bought a bolt-cutter today.
Question, is it better to tilt forward a bit before cutting the whip down to see of SWR comes down some? At present its tilted forward by about 10 degrees or so. IIRC SWR is at 2.5 or so with doing nothing to it?
whats the best tool to trim...
Discussion in 'CB Radio Forum' started by mickeyrat, May 21, 2014.
Page 2 of 3
-
-
Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds
Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.
-
One of the Wilson Antenna engineers told me that CB antennas need to be straight up and down. Tilting them forward does nothing for you but screw up the radiation pattern of the antenna (not to mention making you look like a ######...).
-
Don't tilt it passed 22 degrees, the wind will blow it back almost vertical anyway. So even if your SWR drops, it will go back up when you drive down the road. But yes, I would play with the tilt just for fun. You might get a great SWR at 45+ degrees, but it won't talk worth a hoot. Vertical is the optimum, but a little tilt won't hurt a thing. One thing noteworthy; if you are adding your own antenna be sure and remove the factory antenna. I can put a antenna on the mirror mount, on a Cascadia, and leave the stock antenna in place on the sleeper and get 2.5:1 SWR. Remove the stock antenna and it drops to 1.4:1. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
-
-
Carbide cutoff wheel in a Dremel. Score a line around the whip where you want to cut, then chuck it in a vise and smack it with a hammer. It'll snap right off.
I've seen antenna whips leave dents in the jaws of bolt cutters. -
-
I now have what would seem a rather ignorant question, It is becuase I am ignorant of the answer, but on this 29LX I have calibrated according to instruction, SWR checks at one bar above 1 (guessing 1.2) now once I switch to S/RF function I get above three signal on the swr part of the meter when keying and have been heard on "radio checks" is this correct?
what should I see on key under the S/RF setting?
Ran the radio check feature and everything seems to pass. -
-
I likem usingb a dremel with a high speed cutoff wheel. It's fast, not as fast as bolt cutters, and leaves a smoother straighter cut.
-
As to cutting antenna rods: I've got a stack of rods for different antennas and operating frequencies. I use them for testing. Once I put in one that reads close to being right, I fiddle a little with the length (up or down) until it's about right, then use a grinder to cut & round off the bottom end of the new whip and make final adjustments with that. Saves a lot of guesswork, and the cutting charts that come with new antennas seem to assume a perfect counterpoise area for the antenna's mount. I also secretly believe that the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus will visit my shop when I've been good.....
73
Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds
Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.
Page 2 of 3