I have a midlen minni cb in my truck with a small external speaker and a stick type antena. I can hardly ever pick anything up on it any one got any advice?

 

Have you tested the SWR on your antenna setup? While it's really a test for transmitting it can clue you in on a ground plane issue with the antenna. Make sure the antenna has a good solid ground to the chassis (on the shield side of the antenna connector, not the center conductor, that'd be a short and that would be bad for the finals in the radio)

Where is your antenna mounted? How long is the antenna? By stick style I'm assuming 3-5 feet?

If your cb has a squelch setting have you tried playing with that? And are you sure anyone is talking in the area?

 

my antenna is about 4 feet and I have it mounted on the center of the bed rail behind the cab.

 

The cab is likely blocking a good portion of your reception. Generally at least the top 50% of the antenna should be above the rest of the vehicle if possible.

I'm assuming being a stick type that it's a top loaded antenna which should help, however I'd try moving the antenna to at least one of the sides of the bed and check that it's got a good ground. I know that's an issue for some as the vehicle isn't symmetrical unless you'd add an antenna to the other side (and then there's the whole dummy antenna vs co-phased issue)

The good ground is required because unless you're running a zero ground plane antenna, the vehicle is the other half of the antenna, and if the antenna doesn't have a good ground it'll really mess with you. Antennas and radio need good grounds to work good.

 

i got a semi truck mount and mounted my antenna to my mirror

 

I had a 3ft mag-mount on the cab roof and though that was pretty small, I can only imagine how much worse a 4-footer behind the cab is. I have a friend who runs a 102" whip bolted to the driver-side of his rear bumper and it actually looks pretty decent and works great too as there's a huge part of the antenna that is not blocked by anything. Unfortunately since I cannot do the same as her next week I will be installing a 6ft whip on in the top rear driver-side corner of my slide-in, may install one on the other side too for looks but only the driver-side one will be powered... Unless I decide to go with the co-phased 4ft fiberglass antennas with spring-bases so when I hit overhead power lines they don't zap me, lol

 

And for those thinking of running a co-phase dual antenna setup, you gotta make sure you do it right. You'll hear a lot of people say you can't run dual antennas on our small trucks and that you need a big rig to get them far enough apart. I don't think the issue is so much that you can't run dual antennas on our trucks (the antenna distance affects the RF transmission patterns and biases farther range ahead of and behind you and lowers your left/right range) The biggest issue I think most run into is running a PROPER co-phase system. Many people will buy a T fitting and two single cables to hook up 2 antennas... that's a no-no. To run a proper co-phase system you need to make up a co-phase harness. Standard CB coax is 50ohm cable, in a co-phase you need to use 75ohm cable from the T to each antenna. The reason is the radio needs to see a 50ohm load, and the 75 ohm cable acts as a balun so the radio sees the same 50 ohm load. And remember this isn't like measuring ohms on your multimeter.

Then once you have the right cable, you need to get the right lengths. The distance from the T to each antenna has to be THE SAME (else you delay one antenna from the other, which in our case isn't wanted (though that effect can be used to help in other instances)). The cable from the T to the antennas should also be a distance that is a 1/4 wave multiple of the frequency used (figure channel 19 to center the band) and to calculate the 1/4 wave length you need some math and you need to know the velocity factor of the coax. And you can say "oh I'll save the trouble and just by a pre-made co-phase harness" but alas a good many of those are built wrong as well....

Rupe do you ever sleep?? Though I suppose the same could be said of me haha

 

Top center of the cab seems to be the best spot for an antenna. I have had a couple different ones including a firestick on the front fender, best reception so far is from the 4' mag base one I got up there right now. Very important to use the SWR meter though and use it properly! Make sure nobody is touching the vehicle when your tuning it in.

 

Make a mount/stand to raise the antenna to a better height ... Ensure the base is grounded.

The coax should be 18' ... PERIOD! No more, no less!
Do not coil the remaining coax, if anything coil it then squeeze the coil into a bow with a zip tie or fold it back and forth under carpet or something.

Then set the SWR, SWR meters are real cheap.

-Enjoy
fh : )_~