Best Antenna for Bearcat 980

firestick will work, best to have at least5' on most newer tractors to get it above the cab, also use good coax..

 

You do not need to peak a radio to run an amp. And the KL-203 is a very good little amp. But it does not like more than 2 watts. In fact any amp will sound better if you run a lower input wattage. And yes the antenna would be better if it is longer. 5ft is very good.

 

The antenna doesn't need to like the radio, it's the vehicle that you would be concerned about. The 5.5 foot skip shooter is a good choice. Any good radio shop (good luck) can turn the radio down to 2 watts swinging to 8.

 

There's nothing special about the Bearcat 980's antenna needs that distinguishes it from any other CB radio/antenna combination. Research here in the forum: all the rules about what's resonant and has (or needs) more counterpoise apply for your new Bearcat as they do for an old Kraco or Royce radio.

And try to ignore all the advice about "swing". Meter your *average* output, with both deadkey and with regular conversational audio input. "Swing" is an artifact of the momentum of a mechanical meter movement, and is a better indication of how badly damped the meter movement is than it is of effective modulation.

Modulation should be checked with an oscilloscope and a constant level sine wave input into the microphone. Short shrieks or whistles into the mic to see just how high a crappy meter will bounce for an instant does not accurately describe the kind of use the radio is going to get, except maybe for the clown car at a circus, or one of those folks who just enjoys annoying other operators on the several channels near the one you've dialed up.

For checking SSB modulation, the use of two non-harmonically related audio tones, applied to the mic input on the radio and run into an oscilloscope run by a technician who actually knows how to interpret it, has been the industry standard for both amateur and commercial (marine & military) transmitters for years.

On a properly adjusted AM transmitter, average modulation (like with typical voice or program material [music, for broadcast] will hardly climb. There *is* a mathematical value to how much your output power should rise with modulation, but taking a teensy deadkey and making the modulation peak at 4 or 5 times will approximate a double sideband - suppressed carrier signal. Those transmissions are going to be well nigh impossible to read at any distance beyond where the carrier (deadkey) will carry it; the rest of the time, all that's going out from your radio is the peaks of the signal. To the average receiver at distance, it will sound as if you're talking into a microphone with a bad TX audio lead and are shaking the lead as you talk: they'll only hear the peaks.

Please, for the sake of all that's holy about "real radio engineering", set your carrier to a level that the radio can tolerate safely, and then have the modulation adjusted with a 'scope by someone with a high vertical sensitivity scope and the knowledge of how to use it right.

Did I mention going to a tech at a commercial two-way radio shop and letting someone who's really good at this stuff adjust your radio, then *leave it alone inside*?

After that, all the usual rules & guidelines about antenna choice and placement apply.

HTH
73