Ideas on "making" a ground plain??

[steved]

OK, here's the deal:

I have a small Midland radio and a trunk-mount Wilson 1000...that's the easy part.

The difficult problem is the fact the trunk is fiberglass/plastic/composite (2000 Mustang), and therefore I doubt I have much of a ground plain...

A local cb'er thought running an aluminum wire to the mount would solve the problem, and while that would "ground" the antenna; I don't feel that will create a true ground plain.

Any ideas short of bolting a piece of hardware cloth or sheet metal to the inside of the truck??

steved

[TruckerLlew]

If you run a wire from the antenna mount DIRECT to somewhere to the actual frame of the car, you will have all the groundplane you will need.

A "ground" to a cb antenna is actually the path leading to the "groundplane". Most CB antennas sold are actually only half of the structure needed to make the antenna complete. A fully functional complete antenna has 2 parts. A "transmit" side and a "reflector" side. The CB antenna you purchase out of a truckstop or radio dealer is really only the "transmit" side. The frame of the car is the "reflector" The mount you screw the antenna into is a part of the "reflector" To complete the antenna, the mount should be grounded to the frame of a vehicle. The ground should be as short as possible from the mount to where it attaches to the frame of the car.

You could try mounting a plate somewhere but you won't have enough metal to really amount to much. I would also run 10ga copper wire instead of aluminum. Copper is the best conducting metal next to Gold. Thats why most long wire antennas constructed by experienced hams will be made of copper.

Hope this helps

[steved]

OK, thanks...

I wondered about the aluminum wire deal as I did know copper is better...

So simply grounding the base will suffice?? That makes my deal a little better...I was initially intending to use a magnetic antenna, but obviously it doesn't "stick" really well to the plastic trunk lid!

Guess the onlyh issue now is getting a base and whip for the trunk mount (I'm using the original base and whip on a magnet mount).

Thanks again,
steved

[TruckerLlew]

You can purchase trunk mounts for your antenna from Wilson Antenna. The Wilson Antenna site has a list of mounts you can get for your antenna. Just google Wilson Antenna and click on their homepage. There is a complete list of stuff there. You just have to hunt it down and find out how to order it. The trunk mount part number for the Wilson 1000 is listed under "parts information" and "Photo Parts" list. The part number is 880-909090b.

There is a lot of good info there if you take the time to explore as well.

[steved]

I have the trunk mount, but only one "whip"...I need a second whip/load to make a second antenna setup...I'm using the original load with a magnet mount on my Outback.

Thanks again,
steved

[Lance Romance]

Put a giant sheet of copper under your roof lining.

Not very practical but efficient.