antenna location....

some of these older areas and roads were not built for todays big rigs. they were for the box trucks and cabovers hauling smaller trailers. what are we now something like 80' long w/53' trailer. big difference than back in the day.

 

Even in Chicago, theres places you drive that you are required to be in the right lane, and there isnt enough truck traffic to keep the trees trimmed. Heck if you pull a 53 footer, alot of places you just dont fit in the lane. 96" wide lane and 102" wide trailer. I can name a million places Ive done tree trimming and wanted to sent the city the bill.

 

I haven't done it yet, but I plan to position my single antenna in the middle of my cab, at the back, probably on the headache rack. This will provide a centered ground plane on the total rig.

Obviously, if I could mount the antenna half-way between the front bumper of my tractor and the rear bumper of my trailer, I would have the best situation overall, but, as we all know, that simply isn't feasible.

I currently have the antenna mounted on the left (driver's side) mirror bracket and prefer that position over the right side for the reasons stated in previous posts - namely, I don't need to trim trees with my antenna.

Are two antennas better than one? A simple analogy:
Compare the radio signal to water, like in a water hose. The water hose is your coax and antenna. If you were watering your lawn and ran the water through a hose, to a Y-splitter and out the ends of two hoses, what would be the result? You would get half the pressure and half the flow out of each. Still the same amount of pressure and flow from the source <radio>, but half the amount of pressure and flow at each terminating end. Leave out the Y-splitter, run one length of hose <coax> and you have full pressure and full flow at the single terminating end.

Reception for a well-placed single antenna should be fairly good. Two antennas may be better for reception, when placed at the optimum distance from each other <or, on typical truck mirror mounts - as far apart as possible>

but,

Consider this: If I transmit 4 watts out of one antenna, I will transmit farther than with 2 watts out of two antennas. I prefer to transmit farther with one antenna and receive a little less.

 

Well i dont know about you but my dual antenna system hears further and talks further than most of the guys i know with a single antenna, a few have single 5' steel whips in the center of their roofs, and i am pretty even with them.... but either way i would rather hear further than i can talk, get more info that way... but thats just me.