Got a antenna grounding question

This is why I have no hair!! It went right over my head and zipped it off!.

 

LOL, he goes off about no metal and needing grounding etc etc etc.

Fiberglass is not metal, the sheetmetal would serve two purposes. ! being reinforcment for the antenna itself as it flexs and bends in the wind while going down the road. The other is replacing the needed metal, that is missing in a fiberglass topper, for a proper counterpoise/ groundplane or whatever we want to call it these days. I guess he missed the part were I also said to add a ground strap from the added sheet metal to the body of the pickup. IE the box of the pickup, (as long as the box is properly grounded.

I have heard of this being used in RVs were the body is mostly fiberglass and plastic. I have also heard of this being used on fiberglass boats, Way back in the day my stepfather had an old fiberglass boat with a CB in it. Back in the day before we used marine band radios etc. Well his CB didn't work worth a hoot. he had a antenna mounted on the bow of the boat. Him and some friends epoxied a big triangle shaped peice of sheet metal, Close to the shape of the box, to the bottom of the bow deck. It did not have an open bow on it. Bingo, he went from a CB that could not get across the marina to a CB that would reach out a pretty good distance.


If CJ has a better option for mounting a CB antenna in the center of a fiberglass topper then I wold love to hear it as I am sure the majority here would also.

He just has to remember to try and keep the page long technical BS out of the post. Just get to the point which is how to mount a shorter trucker style antenna to the center of a FIBERGLASS pickup topper and have it work.

 

LOL Still no answer, on how the OP can do what was ask, from our Pro radio person Channel Jumper????

 

Not sure an easy way to explain, but CJ was in effect describing an electron orbiting in a circle at uniform velocity. There is no change in momentum, just as if it were going through space in a straight line, it has a constant velocity. Imagine shooting a bullet out in space. At whatever speed it is going it just keeps on going. The electron moving freely at a uniform velocity can be treated as a flow of current in regards to the fact that it will be surrounded by a magnetic field. However under these conditions it will not radiate radio waves. If it did the electron would lose all it's energy above it's rest mass and stop. It will be surrounded close to it by Debroglie waves which you can visualize as the wake a boat makes moving through the water, except that the water here is the fabric of space time and the wake is in three dimensions. Put simply electrons moving along in space will never stop unless something stops them, just like the bullet. In short there is no net radiated energy in the form of transverse electromagnetic waves. To describe events the way CJ did merely indicates a total lack of understanding of the laws of physics whether at macroscopic or quantum levels.

To get radiation from your antenna the electrons in the metal whip are being made to oscillate back and forth end to end in a simplistic view. They are accelerated up to the end, then lose all forward momentum as they are deaccelerated, then accelerated in the opposite direction as the exciting source undergoes reversal of voltage polarity, in effect an AC voltage fed to your antenna. The reversing gaining and losing momentum is responsible for the radio wave being radiated from your antenna. This is a simple view but not really correct due to electron drift velocity. Electrons move slower than molasses in reality from a macroscopic view (Google 'electron drift velocity'). A better picture is to think of dominoes along the whip. In reality it is the power which is moving at light speed (minus velocity factor), known as the Poynting vector or S wave. If you had a battery, switch, and light connected by a foot of wire: you throw the switch the light comes right on. If you could watch a single electron you would see to travel an inch down the wire takes a few minutes.

Like I said really no easy way to explain this, just trust me what CJ was saying is completely clueless. Prov 17:27, Eccl 5:3.

http://amasci.com/miscon/speed.html

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/ohmmic.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drift_velocity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poynting_vector

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/waves/emwv.html

 

Well I guess that is that. No other options from Mr radio. I guess that means my option is the best so far. Come on Channel Jumper, we want a better option, to do what the originator of this thread asked. Remember no 102s off of front bumpers. He wants to mount his short stick on top of his fiberglass topper.