2016 freightliner cascadia - newbie needs help w/ antenna

Well, I just got a new Cascadia. I see Bob's CB shop has all the proper mounts, even the spot mirror mount.

I've already hooked up a cophased, Wilson 5FGT top loaded, 5/8 wave, fiberglass setup. I've got the SWRs to 1:1.8 or so. I have tried tuning them better.

Since this setup, I'm no longer hearing skip on ch 19. I did get skip on ch6. I can talk and be heard though. I had mismatched center loads, one Browning 78, and a Wilson 5000 before I got a matching 5FGT, and was only able to get 3 miles forward and back. In my Prostate, I got at least 5 with factory dual antennas or single driver side mount aftermarket parts. I once made DX from MA to WI, at a shipper barefoot on LSB 38 with my hacked Galaxy 979. No one can hear me SSB with my 959 done by DTB. I sound great on 11 meter so I'm told though.

I'm going to test how far this setup gets out before I get to a competent shop.

 

The skip has been weak to non-existent the last few days. Lots of the guys on the superbowl (6) run five figures of power so you'll hear them loudly even when conditions aren't great.

 

Thanks, I thought it was just my setup.

 

That being said it looks like your coax is RG8... is that correct?

 

Yes it is.

 

Yeah... these companies selling RG8 "co-phase" harnesses... hate to say it but you just threw whatever it cost to buy that in the trash. RG58/RG8/any 50-ohm coax is useless for co-phase. You need 75-ohm RG59A/U.

 

Who said it was 50ohm? Furthermore, it's not trash if it can be returned with receipt. It would be trash if I couldn't talk on it at all. But all that aside RG59A, thanks.
http://www.firestik.com/Tech_Docs/coaxtalk.htm

Several times a year we get tech calls from installers who place dual antennas on their vehicle and run RG-58 or RG-8X from each antenna to a T-connector at the back of their radio only to find that the system "doesn't get out". You should not use 50 ohm coax on a ground plane dependent dual antenna installation ... it MUST be 72 ohm RG-59 type coax. These flawed installs can be misleading because SWR tests can show exceptionally low SWR, making the installer think that all is well. However, the impedance of the antenna system does not match the requirements of the radio and therefore, the output power of the radio is greatly reduced. In several tests, we found that a 4-watt radio would only generate 1.75 watts of output power that is the equivalent of having an SWR reading that exceeds 6.0:1.

Don't know why Wilson would print TRUE 75 OHM on the back of the package?

 

Either they're using RG11 and calling it RG8 or they're blatantly lying. Since the Wilson brand is now Barjan junk, I frankly wouldn't put the latter past them, and the former would genuinely surprise me.

Only way to know is to use an ohmmeter.

As far as returns, will they take something like that back once you've actually used it?

 

They took fittings back, at Hess, but I recall she kept that receipt. So, it will be trashed after I find 9ft of rg59 cophased. I'm near Detroit now. There doesn't appear to be any real CB shops in the area.

 

Like I said, check the impedance with an ohmmeter. Most multimeters can do this. There is a theoretical possibility that they are actually using RG11, and if that is the case, it's fine and there is no need to spend more money on new coax.