Little Tweaks

[outerspacehillbilly]

Originally Posted by oh well

I have a Midland 1001Z (was peaked) with a 4ft fiberglass antenna using RG8X 95%coax. I only get out about a mile and a half. So if I understand this the radio need to be grounded. Would a different antenna work better? Also when I turn the wipers on the radio picks up the wipe motor.

What do you have the power wires run to? From the wiper comment I'm guessing a cigarette lighter socket? What type of vehicle? A better antenna will definitely work better if setup properly. Antenna is 95% of your setup and it needs to be properly setup. A $500 antenna is as junk as a $20 one if it's not setup right. The whole vehicle needs to be GROUND GROUND GROUND with the proper ground straps.

[Hedgehog6973]

i am so glad none bothered to respond to me

[FriedTater]

Sorry post #15 wasn't sufficient,nor personally directive

Originally Posted by Hedgehog6973

i am so glad none bothered to respond to me

[oh well]

Yep, useing the lighter for power. I have in a Freightliner. Does it matter where the antenna is on the mirrow. I have it close to the cab or should it be out ?

[FriedTater]

Until you upgrade a few things like your antenna and power supply"source" there is likely to be little improvement regardless of what you "do".

Moving the stick further out on the mirror will help your receive"a little",but the "fix" will cost a few more coins.

Originally Posted by oh well

Yep, using the lighter for power. I have in a Freightliner. Does it matter where the antenna is on the mirrow. I have it close to the cab or should it be out ?

[outerspacehillbilly]

Originally Posted by oh well

Yep, useing the lighter for power. I have in a Freightliner. Does it matter where the antenna is on the mirrow. I have it close to the cab or should it be out ?

Well there is your first issue. Get that thing hard wired to the power leads by the fuse panel to start with. Depending on which Freightliner you have, you will need a lot of ground straps ran. The farther out on the mirror the antenna is will help also. If the door skins on that truck are not metal you will also need to run a ground strap from the antenna bracket to the nearest metal grounding point or think about getting a perch mount insted of using the mirror bracket. That should get you started on your way.

[oh well]

Thanks to Outerspacehillbilly and FriedTaterfor the advice. I had an outhouse cb tech giving me advice on how to put it in. Guess you could say it stinks. Always help to ask experts that knows what he is talking about. Y’all be safe out there.

[Rat]

Originally Posted by K2DMG

You obviously don't no a darn thing about radio and grounding. If you don't have any idea what you are talking about you should not speak on that subject. Grounding the radio and antenna make a BIG Difference. Please read this article at, [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. maybe you will learn a little bit about radio before you shoot your mouth off about something you no zero about.

Basics

Bonding, sometimes referred to as strapping, is one of the three most important aspects of mobile radio. [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. and [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. are the others. There are several reasons for this. First is noise abatement. Bonding minimizes the leakage of RFI into (ingress) and out of (egress) the various bolted on parts of the vehicle. The exhaust and tail pipes are good examples of RFI egress. It is not uncommon to see a 20 to 30 dB drop in received noise levels once they're properly grounded.

The best mobile antenna money can buy, isn't any better than the ground plane it is mounted over. Maximizing the available ground plane is what bonding is all about. On the HF bands, our vehicles act more like a capacitance to ground, rather than a ground plane. The bonding doors and trunk lids has a lessor effect on noise, but does aid in maximizing the ground plane If you doubt this reasoning, here's a little experiment you can try.
Install your antenna first and use an MFJ 259B or similar antenna analyzer to measure the on-resonance (X=Ø) input impedance of your antenna. Then follow the suggestions below and once you're done, measure it again. The resonant point will drop slightly and the input impedance will drop perhaps as much as 25 percent. This occurs because bonding lessens the ground losses which are reflected in the input impedance. The better the quality of the antenna, the more noticeable the change will be.
Here is a money saving tip. If you don't intend to properly bond your vehicle, you can save a lot of money by buying a cheap antenna. The basis behind this is simple. If ground losses are high, it doesn't make much difference how good the antenna is, because ground losses will be the largest factor in determining efficiency. If ground losses are low, the difference in efficiency between a cheap antenna, and a good one become very apparent.

Ground Straps

One of the most misunderstood concepts is the difference between DC and RF ground (neither one can be considered a ground plane). A ground strap may work perfectly as a DC ground, but at some frequency that same ground strap will make a perfect antenna! We all know that an inductor can provide a good DC ground, but look like an open circuit to RF. And that a capacitor can provide a good RF path to ground, but not a DC path. Our ground strap, like any piece of wire, has both inductive and capacitive reactances. These reactances change as the frequency changes. For any given value of reactance, as the frequency goes up, inductive reactance (in ohms) also goes up, but capacitive reactance (in ohms) goes down. When inductive reactance and capacitive reactance in any given piece of wire are equal, that wire will become an antenna, and ceases to be an RF ground. There are a few things we can do to assure both a good RF and DC ground.
One of these is to use braided wire. Not just any braided wire mind you, but one which is flat and wide. RF flows at the surface rather than through the wire, and flat braid has more surface area for any given current carrying capacity. Thus it provides less resistance to RF than an equivalent round wire. It also has more capacitive reactance which increases the self resonant point. Flat braid is also much more flexible and less likely to fail due to repeated flexing.
The shield from RG8 works well if the length of the strap is short (under 10 inches or so). Just take care when you strip off the outer jacket that you don't cut through the shield itself. Discard any that is corroded or discolored. Flatten it out by pulling it over a rounded surface. A large, round screwdriver shaft works well for this purpose.
For longer lengths, one inch wide braid is a better choice. In any case, the requisite length shouldn't exceed 2 feet. If it has to be longer, then heavy copper flashing, like that used by roofing companies, is the material of choice. Remember, the ground strap must present a low impedance connection to effectively shunt RF to ground. This is especially true if you're using an auto-coupler, as the ground side connection must have a (much) lower impedance than the radiating element. I cover this in more detail in my [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. article.
Good connections are also important to provide both a DC and RF ground path. Crimping and soldering are mandatory. Crimping provides a good mechanical connection, and soldering a good electrical one. Good quality lugs and connectors are a must too, as the cheap ones do not solder well. Where applicable, connections should have heat shrink applied over them. Although not strictly necessary, it gives a finished and professional look to your installation.

