How do I get a better operating radio for home use? [PHOTOS INSIDE]

First off, get that antenna away from the shop light.

Second get it outside, upright, on top of a piece of metal all under the antenna (dead center of a car's roof top is the best), as high as you can.

Right now in the manner you have the antenna mounted, you are sending most of the radio's RF energy back into the radio. That does 2 things....1. greatly hinders your range and 2. the finals in the radio will eventually heat up and will burn out, making the radio useless.

As for the SSB, it's very useful. The problem is back in 1974, SSB was on channel 16.....but when the 40 channel CB's came out in 1977, the SSB channels moved (by gentlemens agreement) to channels 36-40. So in other words, SSB is pretty much useless.....on that radio....unless you can find someone on 16 (or one of the other 22 channels) that's willing to do SSB with you.

Here's what I'd do if I were you....

You can make what is called a "dipole". It's very easy to make. Google it, you can make your own CB antenna out of 2 pieces of wire, an old toothbrush handle, a piece of coax with a coax PL259, and some dental floss.

Hag the dipole with the legs horizontal for skip or with the hot lead erected and the neutral lead horizontal.

 

Could you do the dipole like I mentioned? Can your radio talk for 5 km? Or just hear?

 

Hiya, Hillbilly.
I'm looking at the pics you posted (thanks for those -- they help us muchly). As was noted by others, that antenna mounting is about as far from optimal as it might be.
Looks like the shop light (or one of them) extends through a point more or less right under the peak of the roof. Have you got room to move the antenna to the top of one of the shop light reflectors? The antenna will be then oriented vertically, the same as 99.95% of all mobiles. By having yours sitting horizontally, you're already reducing the amount of signal to other stations to 1/10th of what would be available if it were upright. That's often referred to as the "20 dB cross-polarization loss." Antenna gain or loss also affects your ability to receive by around the same amount -- at least on paper -- but it is very noticeable, to any other station beyond very, very short range.
If the light sorta points at the roadway you want to talk to, stick the antenna towards the end of the light that's farthest from the target area; that will maximize the amount of "ground plane" in your direction of greatest interest.

If the shop light sorta parallels the highway, and if the antenna will fit there without touching the inside of the roof (or having to be bent to avoid it), then just center the antenna mount along the length of the light.

By the way (cuz I dunno if you already know it) your antenna currently points towards the garage door and towards the back of the garage, as well as down into the light below it and the floor, and into the light above it and the roof, clouds, stars...so not much is pointing at the horizon, where most other stations will be. "Down" is also the direction of your power supply, mic, and the rest of the radio. Spraying RF (radio frequency signals) into susceptible parts, like those DC power lines and the microphone (especially since it's a power mic) can nearly guarantee a shriek or whistle on your transmitted signal. You won't hear it except on a second radio nearby. And cranking the gain up on your power mic instead of (or along with) the mic gain pot on the radio can increase that susceptibility to RF when you transmit.

The antenna's signal pattern can be thought of as being kinda like a doughnut dropped over the whip. If the antenna were sitting vertically, it would still have the same shaped pattern, but now much of the energy would be pointing towards the horizon in all directions, with not as much being wasted by going up or down. It's not perfect, and that antenna has no gain compared to a reference antenna (it actually has some loss) but it does represent a usable compromise. You just have to make the most of what you've got. You mentioned that you currently had your antenna pointed at the highway; can you confirm that the highway is out the front of the garage or behind the house?

Hope that is helpful and makes sense.
73 from a "foot-hillbilly"

p.s. Just saw your post from a few minutes ago. I'd start out with moving the antenna to someplace in the garage where it can be vertical, ideally over metal (which is why I suggested the top of one of the shop lights) before I start worrying about SWR. At this point, trying to adjust the antenna's whip length would be akin to trying different mufflers to improve the performance of a 6-cylinder engine that's running on just 3.

 

Why not

Does ontario have laws against rooftop antennas

Im running a realistic navaho on a 5 foot firestick mounted on an old fashinoed tv antenna fixture on the roof of our trailer gets out pretty good ev

 

OK, gotcha. I understand there's not enough clearance above the shop lights. Your antenna, despite the impression that it works like a fencer's foil, radiates off the sides, not out the end of the whip. Since it looks like you've got a little spare coax wrapped up on that truss, how about repositioning the antenna so that the tip points towards the back of the garage, i.e., so it goes past that spinning reel on the wall.
You can do it by just moving the magnet from the side it's on 90 degrees around, to the right as you stand in the middle of the garage and look at the antenna. And if you can get it up above the shop light as high as you can, it won't interact with the light as much as it does now.

The antenna will still be cross-polarized with nearly any other CB station out there, including mobiles, because it's lying horizontally instead of standing vertically. But at least if you change the way its pattern is facing, you'll be putting more signal out onto the highway that interests you.

Dat be all I can suggest until/unless you're able to mount the thing vertically. Even upside-down, hanging from the "indoor end" of one of the garage door guide rails, will at least be vertically polarized. Worth a try: try moving the magnet on the piece of metal it's currently mounted to so that the whip runs past the spinning reel, and then try hanging it off the door rail, and see which seems to work better.

Good luck; please keep us informed on how it works for you.

73