2016 freightliner cascadia - newbie needs help w/ antenna

You need a long top-loaded antenna. At least a 5' Wilson (fiberglass), SkipShooter or Firestik. Preferably a 6' or 7'.

The Wilson T2000 is simply not the right antenna for the Cascadia. It was designed with conventional mirror arms in mind, and is meant to be mounted high, not low. mike5511 tried a real long shaft with one and still got mediocre results.

 

What do you consider "mediocre results"? Others are posting here that the Wilson works fine on a Cascadia, you and evidently mike5511 claim otherwise. So what is the issue? Does it not get out over 20 miles? In my opinion, who cares? Why do I need to talk to someone 20 miles away? Doesn't it seem reasonable that in order for me to talk to someone 20 miles away, that that person would also need a radio that will get out 20 miles? And what if they don't?

I want to be able to talk to those close to me. Or more specifically, I want to HEAR those who are talking close to me. The warning of the accident up ahead, or the back up, be able to reliably communicate with a shipper, or even just have a conversation with a nearby driver. I've had two radios in a number of different trucks, all on the factory antenna systems, and it's always been the same problem: sometimes I get out, sometimes I don't, sometimes I hear both sides of a conversation, most times I just hear one side, even when both trucks are close to me. Recently I saw a driver talking on his CB in my mirror, and what I could hear was broken gibberish.

So this is what I'm after. Like the original poster, I'm looking at using that mirror mount bird perch bracket pictured in the link above (though I would probably use the Wilson bracket available at the truck stops), a length of coax cable-perhaps 9 feet if that will reach to the dash mounted radio, and the Wilson 2000 antenna. I don't want to use any part of the system supplied by Freightliner other than the power source. Will this give me the results I'm looking for? To be honest. I'm kind of shying away from mike5511's 7foot set up because I don't want to have to rig up some kind of support bracket like he did.

Also, as a side question, what is the opinion of the K40 brand of antennas available at the truck stops? Good? Bad?

 

You might get a decent SWR if you turn it far enough forward, but then you've messed up your radiation pattern.

As for the K40 antennas, I'd imagine they're the same as any other truckstop brand antennas (yes, K40 has diminished to basically a truckstop brand, it's pretty sad.)

I've made a support bracket out of an old plastic mudflap. Not hard.

If you saw the guy talking in the mirror and all you heard was broken gibberish, he was either on sideband on the same channel, or he was on another channel, and his radio was improperly tuned and thus it was splattering and that's what you heard.

Me personally, if I can't do well over 20 miles in the flats, I have a problem. I keep my RF gain maxed, never use squelch, and the radio stays on all the time, only being turned down when I sleep.

 

When I saw the guy talking on the radio, we were in a traffic jam and I could make out enough to tell he was talking about the traffic. Couldn't hear who he was talking to either. Maybe he was on a different channel, I don't know. And I don't know what "sideband on the same channel" is. He was a dump truck driver, so maybe he was on a different channel. Your replies still don't address the issues of not being able to hear other drivers.

And maybe you misunderstood my comment about the support bracket. It's not that I can't make a bracket. And I'm sure it's quite easy to do. I don't WANT to make a bracket. I just want to be able to hear what's being said with what is readily available at most truck stops. Anytime I get near a CB shop with time to stop, they are always closed.

 

I haven't put my support bracket on yet, and my 7' Firestik has done just fine...

Hearing better, assuming a properly setup antenna, is in the tune of the receiver. If you want a great receiver without much white noise and that will most definitely hear people near and far, I can recommend a guy, you'll have to mail the radio though. PM me. The vast majority of CB shops out there wouldn't know how to tune a receiver if their life depended on it. Most of 'em think a "peak and tune" is clip-snip-crank, close it up... 10 minutes and $30 later you have a hacked up splatterbox radio. If you can get to DTB Radio in Carlisle, PA, he is decent. Top 95% of his field. He is at the back of the Sunoco, next to the Quality Inn. There is truck parking behind the hotel.

Sideband is just another mode of transmission, like AM. Except there is no carrier, the max power is higher, and it's more efficient. If someone is close by, talking on sideband, and you're on the same channel but on AM, you will hear them but they'll sound massively distorted, basically like gibberish.

Splatter coming from a badly hacked-up radio on another AM channel has a similar distorted, "gibberish" sound. If he was in a dump bucket, he was probably on another channel. A properly tuned radio will not splatter at all, but there's next to no one left who can properly tune a radio. As I said above, to most shops, "peak and tune" means clip-snip-crank and close it up. And they charge you $20-$50 for that crap. Some places do bad mod kits that make it even worse.

 

Factors to consider. Altitude, line of sight, antenna, and interference. 100ft AGL will pick up all sorts of chatter that you will miss at 5ft in the same location. Volvo pretty much covered it superbly. If you aren't receiving like you want a better receiver or fine tuning the one you have is in order. If you are getting garble up close its an amped up AM transmitter on a different channel. You could jam a paper clip in there and receive signals from up close, the antenna quality doesn't start playing a real role until you transmit or you are trying to hear from a distance greater than a couple of miles.

 

I do not have a support on my 6' SkipShooter and it is doing just fine.

 

So it sounds like I need length more than a particular brand and then a quality shop to go thru my radio. Right? Just got to find a good shop I guess. I'm on a Midwest regional account dispatched out of the Chicago area. Don't go no farther east than I71 in Ohio, no farther west than Des Moines down to Kansas City, and occasionally into Kentucky. So my options are limited I think. Any suggestions?

 

Mine flopped around a lot and I figured it would last longer with a support. I liked the result so I recommend it, but it has nothing to do with the performance. The further you can keep the antenna from the cab though, the lower the SWR is. I pulled my antenna right up against the back of my mirror and saw no change in the SWR reading. I tired a 5ft and you can get by with one, but 7ft works a lot better.

NOW FOR THE RECORD: You guys use whatever antenna makes your little ol' heart happy! I slip seat every week. I can't tell you how many drivers have told me their radio works good with their 4ft Francis/Wilson/or any other NON-TOP Loaded antenna, on the mirror bracket, leaned over at +45 degrees. Then I check their SWR and find 3.1:1 or greater and tell them and they say, "well it works good enough for me"! The point being, drivers have either forgotten or never knew what a radio was supposed to do and most have no idea what their SWR actually is......despite what they may tell you. And once a again, "a dummy load has a perfect SWR.".......but it won't transmit across the room!

 

If you can get to Madison, WI - I-90 exit 132 - Q5 Communications, upstairs in the Truckers' Inn Travel Plaza. This is a great shop.