Well going by your age, I would say that I have more then likely being doing this stuff since before you were born.


I have tried the "snakeoil" extra grounding and it does absolutly nothing unless you have a poor ground in the first place. Grounding the - wire is exactally the same as grounding the chassis of the radio. That is as long as the vehicle chassis is properly grounded to start with.

Also no need to run extra ground wires to the antenna bracket unless it has an improper ground to start with. If the antenna is mounted on a door mounted mirror then just make sure the door is properly grounded to start with. Usually a strap jumping from the Door to the door pillar is more then enough. Just make sure all the factory chassis grounds are in good condition and then nothing else will be needed.

I run a Pete 379 with no extra grounding other then a strap jumping across the door hinges and my radio works perfectly.

In the Volvo I had to do some paint scraping and surface cleaning to get a good ground to the mirror mounted antennas. Once that was in order then I had no problems with transmitting or receiving over many many miles. Hell I was reaching 20 plus miles with two Wilson 5 ft silverloads and a stock untuned cobra 29 on the Volvo.

Right now I am running a little bit of juice out of a Connex 4300HP into 2 wilson 5000s and have absolutly no issues and am only running straps across the door hinges of the 379. I get no alternator noise what so ever and can easily talk across the county and even skip as far as the solar flares will let me.

[WA4GCH]

Originally Posted by Rat

Well going by your age, I would say that I have more then likely being doing this stuff since before you were born.


I have tried the "snakeoil" extra grounding and it does absolutly nothing unless you have a poor ground in the first place. Grounding the - wire is exactally the same as grounding the chassis of the radio. That is as long as the vehicle chassis is properly grounded to start with.

Also no need to run extra ground wires to the antenna bracket unless it has an improper ground to start with. If the antenna is mounted on a door mounted mirror then just make sure the door is properly grounded to start with. Usually a strap jumping from the Door to the door pillar is more then enough. Just make sure all the factory chassis grounds are in good condition and then nothing else will be needed.

I run a Pete 379 with no extra grounding other then a strap jumping across the door hinges and my radio works perfectly.

In the Volvo I had to do some paint scraping and surface cleaning to get a good ground to the mirror mounted antennas. Once that was in order then I had no problems with transmitting or receiving over many many miles. Hell I was reaching 20 plus miles with two Wilson 5 ft silverloads and a stock untuned cobra 29 on the Volvo.

Right now I am running a little bit of juice out of a Connex 4300HP into 2 wilson 5000s and have absolutly no issues and am only running straps across the door hinges of the 379. I get no alternator noise what so ever and can easily talk across the county and even skip as far as the solar flares will let me.

Rat ....

I agree overkill ....

Not that a good ground is a good thing but there comes a point of little return ....

[outerspacehillbilly]

Originally Posted by Rat

Well going by your age, I would say that I have more then likely being doing this stuff since before you were born.


I have tried the "snakeoil" extra grounding and it does absolutly nothing unless you have a poor ground in the first place. Grounding the - wire is exactally the same as grounding the chassis of the radio. That is as long as the vehicle chassis is properly grounded to start with.

Also no need to run extra ground wires to the antenna bracket unless it has an improper ground to start with. If the antenna is mounted on a door mounted mirror then just make sure the door is properly grounded to start with. Usually a strap jumping from the Door to the door pillar is more then enough. Just make sure all the factory chassis grounds are in good condition and then nothing else will be needed.

I run a Pete 379 with no extra grounding other then a strap jumping across the door hinges and my radio works perfectly.

In the Volvo I had to do some paint scraping and surface cleaning to get a good ground to the mirror mounted antennas. Once that was in order then I had no problems with transmitting or receiving over many many miles. Hell I was reaching 20 plus miles with two Wilson 5 ft silverloads and a stock untuned cobra 29 on the Volvo.

Right now I am running a little bit of juice out of a Connex 4300HP into 2 wilson 5000s and have absolutly no issues and am only running straps across the door hinges of the 379. I get no alternator noise what so ever and can easily talk across the county and even skip as far as the solar flares will let me.

Your right that if you have a good ground to start with you don't need an extra bunch of ground straps, however since most of the newer trucks are 95% plastic it is very hard to have a good ground without running a bunch of extra ground straps. I think that was pretty clear in the whole discussion above, if it wasn't someone might need a new prescription in their lenses.