot you are willing to live with.
REAL WORLD COMPROMIST: A four-foot Firestick mounted on the cowl will do an good job without looking too ugly and without hitting too many obstacles for most people.
There is an excellent thread on the site about mounting a CB antenna on the cowl. I don't have the time to search for it right now, but I think it was in the SuperDuty forum. There is also a very detailed How To article about that installation with great pictures somewhere here on the FTE website.
More Turbo
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 555
Likes: 2
From: Washington state
For best two-way radio performance, basically you want:
1. As much of the antenna as possible as high and clear as possible.
2. The antenna centered as well as possible over the ground plane (the metal of the vehicle)
3. A resonant antenna.
and
4. As much capture area as possible.
The ideal answer would be a full quarter wavelength whip (102-108") mounted at the top center of the roof.
Very few people are willing to use a roof mounted quarter-wave whip on any vehicle, and admittedly there are problems with this mounting location on something as tall as an F250 unless you live in the desert. (Many years ago, I did have a full quarter wavelength stainless steel whip mounted to the front center of the luggage rack on a station wagon -- it occasionally did bad things to unprotected fluorscent lights under drive thru canopies).
The trick is to try to balance the compromises based on what you are willing to do.
The firestick generally gets good reviews. Basically the firestick is a quarter wavelenght of heavy copper wire wrapped around a fiberglass pole. They wrap the bottom in wide-spaced coils with the wire at the top wrapped in tight spaced coils to take up all the left over wire. Because the wire is coiled (which adds inductance) the actual wire length used is somewhat less than a true quarter wavelength, to achieve resonance. All the different length firesticks (and all the decent copies) are the same design. The shorter firesticks just have more of the wire tight-wound at the top (and slightly less total wire).
A true quarter wavelength antenna will give you low SWR over a fairly broad range of frequencies. Anything shorter than a quarter wavelength uses some sort of loading coil which adds inductance and shortens the overall length. As you move to ANY kind of loaded antenna the bandwidth will be less; generally the shorter the antenna the more heavily it has to be loaded and therefore the narrower the bandwidth. Having narrow bandwidth isn't a problem IF you use the same channel all or most of the time (or you only really care about performance on one channel).
BOTTOM LINE: Use the longest antenna that you are willing to mount in the highest spot you are willing to live with.
REAL WORLD COMPROMIST: A four-foot Firestick mounted on the cowl will do an good job without looking too ugly and without hitting too many obstacles for most people.
There is an excellent thread on the site about mounting a CB antenna on the cowl. I don't have the time to search for it right now, but I think it was in the SuperDuty forum. There is also a very detailed How To article about that installation with great pictures somewhere here on the FTE website.
1. As much of the antenna as possible as high and clear as possible.
2. The antenna centered as well as possible over the ground plane (the metal of the vehicle)
3. A resonant antenna.
and
4. As much capture area as possible.
The ideal answer would be a full quarter wavelength whip (102-108") mounted at the top center of the roof.
Very few people are willing to use a roof mounted quarter-wave whip on any vehicle, and admittedly there are problems with this mounting location on something as tall as an F250 unless you live in the desert. (Many years ago, I did have a full quarter wavelength stainless steel whip mounted to the front center of the luggage rack on a station wagon -- it occasionally did bad things to unprotected fluorscent lights under drive thru canopies).
The trick is to try to balance the compromises based on what you are willing to do.
The firestick generally gets good reviews. Basically the firestick is a quarter wavelenght of heavy copper wire wrapped around a fiberglass pole. They wrap the bottom in wide-spaced coils with the wire at the top wrapped in tight spaced coils to take up all the left over wire. Because the wire is coiled (which adds inductance) the actual wire length used is somewhat less than a true quarter wavelength, to achieve resonance. All the different length firesticks (and all the decent copies) are the same design. The shorter firesticks just have more of the wire tight-wound at the top (and slightly less total wire).
A true quarter wavelength antenna will give you low SWR over a fairly broad range of frequencies. Anything shorter than a quarter wavelength uses some sort of loading coil which adds inductance and shortens the overall length. As you move to ANY kind of loaded antenna the bandwidth will be less; generally the shorter the antenna the more heavily it has to be loaded and therefore the narrower the bandwidth. Having narrow bandwidth isn't a problem IF you use the same channel all or most of the time (or you only really care about performance on one channel).
BOTTOM LINE: Use the longest antenna that you are willing to mount in the highest spot you are willing to live with.
REAL WORLD COMPROMIST: A four-foot Firestick mounted on the cowl will do an good job without looking too ugly and without hitting too many obstacles for most people.
There is an excellent thread on the site about mounting a CB antenna on the cowl. I don't have the time to search for it right now, but I think it was in the SuperDuty forum. There is also a very detailed How To article about that installation with great pictures somewhere here on the FTE website.
Nice write up there, one correction the Firestick II's are 5/8th's wave antenna. I also prefer that it is top loaded rather than center or bottom loaded.
I like them because they are rigid, and don't flail around going down the freeway, whaich also screws up your SWR, especially if your running a 102 whip with power.
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From: Edgewierd
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