kW t680 cb mounting. What have you done??

I will change both will look better anyways.

 

I don't know if they're co-phased or not. They are the multi band antennas though. I haven't been doing anything with them. Something was different in than one truck though because the receive was phenomenal for a factory set-up. A whole lot better than the exact same truck I drive most of the time.

 

So I moved into the new KW680 today and yes the cb antennas are co-phased because the coax is RG59 and much to my surprise have a real pl-259 connector not the cheap ones that volvo and Freightliner use. The antennas are multi-band, like Mike5511 mentioned, but I will replace them because I dont need them for Am/Fm radio ( have Sirrius/XM) and dont have a TV, but with the stock antennas swr is 1.4 on ch 20 ( once again radio meter) and sitting in Akron IA I hear alot of cb chatter mainly local hoppers and Bull racks, so once I start heading back to Florida tomorrow I will test it out with BC 980 inline.

 

They are decent....especially if you've been in a Cascadia for a while. I think you can get away with a 5 maybe 6' antenna. I go as long as I could.

 

Just completed 2nd day of driving in KW680 logging 1255 miles which is a pretty good test for cb radio performance. Driving from LeMars Ia to current location in Byron Ga was able to drive on a variety of landscapes and terrain. Day one I used the stock antennas with average results being able to communicate on average 3 to 5 miles with BC 980, the incoming signals didnt appear to come strong and clear that I am accustom to they seemed weak at times with more static than I am used to with the 980. When I stopped yesterday I installed two 4' Firesticks ll for todays run, after raising the adjustable screw almost all the way up was able to get swr to 1.2 on ch 1,20,and 40 using radio shack meter and the antennas are 6 " higher than the stock ones. Started driving just after midnite so things were quiet until I hit Nashville around 5:00 am and the chatter picked up and I was receiving stations way out in the distance, and I eventually talked to a driver from Music city to Monteagle and when we started communicating he was 5 miles ahead of me and when he exited off 135 I was still at the bottom around the 127 so 8 miles up mountain obstructions , I was satisfied, and driving south on I75 alerting northbound of two seperate crashes a few contacts were 10 miles or so. Just thought I would give a quick updated.

 

If I would of been more patient I probably would of found some 5' antennas to use but I settled for the 4 footers. The distance from ground to antenna mount is around 6.5 ' so even a 6' antenna would work but I really didnt want to challenge the integrity of the factory mount and plus I think they may flop around a bit. So far the 4' antennas seem to be working fine, Im currently at our terminal in Zephyrhills Fl and hear all the usual base stations in Tampa, Plant City, and Lakeland and they are all 15 to 20 miles away, obviously I havnt tried to contact any of them because they are carrying on amongst themselves and it would be impossible to be heard ( if I reached one of them) unless there was a moment silence, not going to happen, too much hash and trash going on.

 

I hate to use anything less than 4.5ft. Hard to beat 5.5ft Francis. (my "go to" antenna) Yeah I know they ain't what they used to be and I haven't used any of the "new" Francis antennas, so I'm not sure if this would be good advice????

 

Any advice is good advice and much appreciated. I still have a siro twin log 5' antenna that I used on Cascadia and next time I get by cb shop in Richmond Hill Ga ( where I bought it) I will probably get a 2nd one and try those, can always use the 4 footers as backups, can never have enough, you should see my microphone collection, lol.