I'm happy to report SWR of 1.4 across the board with a k40 top loaded 4 foot antenna mounted to a perch.
Cant tune Antenna on cascadia
Discussion in 'CB Radio Forum' started by wa1bsb, Aug 3, 2014.
Page 2 of 3
-
-
Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds
Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.
-
Voyager1968 Thanks this.
-
You'd think Freightliner would've addressed this issue by now, but nope.
-
HF reception is not even on their radar. IMOJChors Thanks this. -
-
Nearly nothing you can do to a truck with a plastic cab, short of mounting your antenna(s) on the roof of your trailer (if you always haul your own) is going to help unless you're able to fit a half-wavelength long antenna (around 18 feet) on your roof and end-feed it.
For those not blessed with jurisdictions that permit such heights, and have no overhead obstructions with which to contend, please allow me to offer a couple of modest (yet effective) ideas that work for some folks (including me, a 20 wpm Extra Class, commercial GROL licensee, 45-year commercial tech, 50-year CBer, and 53-year ham).
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...n-fiberglass-cabs.html?highlight=DIY+solution
or Post #4 in this link:
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...igh-swr-whats-next.html?highlight=copper+foil
The second link refers to an earlier post I'd made, but haven't been able to set up the search terms right to find it....
Mea culpa.
73 -
-
I dont know why so many drivers go cheap and then expect performance go with a wilson trucker 2000 or 5000 never had any problems
-
Mike, that nut welded to the perch oughta work like gangbusters. It sounds like it would be a lot physically neater than my kludged mirror clamp, and it'll be easy to get to if it's either in your way of you want to change the length of the counterpoise half.
And remember to try to get on-air reports from folks far enough away to be able to let you know what's stronger/better as you test. An awful lot of folks get hung up staring at the VSWR meters and stake all their opinions on that. Remember, a half-wave dipole is around 72 ohms, and a quarterwave element over a flat "ground plane" will show around 35 ohms; either one will present a 1.5:1 VSWR, plus or minus any silliness induced by a strange coax length. I'd personally go for the greatest apparent transmitted signal strength, then make a note of the VSWR and just write it down someplace so you've got it for a reference. If it turns out to be 1.7:1 AND it's the strongest signal in the field, I'd be really happy.
FWIW, I've just (in the past hour) talked to Spain, Canary Islands, St. Lucia, Venezuela, Namibia, and Slovenia, all with wire antennas that indicated VSWRs of from 3:1 to 5.4:1, and only 40 watts to the antenna. I just backed down the power to take it easy on the coax and transmitter.
Toodles & good DX
73mike5511 Thanks this. -
There is a difference between "cheap" and "inexpensive". A Francis 5.5 ft. is relatively inexpensive. However, it will perform very well in most cases. I have never been able to tell the difference between one and a Wilson 2000 or 5000 as far as performance goes. The freight haulers ran the Francis 5.5 ftd for years back in the day and you could always hear them coming for miles.
Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds
Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.
Page 2 of 3