CBer FINED $10,000 for his "Export" Radio and Amp!

It is mostly smoke and mirrors, To the untrained eye it probably looks "awesome". In actual practice, the "beam" attached to the mast is nothing more than a capacitance hat. The whip and coil above it cancels out any directivity (well,there may be a little due to "capture" effective and simply the area, or mass, of the antenna. Now the folks that are desparate for some "LOOK AT ME, I'M THIS BEEEEEEEEG REDDIO OPERATOR" EFFECT MIGHT BE FOOLED BY IT.

Fellas, you might not like what I have to say about going out of the CB band, but there's a whole heap of stuff in the CB world that is designed to do ONE thing: create bank deposits------from YOUR pocket to Bubba's CB Shop and HIS pocket. Take those little "radial-looking things" that have 3 or 4 little arms sticking out. They are supposed to go (according to the package instructions) underneath the coil of your CB antenna. They call 'em a "ground plane". What it is is BULL FEATHERS AND HORSE HOCKEY!!! Again, it is a capacity hat that should go ABOVE the loading coil!!! For a CB antenna at that high a frequency, it achieves NOTHING! It will permit you to use fewer coil turns or a shorter stinger, but as to any real affect on your signal? NOPE!

Some of us think that BIG COILS enhance the signal over a 102" whip. Coils create resistance. But because a full length whip isn't practical on a big truck, the antenna has to be shortened. So we use coils. Again the big coils, to some people, look "cool" so therefore it MUST work better! NO such thing. The whip would beat the coil IF we could use it on a truck!

And a "ground plane", btw, needs to be attached and a part of GROUND, not part of the radiating part of the antenna (whip and mast)

Gadfly

 

That is one thing I will never understand. People spending huge money on these antennas. I have talked to many people over the years on the radio and many will boast about this antenna or that and they are not coming in any louder and clearer then some guy with a antenna without the big ugly coils on it.

I have run wilson fiberglass antennas with very good reports and I have used wilson 2000 antennas with good reports. If properly tuned they work great and will do more then you need them too.

The only reason to go to an expensive antenna is if you are pushing more power through it then it is rated for. I have seen some of the cheaper fiberglass antennas such as the deisels and francis get melted and burn at the end due to running higher power through them.

Basically if you are not running a big amp behind the CB then there is no need to have an expensive antenna. It is more looks then anything.

 

I still like the looks of a big antenna.

 

It all boils down to the fact that a 1/4 wave antenna is about as good as you can get on the 11m or CB band. if you could get a full wave length antenna on the mirror or some place it would be great but since you run a compromised antenna system the closest you can get is 1/4 wave and if you will do your research a Francis antenna which is basically 1/4 wave of wire wrapped around a fiberglass form its probably about as good as you will get. A true 102 inch whip is better but there again not practical on a truck. All the coils and other stuff do is add length to the radiated area there for they imitate a 1/4 wave antenna so they work. any better or worse then any other design depends on the area and the band conditions. If you want an antenna to work real well it needs to be tuned for a specific freq and only that freq. but since you operate across a wide area of the band you use a broad band antenna, thus it works but not as good as an antenna that was tuned for say channel 19 only if it was tuned there alone and had a real sharp curve on a scope so it was notched if you will it would work great there but no where else. Thus the reason most ham's use a screw driver antenna so they can tune it on the exact freq they are operating on. Just a little help on antenna theory and all the metal in the world on an antenna will do is cost you more for no better performance. Like my Elmer once told me an all band antenna works equally poor on all bands. Same as an antenna that will work in a broad range like from 26.000 MHZ-28.000 MHZ if it will tune to a low swr on one setting with in that range it will not be efeciant in any of that range.

 

I agree with all of ya! I like the Wilson 2000/5000 but I mainly use this Monkeymade big wrap. It looks cool and with the shoes on lays the spank. I can have my ham in the truck but I am way more worried about someone stealing my stuff than I am the FCC even if I didn't.

 

I am a HAM and as a liscensed operator I can track you down with 1 reciever and I dont need triangulation. Furthermore I will turn anyone in if they use anything other than 10 meter with out a liscense, or bleedover on my HAM radios. I am willing to go out and track you down, get your truck info and turn you in to the FCC. Ask any FedEX driver what happens. I am tired of people interfereing with my communications.

 

Well Driver...as "a HAM" you should know that turning someone in if they are using anything other than 10 meter would mean you are turning in the wrong folks. With a Technicians license you can legally use 80,40, 15 and 10 meters. Plus all HAM usage of anything above 30Mhz with power up to 1500 watts.

Now I think you might have meant 11 meter as that falls into the 27Mhz range of Citizen Band radio.

And while I can track someone if they keep talking long enough and I feel like wasting hours...there is no magical tractor beam that can lock in on a radio even when not in use. And I can tell you that unless you had a hint of my location and my direction of travel you would never find me even using a barefoot radio much less huge power. I would sound like I am all over the city.

Glad to see another HAM operator on board but we should not mislead anyone.

General Class GL225

 

Well a predator 10k will spank any wilson any day. Fiberglass antennas suck, they dont tx or rx well at all. Plus all it takes is one nick from a tree limb on it and swr go to crap. Dont get me wrong i keep a wilson 2k as backup.

Hell any man with half a brain can trace a signal down as long as its reptitous enough too. Gotta bring up Fedex man that happened years ago and just so you know they still have drivers running 11m radios and there isnt anything your going to do to stop it.

Just stay on the right freqs everything will be alright, theres guys running severel kilowatts on 27 mhz that are well known and still broadcasting. FCC doesnt have the time to chase all these guys down. They too busy shutting down these mexicans broadcasting fm and am radio stations illegally around my parts.

I love these hamwinkies man there like wanna be police men. Complaining about my stuff when i can here them bleeding over into household items.

 

Hey! Barney Fife! This ain't Mayberry, RFD and once you catch up to that truck driving filth with the nerve to broadcast on your band. You may have your hands full taking him into custody and holding him for the FCC, who will no doubt come running when you call. But, on another not, I'm interested in HAM radios and am taking the Technician test on the 19th. So, tell me, once I get that license in the mail, do I undergo some fundamental change that makes me better than those who haven't answer the 35 or so questions and sent in their $15, or what ever it is? Will, I get a Dick Tracy decoder ring, two-way wrist watch, and a hat three times my size to allow for future expansion? And just for the record, I don't know how many times I've heard HAM base station operators on trucker channels denying us use by staying keyed up with some Chinese talk show host rattling away.

 

When you have your licence, you can use the ham bands you are licenced to use regarding your licence category legally. If you respect the band plan and observe the one cardinal rule NEVER TO CAUSE INTERFERENCE, you should have a lot of fun using features not possible on CB.

Sure, there exist W***kers among the ham community (those who leave a carrier standing, burp and fart into the microphone and generally misbehave in a similar way as internet trolls), but we usually see for ourselves that they get shut down.

BTW, often the local telecommunications authories operate quite closely with the ham community. Thisway e.g. the German telecommunications authority was able to obtain exact fixes for an intruder. When they made the raid, they made it with some cops present.
At least over here there are not just hams on either side of the CB band, but also commercial radio stations and the military.