Horizontal antenna

[midget28]

Ok I joined an offroad club that requires the vehicle to have a cb, so I pulled my cobra out of the concrete truck which is no big deal Im good with all of that but....... I'm not sure where to mount the antennas. I have a set of 3ft firesticks but 1 will prolly just be a dummy antenna b/c the widest point of the vehicle is barely 5 ft and my radio has the echo reverb talkback and all the other goodies done to it so I dont want to ruin it. Ive thought about mounting them to the roof rack which isnt a problem but after I got to thinkin about it more and knowing some truckers lay the antenna at a forward angle some go pretty steep with the angle Im curious if I could mount it completly horizontal? That way I wouldnt break them off in the trees again there 3ft tunable firesticks if that would change anything and the car is a 02 nssan xterra..

[Gadfly]

Originally Posted by midget28

Ok I joined an offroad club that requires the vehicle to have a cb, so I pulled my cobra out of the concrete truck which is no big deal Im good with all of that but....... I'm not sure where to mount the antennas. I have a set of 3ft firesticks but 1 will prolly just be a dummy antenna b/c the widest point of the vehicle is barely 5 ft and my radio has the echo reverb talkback and all the other goodies done to it so I dont want to ruin it. Ive thought about mounting them to the roof rack which isnt a problem but after I got to thinkin about it more and knowing some truckers lay the antenna at a forward angle some go pretty steep with the angle Im curious if I could mount it completly horizontal? That way I wouldnt break them off in the trees again there 3ft tunable firesticks if that would change anything and the car is a 02 nssan xterra..

If you are ONLY interested in very close in work, then you might get away with that. However, there is something called "polarization" that would affect your comms with stations who are using VERTICAL antennas.
That thing about leaning antennas forwards is more smoke and mirrors and CB "badboy" image than anything. And when you lay the antenna forward like that near the metal of the vehicle, it is going to also adversely affect the performance since the whip is going to be so near the metal of the vehicle. Try to keep it as vertical as possible since most of your other friends will be vertical as well.

Gadfly

[danc694u]

.
Quit being so cheap, and buy a spring loaded base.

[squirrellsgnwild]

Originally Posted by midget28

Ok I joined an offroad club that requires the vehicle to have a cb, so I pulled my cobra out of the concrete truck which is no big deal Im good with all of that but....... I'm not sure where to mount the antennas.

im sure someone in your club knows alot about cbs. find out how, where, and what their set up it.

i would go with a lil wilson or wilson 1000 magnet! then you wont have any trouble with ground

[kd5drx]

Originally Posted by Gadfly

If you are ONLY interested in very close in work, then you might get away with that. However, there is something called "polarization" that would affect your comms with stations who are using VERTICAL antennas.
That thing about leaning antennas forwards is more smoke and mirrors and CB "badboy" image than anything. And when you lay the antenna forward like that near the metal of the vehicle, it is going to also adversely affect the performance since the whip is going to be so near the metal of the vehicle. Try to keep it as vertical as possible since most of your other friends will be vertical as well.

Gadfly

Man if you were a Ham you would have it made just insulate the lugage rack load it up and go to talking. We do allot of that for vertical antennas and it works good as long as every one else is that way. Now if you can get your off road buds to go that way you guys would have a very quite time since most ground clutter noise is horizontal anyway. Now the leaning of the CB antenna started out because some one found out that if you tilt the feed point of an antenna it changes the SWR so they thought they were tuning there antenna's that way then it got to be a big radio thing then it was just cool to be Joe bull hauler so like most things in CB they start for one reason or another and go from there in a direction of there own.

[midget28]

Originally Posted by squirrellsgnwild

im sure someone in your club knows alot about cbs. find out how, where, and what their set up it.

i would go with a lil wilson or wilson 1000 magnet! then you wont have any trouble with ground

lmao no these guys dont they get the lil cheap radios and cheaper magnetic antennas. I've thought about the Wilson magnetic antennas but havent found a place that sells them around here. Might have to takea trip to Walcott and see what Iowa 80 has.

[squirrellsgnwild]

on wilsons website they have their dealer list and some of them are links to websites where you can purchase them

have you thought about getting a 102'' whip one? you would have to mount the antenna to the back of the trucks side or something like that

[midget28]

I thought they quit making those lol. That would be cool though what do they normally run price wise.

[Rat]

The reason some "Bullhorn" (tilt forward) the antennas is so that they stay away from the exhaust stacks that causes the swr to rise. Don't "Bullhorn" them more then 10 degrees at max. Antennas work alot better when they are standing up straight.

[midget28]

thanks guys Ive decided to build a roof basket and I'll just mount them on it using springs along with 4 more offroad lights. Ill prolly only use the driver side one though it just bugs me to only have 1 antenna lol.