CB antennas?

PirateJohn · #1 03-04-2008

The previous owner took the CB antenna out although the radio is still there.

Question #1. Does anyone know how tall an antenna you can get away with on the front of a PT-40 and not go over 13' 6" total height?

Question #2. And suggestions for a good quality shorty antenna?

Question #3. Short CB antennas, at least in my experience, have really poor performance. Does anyone have any experience with alternative antennas on their 'birds? Can a person install something like a fiberglass whip and have it laying horizontally and expect decent performance? What about mouting a large antenna on the rear bumper - would 40 ft. of coax cause tremendous signal loss?

I am open to suggestions.

iamflagman · #2 03-04-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by PirateJohn

The previous owner took the CB antenna out although the radio is still there.

Question #1. Does anyone know how tall an antenna you can get away with on the front of a PT-40 and not go over 13' 6" total height?

Question #2. And suggestions for a good quality shorty antenna?

Question #3. Short CB antennas, at least in my experience, have really poor performance. Does anyone have any experience with alternative antennas on their 'birds? Can a person install something like a fiberglass whip and have it laying horizontally and expect decent performance? What about mouting a large antenna on the rear bumper - would 40 ft. of coax cause tremendous signal loss?

I am open to suggestions.

I have been a CB nut for years starting back in 1970 in my over the road truck and then using them in all of my escort/flag car vehicles and in my old work van I actually used two CB's at the same time while moving the big loads. I have transmitted on regular Am, plus FM and Upper and Lower Side Bands and I have a RCI 2990 base station here in the office, so I have experimented with numerous styles of mobile and base style antennas, so when I retired from my business, I took my best radio a Galaxy DX99 out of my work van and installed it in my "Bird, I then installed a Wilson 1000, that has since been replaced on the market with the 200 model, on the roof of my 'Bird using an existing hole that had been plugged, but the whip on the Wilson is 3 feet long and it would certainly strike overpasses and tree branches on occasion which would eventually damage it. So this is what I did with it.

http://www.pbase.com/iamflagman/image/37202640

Since installing the antenna this way, it has occasionally come in contact with extremely low branches, like the ones going to Randy's house which he has since trimmed back. When this happens it sometimes removes the whips tip from the Lexan holder and springs up to it's full height, but then I can hear it if it hits anything and I have always been able to find a shoulder to pull over onto and then I just climb up on top and reinsert the end into the Lexan holder.

What kind of performance have I gotten out of this setup, well I usually have no problems talking at least two miles and more on it on regular AM CB and during perfect conditions even further than that. The location of the antena on the roof of your 'bird will greatly affect the performance as far as signal strength in a given direction, ideally locating the antenna in the middle of the roof is the best place but sometimes that is not convenient, so my location seems to work the best for me.

Here is a good reference to read about the different styles of mobile antennas http://www.signalengineering.com/ult..._antennas.html

PirateJohn · #3 03-04-2008

Thanks John. You dah man!

sweeperman · #4 03-04-2008

Ive used John Finn,s CB attten mod on my 1980 bird works grreat

sfedeli · #5 03-05-2008

John,

I used a pair of 3' mirror-mount truck antennas and just swept them back at about 30 degrees so that the height did not exceed 12'6" with air bags up. Here is the east, I've been running with them for about 2 years and only hit one overpass on the PA turnpike. If you are traveling anywhere but the northeast, you could increase the angle to get them up to 13'6" without worries, but in PA and other New England states there are hundreds of low bridges. I'm able to get out about 3 miles with the CB talking, but can hear others much further away.

PirateJohn · #6 03-06-2008

John, I called an antenna place and got all sorts of humming and hawing about how this might not work and so forth. So ...

#1. Can you suggest a good retailer that would have a suitable antenna in stock?

#2. Is yours mounted on the fiberglass cap of your bus or is that a steel section behind your A/C unit? If it's on the fiberglass portion, how do you ground the antenna?

#3. They tell me that the Wilson 1000 is still in production. Have a part number by any chance?

Thanks!

iamflagman · #7 03-06-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by PirateJohn

John, I called an antenna place and got all sorts of humming and hawing about how this might not work and so forth. So ...

#1. Can you suggest a good retailer that would have a suitable antenna in stock?

#2. Is yours mounted on the fiberglass cap of your bus or is that a steel section behind your A/C unit? If it's on the fiberglass portion, how do you ground the antenna?

#3. They tell me that the Wilson 1000 is still in production. Have a part number by any chance?

Thanks!

Yes, there are some that say that mounting the antenna this way will not work, but believe me it does, just make sure that the tip is isolated from the goat rail or any other metal object. Now it will work even better if it is standing straight up, but then there is the clearance problem. With the antenna in the lowered attached at the tip position, it acts almiost like a horizontal beam antenna, or as some people call it talking on the flat side, but most antennas are vertical antennas and there will be some loss in signal, but I'll put mine up against almost any antenna, if you are coming to Maxton, I'll demonstrtate it for you and show you that it will even talk further than I stated, but that is another story.

Here is where I have purchased almost all of my CB equipment since I started using them, Walcott CB sales in Walcott, Iowa, directly across Interstate 80 from the Iowa 80 Truck Stop, the Worlds Largest Truck Stop here is their web site http://www.walcottcb.com/wilson-1000...nna-p-417.html that is for the Wilson 1000 which when I made up that picture for my web site was rumored to be replaced, but they are advertising them.

My 'Bird is like yours a 1982 FC35RB instead of a PT and like yours it is all steel, no fiberglass on mine, so it is mounted in steel, you can see it here between the train horns in the middle and the standard horn.

I always wanted to build another horizontal style antenna, similar to the one a truck driving buddy of mine that I talk to occassionally on Lower Side Band has built, he drives a hazerdous waste semi tanker and he runs a solid copper wire around the perimiter of the catwalk on top of the trailer that is held in place by standoff insullators as his antenna, and has it connected to coaxial cable that then runs inside to his CB, it in turn uses the whole top of the trailer for the ground plane. This sounds strange, but we can talk for a lot more than 5, 10, or even 15 miles and he sounds like he is right here in town too, lets put it this way the legal transmitting distance for a CB in the USA is 150 miles and we have NO PROBLEM talking that far. BUILDING ONE LIKE THAT TO GO AROUND THE GOAT RAILS WOULD BE , LETS SAY.............DIFFERENT

PirateJohn · #8 03-06-2008

Thanks John. I ordered one.

I've actually got a fiberglass cap on the front corner of my 'bird. From the photo, and without climbing up on the thing (I'm at my office so lookin' on the roof isn't real convenient-like right now

I cannot easily tell whether the equivalent mounting point on yours would be steel or fiberglass on mine. But I take it from your comments that it should be mounted solidly to steel.

peteaeonix · #9 03-06-2008

If the end cap on an '82 is anything like the one on my '95, it doesn't go back more than 6 or 8 inches before you get to the steel roof. As best I can tell from the photos, it appears that John Finn's antenna is in the steel area.

However, are you sure the end cap is fiberglas? I didn't think BB was using fiberglas end caps until they went to the wide body in '89...

PirateJohn · #10 03-07-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by peteaeonix

However, are you sure the end cap is fiberglas? I didn't think BB was using fiberglas end caps until they went to the wide body in '89...

Maybe end cap is the wrong way of phrasing things. I'm just talking about the front corner of the roof; the actual front of the 'bird is steel.