Dual antennas or single?

If you do your research you will find that mobile CB antennas are indeed 1/4 wave. And you quote 1/2 wave not so. Base antennas are 1/2, 5/8, and .64 being the best on 11 meters.

"...why did the writer say what he did? And what it was compared to!" I am sorry if you misunderstood what the writer was talking about, and I don't really understand how you could confuse Base station with grounding and optimum sized antenna arrays with the clearly marked "mobile" tab on the site, but hey, go back and try is all I can recommend here. This poll has absolutely NOTHING to do with Base application of antenna theory, it is about MOBILE antenna application sir. By mobile we mean NO EARTH GROUNDING, and ANTENNA ARRAY SIZE LIMITED TO OUR VEHICLES, aka TRUCKS, and we are not given the choice to pick the 102" Whip!!
How do you get Base antennas in here? Just like the writer puts a bumper mount on a Big truck if we change the name from car to truck. You sure can't place a antenna where he has it on a Semi. So you need to read more. Go back and look at both diagrams. And tell me how they both can be Big Trucks. "we noted that the radiation pattern of a single antenna is "pulled" where there is the most metal vehicle body"
It's called a ground plane. And antennas placed on mirrors on a tractor most of the ground plane would be towards the rear. Some front and little off the sides. Not in a circle. So this makes your writer incorrect!
And the ARRL handbook I've have read they don't talk about 11 meters. So where does the 102' & ARRL come into play? Not 10, or 12 meters. To long on 10m, and short on 12m. You need to understand what you read. Then think before you speak. For an Electronics Engineer I feel you are missing something. Just because one knows how to add extra channels doesn't mean that they do or even run them. Just letting you know that I can repair my own equipment. And I don't go quoting some miss info. And you didn't upset me by your error statement on radiation patterns. Now you can continue to think what you like. But your writer is WRONG! Think about it! Bye now I'm now off the key.

 

If you run a single antenna on the center of your tractor and you pull a van or any other obstacle that gets between the antenna and the reciever of the signal you're sending it will have a negative effect on your send/recieve directly to the rear of your vehicle...A minimal effect but an effect none the less.

I run dual antennas on my truck and the people here that say they are directioal to a certain extent are correct!
That having been said...99% of the radios that I'm going to be communicating with are either in front of me or behind me and therefore the minor loss of signal to the side of me becomes somewhat irrelevant to the operation of the radio in the truck.

The advantage of dual antennas in a truck is that the signal is coming from both sides and it (in most cases) helps to get your signal out to the rear of you a little better.

I'm not really interested in all of the tech. that is being tossed around here but I have a lot of years of experience running quite a few different configurations in trucks and have found that in this application the dual antenna set up seem to work best.

 

Another problem with 2 antennas is you start out with 1/2 the power at each antenna.

In my case I used 2 full length 1/4 wave antennas spaced 1/4 wave apart
The switch was done using the HYGAIN switching system for 2 phased antennas results were not worth the efford.

Also as you stated the truck/car will distort things base on the shape and location of the antennas /truck.

ONLY with a good grandplane would you get the results they got and if you could you would be changing phase of the array all the time.

FEEDING one antenna at a time MIGHT work for some truckers with a large cab but I would have to see the results done on a range or at least under some controlled test.

EVEN here at the house I din't mess with phased antennas except vertical stacked ones.

 

Yeah...But it's just a CB in a truck. It's here for close range communication with vehicles that are generally in your line of sight.
As long as I can talk/hear within about ten miles or so, I'm fine because usually I don't need or want to talk to anyone that's more than a mile or two from me.

That's the primary difference between the two mediums...Hams want to talk around the world, Truckers need to talk around the block!

 

WELL ... not really

I spend 99% of my time on 2 meters talking simplex over a 10-50 mile range.... NO I'm not into repeaters there great in the car but I use them rarely at the home QTH ...

 

My point was....They are essentially two different worlds.

 

YES they are ....

 

Of course now...Having said that!

There are those among us that can't seem to accept the fact that they can't make us conform to their way of playing with radios...They seem to feel the desperate need to inflict their particular brand of paranoia and prejudice on all who pick up a microphone and broadcast...

Which of course brings us full circle and back to the "pocket protecter" weenies!

 

Hummm after 45+ years of being a ham and almost 50 on CB I have had enough RF that even my pocket protector glows in the dark ....

 

That way we can find you when you wander off....