Cascadia Antenna Solutions

Discussion in 'CB Radio Forum' started by mike5511, Apr 30, 2014.

  1. mike5511

    mike5511 Road Train Member

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    It will be a few weeks before I can get pictures cause I'm not working. I'll have to check on the grommet. The lexan I used was 1/4" thick so the grove in the grommet has to be big enough to accommodate that thickness. The inside diameter of the grommet is 1/2". The antenna is about 3/8". I was gonna use a pcv rubber grommet until I found the one I have now. You could also just put a rubber hose around the antenna where it goes thru the lexan. Anything to keep it from rubbing.
     
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  3. Neverready

    Neverready Medium Load Member

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    My Wilson 5 foot silver load developed a problem swr went thru the roof. 2 bolt mirror perch coax thru the door. I changed coax swr still off scale. I took a ironhorse 10 meter antenna added a longer whip got down to 1.5. :1 on ch1 just below 2:1 on 40. Length is about 8 feet so have it tilted pretty good for Clearence we'll see how it works over the next few days. Had good luck with ironhorse monoband antennas on 20 and 40 meters in the past.
     
  4. mike5511

    mike5511 Road Train Member

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    I promised pictures so here they are. 7ft SkipShooter fiberglass antenna. (a top loaded antenna) My SWR is pretty much flat across 120 channels (export radio). I wanted to stand it straight up but the closer the antenna got to the cab, the higher the SWR got. The antenna is flimsy, thus the brace. The brace is made out of Lexan, which is what they make motorcycle windshield's out of. They won't shatter. I got a piece from the local glass shop to make this non-conductive bracket. The wind blows the antenna back at highway speed to about vertical. It also leans away from the truck some so that helps keep the reflection (swr) down as well. I slip seat so the coax is just run thru the door. You can run the coax into the engine compartment and there is grommet to pass thru the firewall under the steering wheel area. This works about as good as any mobile set up I've ever had. Just takes a few minutes to install. Overall hight is just under 13'6".
     

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  5. AfroBat

    AfroBat Medium Load Member

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    Los Angeles, Ca.
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    I want to try Astatic linear loaded but only have one 6 k can't find the other 6 k since they stopped making them. I can find 1k all day but that's not enough power capabilities for what I have planned.
     
  6. Neverready

    Neverready Medium Load Member

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    Pocomoke City, Md.
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    My iron horse antenna experiment failed. I had more of an angle then mike5511 shows with his skip shooter set up. I did not have a extra support as mike5511 has. Another driver used my truck last week when I got it back I decided to run a longer coax as the coax I was using was stretched to max running thru the firewall. After threading the new coax thru I noticed when I went to attach coax I had a lot of static when I first plugged coax in then it went quiet as I screwed shield down. Checked swr off the chart. Hooked up factory coax and factory antenna swr high but not pegged and I could hear calling stations. Finally got a chance to check things today. Coax continuity was fine so I thought maybe stud was grounding out, changed it no difference. Decided to change antenna, as soon as I put a wrench on base of antenna radio came alive without even turning it. Put a 4.5 ft Wilson on adjusted the length swr came right down to 1.5. Surmise until further testing is done the constant flopping at a near 45 degree angle of the 8ft iron horse antenna caused the wire to break in the fiberglass lower section. The iron horse antenna has a 4 ft fiberglass bottom section and approximately 4ft metal whip.
     
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  7. mike5511

    mike5511 Road Train Member

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    That SkipShooter flops too much as well. That is why I made the support. I think I mentioned this earlier, but just in case; if you use this mirror mount be sure and REMOVE THE FACTORY ANTENNA on that side of the truck. It makes a huge difference in your SWR reading. If I drove the same truck all the time, I would run a good coax to the factory mount on the driver's side and run a 4.5ft Francis. I know a few who have done this with decent results. The set up in the pictures above though works really well!!
     
  8. Snow Crab

    Snow Crab Bobtail Member

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    I'm doing slip-seating too, really sucks. Thought alot about clamp mounts for the rear umbilical rail, finally went with a magnet mount with a Wilson 5000 center-loaded whip for my Uniden 980SSBfor simplicity. Got a Kenwood VHF mounted on top of it for longer range too. Neither of the companies I worked for will pay for anything worth having! A bolt-on mount would be better, but this works well and the wind deflector on the roof helps keep my antenna from getting blown off. Only bad side is that the antenna cable does coil a bit. Gonna run the cable from the dash through the passenger door to the drivers side roof deflector mount. Roof's frigging aluminum, but the deflector bracket is still steel thankfully.
     
  9. craig_sez

    craig_sez Road Train Member

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    You can coil up excess coax...Just not in a circle..Try a figure 8 for excess or just run it nack and forth across the length of the truck behind the cabinets..

    I have a cpl mount idea im workin so if i get anything that works,ill post it
     
  10. craig_sez

    craig_sez Road Train Member

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    I have yet to try it buty solution for a cascadia is to make a bracket simuliar to whats designed for the cab grab handles of the 387 pb..

    Design it so it mounts to rear of cab (grounding) but extends out to the side of your can extenders/flairings by about a foot...
    Basically the same height and distence from cab as old mirror mount style...
    Run fresh 50 ohm coax from radio down to and through firewall,out to the back of can the up to bracket and finally out to ant....

    Dont worry about this 18 ft coax length bs either...

    Before someone jumps down my throat about coax length think........

    Do hammys need 18 ft to reach their 50-100 ft towers??
    What about nasa??

    The truck stop crap is just that..Crap....Go to you tune and see the proper way to have ends crimped and soldered and what is a good coax and how to test it....If you do a search you will also find a list of different coax and signal loss per 100ft...
     
  11. mike5511

    mike5511 Road Train Member

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    I wonder about clearance with what you describe when backing and twisting the trailer all around........?
    P.S. running a good coax to the driver's side factory mount and using a good antenna will work.........and if your company is hinky about what you do to the truck, it is highly unlikely they would ever discover anything but the change in antennas.
     
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