which antennas should i go with

[tfisher63]

Originally Posted by Truckerjo

Your not going to get any better then 102 inch steel wip. I would do as suggested and tie it down to the front. This will give you the best reception.

This is very true, and the 102 whip will tune perfectly and give you less trouble than any others. Just use a spring with it for best swr.

[kd5drx]

If you have problems finding the steel whip one alternative that i have used in the past is a shakespear or francis fiber glass 8 ft whip and take the sheild off of rg8 coax and put this down over the fiber glass part and solder it to the base of the whip metal part and it will work great that way also. If you use the steel and tie them to the front you may want to put some garden hose over the base up about 3 or 4 ft so they don't ground to the bed when your going down the road and the wind blows them around. Just experiance from the past.

[rocksteady]

Steel whips or fiberglass whips should never be placed more than there total distance apart from each other. Example If you run two 108 in. whips which is useless, then you should have at least 216 in. of space in between them. The best way for a good set up is to run a Wilson 2000 or 5000 preferably permanent mount on top of vehicle exactly in between front and rear axles of the vehicle. This will give you equal distance for swr ratio. If you go with a 108 in. whip, fiberglass or steel, then place one on either side of rear bumper with a ground strap to your chassis.(Frame) Dual whips over 6ft, are more harm for your radio and output. It is like pouring one kettle of water into another, you loose a lot of RF power. I have been running up to 10,000 watts for apr. 20 years for my experience. Right now I have a magnum s-9 with a 2500 watt x-force that does pretty #### good.

[kd5drx]

Originally Posted by rocksteady

Steel whips or fiberglass whips should never be placed more than there total distance apart from each other. Example If you run two 108 in. whips which is useless, then you should have at least 216 in. of space in between them. The best way for a good set up is to run a Wilson 2000 or 5000 preferably permanent mount on top of vehicle exactly in between front and rear axles of the vehicle. This will give you equal distance for swr ratio. If you go with a 108 in. whip, fiberglass or steel, then place one on either side of rear bumper with a ground strap to your chassis.(Frame) Dual whips over 6ft, are more harm for your radio and output. It is like pouring one kettle of water into another, you loose a lot of RF power. I have been running up to 10,000 watts for apr. 20 years for my experience. Right now I have a magnum s-9 with a 2500 watt x-force that does pretty #### good.

I don't want to start an argument here but go back and read your basic antenna handbook any antennas put in Co-Phase have to be 1/4 wave length apart to achieve Phasing which is what you are trying to do with 2 antennas.They must also have a phasing harness built for them which is a long drawn out formula but put simply its 1/4 wave length of the freq. used times the velocity factor of the coax used which should be a 75 ohm impedance. this is the way to set up a true co-phased system so in the case of 27.185 it would be 8.6 feet or 103 inches. and the harness would be 77 inches of 75 ohm coax on each leg joined at the Pl259 to the radio and any other coax need to reach the antennas would be 50 ohm. I hope this helps

[hot_rod_mike]

check radioshack for them i think thay still sell them or a cb shop ..use good mount(ground)and good coax quality allways better.. i would go with a wilson 2000 magnet mount at the very center of the cab ..if you still use the 102's all you need is one if you use two thay must be 8' apart so the signial dont cancel each other out ..also check your SWR with a swr meter not the one thats on the cb thats not efficent you must use a meter try your best to get the lowest swr's that you can swrs mean standing wave ratio ..other words resiance in the system and dont let the whip touch the body while you are transmitting you will weakin the finals and may blow the finals in nthe radio ..so use a tube or a ball to keep the whip from grounding out when talking ... i think i said enuf ...

[rocksteady]

Always someone who THINKS they know it all. Ya whatever...

[BobC]

This topic always get something started no matter what forum I read it in.

It's true that co-phasing requires a certain separation between antennas as well as a certain length of coax to form each leg of the phasing harness.

What wasn't mentioned is that there are other distances of separation between antennas besides 1/4 wavelength that can give you the desired results.

The caveat of going with a different spacing is that the attendant phasing harness must be redesigned to give the proper phase relationship between the feed points.

E.G. You can use an 1/8th wavelength or 1/2 wavelength spacing or even a few other choices to obtain a predictable pattern. You just need to change the harness lengths to match it. In some of these other spacings, the coax will not be equal length from each side to center to properly phase the antenna curents.

Do remember that no matter what you do, placement of the antennas on the vehicle bodies will skew the pattern of any antenna(s) into something not exactly resembling a perfect pattern as shown on a computer plot.

[Stick]

Originally Posted by rocksteady

Always someone who THINKS they know it all. Ya whatever...

I really don't want to start any arguments here, but I am curious to know who it is you are saying "THINKS" they know it all?

I only state this due to part of the original quote that you made:

Originally Posted by rocksteady

I have been running up to 10,000 watts for apr. 20 years for my experience.

If you are referring in the previous quote that you know more than someone else, then you would also know that running anything above.......

4 watts AM

or

12 watts SSB

........you would be breaking the law. Now, do I "think" I know everything, or are you breaking the law running that big old linear? (they've posted the FCC rules for CBs at the top of this same forum as a "sticky" in case you need a reminder)

Just curious. Really. I don't know you from "jack" I just find that statement

Originally Posted by rocksteady

Always someone who THINKS they know it all. Ya whatever...

to be a little combative is all.

I see a lot of very legitimate advice for the questioner coming from some amateur radio operators here, and it seems that is who you are "ya, whatever" -ing. I am also an amateur radio operator, K3EDB, and I know how much you have to study to get a "Ham" license. If I remember correctly, all you need to get on the air with a CB is enough $cash$.

That said, give the "hams" a chance without bashing them and their knowledge! It'll make you look better.

I would also just love to see what you would do if the FCC (if they could ever find time to actually DO their job) came along and confiscated that 10,000 watt torch of yours.

If you now run legal, and/or are a licensed amateur radio operator, and you have no problem showing proof, then I will rescind my comment and allow your debate with KD5DRX to continue unabated.

That's my two cents. Stick, aka K3EDB

Back to your regularly scheduled thread..................

[thetez]

~erased~ .

[Kato]

Everything I've read for mobile radio antennas point toward a wilson 2000/5000 center load variation or even better a Predator 10k (open coil center load). These Predator's seem to be the flavor of the month.

edit:
those predators are kinda pricy though. If you are looking for good fiberglass antennas Firestick II's or wilson silverloads are good choices.