How do I ground the antennas?

Find the antenna mount or bracket. Run a wire fromt he bracket or mount itself to the nearest peice of metal. If that peice of metal is the door then run a ground from the door to the door pillar so that the hing is not being used as a possible ground. Now make sure the cab is properly grounded to the frame and that the frame has a ground to the batteries.

You do not want to just run a ground wire/strap from the bracket all the way to the frame or batteries. You want to incorporate all possible metal into the ground system between the antenna and the frame.

Some guys say that you must use braided ground strapping. I have been using 10 guage wire with very good results. The runs are so short that it really doesn't matter if you use strapping or regular insulated wire.

 

you might want to look into something like this....

http://www.cbradiosplus.com/shop/pc/viewprd.asp?idcategory=84&idproduct=1082

very simple to install. check it out. alot of volvo drivers use these as the volvos are notorious for poor grounding.

 

First, what is your current radio, antenna and coax? What is the standing wave ratio [SWR] with the current setup?
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What antenna are you looking to upgrade to? What type of coax do you want to upgrade to?
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Changing coax usually is the least improvement for the money. Unless you are going to run an amplifier that makes an upgrade mandatory, I would not change the coax unless it is in some way faulty.

 

Do you use one of these? I bought one for my volvo but can not find anything that will fit the threads on this.

 

I agree with Rat 100%. I find this to be the same in every setup I've ever done also.

 

Can I Ground The Antenna To Battery

 

This should probably be a new thread, but I'll put in a quick reply to the last poster.You could "ground" the antennna mount to the battery, but the DC ground you'd have wouldn't help your RF signal at all. You'd waste the wire and your time doing it. We should start referring to the "ground" that we need at the antenna end of the coax as "counterpoise", or "ground plane" for our discussions. Big difference, and already active in a nearby thread; sometimes more than once daily. Someone sagely gave a link to www.k0bg.com for mobile installation help. Lots of info there, but worth the read. If you search this forum for "copper foil" or "vertical dipole", you'll find two ways I've solved this problem. The tablet I'm posting with now is inserting odd words randomly, us I'll stop for now.73