International LT

Tell your company to stop ordering them with that horrible antenna system and spec them with the single antenna on the driver's mirror arm. It is an option. All of Roehl's new LTs are spec'd that way.

Otherwise I got nothin'. Seen one up close, there's literally no way for a company driver to install an antenna system that will work on one with the back of cab antennas. The mirror arms on those ones don't have the hole so you could install your own coax and stud. Absolutely awful. I lambasted international on their Facebook page about it. Doubt it will make a difference, they don't care.

 

Oh BTW, Francis antennas would not be good for that spot. I'd run 5 foot Wilson silver loads there.

 

How about starting from scratch with either outback antenna bracket or similar and simply bypassing Intl CB system.....that’s what i would do.

Quality antenna/coax....

 

Just got into a new 2018 International LT. 34k miles.

CB antenna pair is mounted on back of cab, low enough that the four-foot wire-wound stop short of the condo roof by more than a foot.

Each looks like the Pana Pacific Freightliner back of cab offering. But has a pair of retaining rings to keep antennas from flopping.

Separate AM/FM on hood.

I hooked up a new, bench-tested Galaxy 979 and found a consistent SWR of under 2.0 on 40,1 & 20 on a RS meter.

No replies to air checks from a location where I’ve nearly always been able to catch traffic on IH35.

Quite a lot of static present but no worse than the KW 880 got out of. Still, this is one weird configuration.

Think I’ll try the 4.5’ ProComm Quad Rod QW45BG pair I got from Clays Radio Shop and had tuned to the KW. Also have a pair of 5.5’ Francis. Not expecting much.

This was while bobtail. Will be funny if hooking a 53’ van changes it much.

It’s a lease tractor, but I may sneak my own power harness in to see if that’s an improvement.

Unable to find other than this short thread in a Net search.

 

Sitting and waiting two hours already with two other drivers for some hungover Julio’s to show for work, saddle their forklifts, and get us unloaded.

Checked to see if the 5.5 Francis pair would work, but they’re too long.

The Pro-Comms tuned right up. Getting about 1.6 across the board. Much more sensitive than the black Fiberglas stock pieces.

I’m two miles north of IH70 west just of Denver. Can now pick up that traffic more easily. Circled around the warehouse and at two points CH 19 is crowded.

Mainly hearing skip. What before was noise is now intelligible. Gain open wide and squelch up less than one half.

Made the run from Fort Worth to Denver yesterday with the OEM antennas in place. Reception wasn’t worse than a typical embedded antenna Freightliner. Maybe slightly better.

Skip was pretty easy to hear once I was headed directly north up US-287 from Amarillo.

If I ever get out of this place and over to Aurora to reload, I’ll be back on the road to Central and South Texas. First stop is Tuesday morning.

 

Listened to skip loud and clear mainly from northern and southern CA and Utah coming back down to Texas.

Easily had three miles in range to other trucks. But, as always, can be hard to tell about other guys radio.

Of course that’s wide open flat terrain from 5000’ altitude down to 3500’. Southern Plains. A 53’ dry box behind me.

I get my DSP speaker hooked up (West Mountain ClearSpeech) that’ll help. Have a Cobra S500 on dash facing forward and bouncing off windshield now.

I’ve disconnected chargers and other, cant tell any noise difference. Will play with coax connect and reconnect. So this new design truck is pretty good. ELD is straight from dashtop fuse panel (Garmin, not PNet or Qcomm).

Had radio gain wide open and not much squelch. This was better than a 2016 Cascadia I was in. (Stainless mirror mount from Bobs and 7’ Skipshooter. A piece of PVC to resist bend. A power harness and coax also from Bobs. Thx Mike 5511 and others for that setup. Same radio. But not same route).

No, not what I want. But better than I expected. Pretty good reception, transmission yet to be determined.

I’m not against calling it “bad”, but a couple of days in it’s no worse than the Freightliner and the 2017 KW 880 (mirror arms; like T680) I was in where these antennas were dialed in by Robert (at Clays) with an analyzer.

Have to run from Panhandle to DFW and then to Corpus Christi. Familiar territory. And had a large car Pete when in oilfield as reference over that terrain.