Cb setup tips. All help/info welcome

Discussion in 'CB Radio Forum' started by PotholeMcBounce, May 11, 2021.

  1. jdchet

    jdchet Medium Load Member

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    Not looking for another rabbit hole to dive into, are you?

    JD
     
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  3. craig_sez

    craig_sez Road Train Member

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    Rabbit hole??
    You say that as if i did something bad and tried to bs my way out..
     
  4. jdchet

    jdchet Medium Load Member

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    The rabbit hole of setting up an antenna on a big truck.

    JD
     
  5. craig_sez

    craig_sez Road Train Member

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    Ma bad....Nope no more rabbit holes for me..Got more than enough to try to perfect..I may never "get it right" but ill keep tinkering..
     
  6. Ridgeline

    Ridgeline Road Train Member

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    Speaking of rabbits, where has the pork rabbi been?
     
  7. Meteorgray

    Meteorgray Heavy Load Member

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    Thanks for that Ridgeline. One of the things I was trying to get at concerning Craig's fine-tuning with an antenna analyzer is that on mobile applications, a $30 SWR meter is a necessity but a $300 antenna analyzer may be somewhat overkill.

    The large compromises involving a mobile HF radio and its antenna are massive. An antenna analyzer may show the many problems in tuning a mobile HF unit in regards to resonance, the Ohms factors, etc, but often the compromises of HF radios used in mobile applications are largely unsolvable compared to base applications due to the situation: the vehicle, the closeness of the antenna to the ground, the very restrictive features of the antenna especially in regards to height and length, the varying grounds and types over which the vehicle travels, and traffic, the roadside features, etc.

    So yeah, it's nice to have an antenna analyzer, but it seems to me they aren't that useful with HF mobile setups and operating conditions, especially when compared with base setups.

    That's all I'm trying to say.

    I've read that the two-stinger dipole solution for a big rig, one pointed up and the other down, can work, but they don't seem to be advantageous enough to make them universally popular. I'm sure they are an improvement over some designs if done right, however.
     
  8. Night Stalker10

    Night Stalker10 Road Train Member

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    One of the biggest disadvantage of the mobile dipole antenna is its length. Your looking at around 17 feet long or more for a 27 mhz antenna.
    Now if everyone jumped on the GMRS bandwagon, the dipole 1/2 wavelength antenna would be around 1 foot or so for total length for 460 mhz. Oh oh, I probably shouldn't have brought that up. Lol.
     
  9. Timin770

    Timin770 Road Train Member

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    "...if everyone jumped on the GMRS bandwagon. .."

    Looking at the silly crap they peddle at truck stops, seems like they could give up one shelf space for a GMRS radio
     
  10. Ridgeline

    Ridgeline Road Train Member

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    Gmrs isn’t a cure all for communicating between trucks or other vehicles.

    This is true line of sight band and without repeaters, which are dependent on outside power sources, they are limited no matter what others say. The use of the band for business purposes seems to have proven this for decades.

    while the dipole solution isn’t perfect, it does work in most cases, but the point is a balanced system, with two equal lengths for radiating a signal.
     
  11. Meteorgray

    Meteorgray Heavy Load Member

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    Yeah, it's that "two equal lengths" factor that's a problem with a mobile dipole approach.

    A 108" antenna in the air is bad enough, but pointing one towards the ground is a killer.
     
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