antennas pointed forwards and fans mounted on backs of sleepers

I was just curious. Im new to all this and really didnt know.Being new Im trying to learn all I can.I dont really care.Sorry If I annoyed anybody.

 

You didn't annoy anybody, JL...there just seems to be a bunch of answers to the question.

 

Oh come on, the day is a total waste if you don't find somebody to annoy. Nothing at all wrong with your question.

 

The CB shops that do installs will lean them forward in an attempt to lower the SWR which is affected by the trucks exhaust stacks... my son had this done when he bought some radio equipment a few years ago.

Really I could care less if my SWR is 1.2 to 1 or 1.1 1/2 to 1...

 

Wouldn't leaning your antennas backwards protect them more from tree limbs and leaning them forward increase the damage from striking a limb?

 

Problem solved !

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A leaning antenna does not help unless everyone else leans their antenna.

Its called polarity.

If the person you are talking too has a vertical antenna and you have a horizontal antenna, you are just about cutting him half out. His signal pattern is completely different than yours.

Only time antennas slanted helps is when you are DXing or if the person you are trying to talk to has his antenna slanted as well.


Now, Hams will do this with their hamsticks because many stationary hams on HF are using an inverted V dipole.


But like others have said, there is no real purpose other than someone wanting to be "cool". These clueless souls who slant their antennas down because of the "wind" should really look at their antenna when they are going down the road. I see them all the time and their "whip" is not bending in the wind, it is slanted along with the rest of the antenna. But you can't tell these truckers this. They, in their own mind, think they know everything their is about their CB radio.


P.S. These are the same nuts who go to the local trashy CB shop to see how over modulated they can get their Cobra 29.

 

Puncher. The antenna he had pointing down was acting as a ground plane. A ground plane is what helps to define the shape of you signal. On those towers you see driving down the road there is a copper field under it. For military applications such as the ones on Okinawa put in for the Korean and Vietnam wars the field was made so the signal was "aimed" towards the respective theater they wanted to communicate with. Ships in water have the best ground there is! There is a Christian radio station just south of Atlanta that the tower now sits in a small lake. They have a better pattern that what the FCC allowed them and it caused them a few problems back in 1981. I was working for my Dad when he owned a station In Austell and I did tower work on the side till he finally got smart and sold that thing! BUT ground planes define how your signal "looks" if you could see it." Most of you think it's all round but not even close UNLESS your truck is square or round and the antenna is placed in the exact center of the shape. The body of the truck, if you look at the cheap and bad drawing I did does this. 1 antenna on the drivers door, the "shape" of the signal is to the right and back of the truck. and the same on the passenger door. It's to the left and rear. If I'm running a single antenna I put it on the passenger door.If co-phased or 2 antenna you get the same pattern or shape but now it's on both sides of the truck. See in the picture? I didn't have room for an antenna mounted in the center of the truck but now you can see how a ground plane works.

With a ground plane kit like Puncher asked about and you've probably seen the antenna pointing down makes a bigger plane on a smaller truck or fibreglass body (which is the worse material for making a ground plane) and makes the "shape" bigger.
The same applies to your car or P/U truck. If mounted in the center of the vehicle the plane is more "round" because a car is shorter. the same with a P/U . On a fibre glass boat there is actually a wire run into the hull and exposed in the water. A ship, well just ground the thing to the nearest welded down railing and you have a ground! A really big ground! Aircraft, ask Quinid as I only did a PT job at Piper AC and didn't do any avionics but I bet the ground was the body also.
Now if you want a ground plane that isn't that other antenna there is a 3 pronged piece that has those little 3 or 4" antennas pointing slightly down that your antenna screws into and you mount the whole shebang onto the mirror mount. The 3 little antennas help to make a ground plane OR you can go real cheap and not advertise that you might have an above average CB and keep thieves away and go find a very large washer maybe 3" or bigger in diameter. Put a 1/2 inch hole or 9/16" depending on what size the base of your antenna is so the washer will fit over it snuggly and then mount it to the clamp and there you have a poor mans ground plane. And it works just as well as a store bought one! Heck you can even make one out of stainless and have something else you can polish on your off days!

This thread should go into the CB thread but it's here for now and I'm on another roll!
Someone hit SWRs, Standing Wave Reflected. That's as far as I'll go with the meaning! BUT as posted the stacks WILL effect your SWR as will a lot of things such as power lines, trucks parked next to you metal buildings and other things. Yes, a low SWR reading is good. It keeps your raido from working to hard (getting over heated). My now 17 year old Uniden PC29xl and other radios have an SWR setting switch and a mark in the meter on where to set the SWR. When you first get a CB and antennas and a truck it's a good idea to set the SWR's as low as ou can. A GOOD CB shop is where you want to go if you have no idea how. Just park AWAY from the building , out from under power lines and away from other trucks. If the CB guy doesn't tell you this then don't pay him as he has no freaking idea what he's doing but taking your money! 50 to 100 feet is a good distance.

After the SWR is set then mark where you adjusy=ting knob on the CB is set with an ink pen or marker. head down the road and when in a nice clear area do the SWR check as the directions that came with the radio tell you to do. They should be fine. Now when you change trucks you'll notice that the SWR's will be about the same if it's another POS Freightliner century, Cascadia or if you're a Pete person they pretty much are the same among truck brands. SWR above about 2.75 is not too good on the radio. If you can't get it down to at least that then an antenna and coax adjustment is needed. But if you always get something below 2.0 I wouldn't worry about it unless you're trying to be Rush Limbaugh or Wolfman Jack and have you own CB Rambo show going and talk all day long then you'll be buying radios like some ppl buy candy! But if you just ask a question like where is this place or listen for accidents and pretty much don't carry on long therapy seccions then the SWR isn't that big of a deal. Even the CB Bible that good CB shops use points out the same thing or did the last time I read one and that was back in the mid 90's!
Have fun!10-4!

 

WOW! some people here are just jack #####....I tilt my antenna forward to keep it from hitting low tree branches. I haul asphalt and when in the paver I am some time close to the side of the Rd. in residential neighborhoods with low tree branches and in the past have had antenna snapped of by tree branches so I came up with the idea to lean it forward so it is low and being out in front of the truck I still get good reception....Do what ever You like not what you think other people will like....Good luck.

 

Hey Mix - Welcome to the forum ...... you know that this thread is, like, over 4 + years old, right ? And the last post was 4 years ago last week ?

Anyway, just to side with you, yes-ish, but I have found, in tight spots, even leaned forward, I still caught limbs. One thing that I have found thoo, is that leaning forward your sticks DOES decrease freezing rain build up AND cut down on wind swish into the cab. I believe the latter was mentioned previously. I run into freezing rain A LOT in my area, and since leaning forward, just a bit, I have decreased ice build up 90%. JMHO.