CB radio & related information

good info! i always knew you were supposed to tune the antenna, but was never sure how exactly to do that. you guys definitely simplified it!!

 

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your welcome Stephen

 

Later today Im going to make a new thread for this, clean it up, and make a sticky. Great info guys, its much appreciated.

 

Thanks Brad. And again thank you scrambler. Very great information.

 

Some more good CB info I pulled from Brinker's CB thread http://www.rangerforum.net/f13/my-new-cb-3731/ . Thanks to Craig and Scrambler!

 

There's an easier way to do this than spending that kind of money on a no ground CB antenna. Just run a ground from your antenna mount straight down to your frame.

 

Grounding is the name of the game !

 

In response to the dual whips, I have a cobra 25 classic with dual whips, and i only have one hooked up, the other is a dummie i just like the look of two

 

ok better late than never i guess here is a list of radios ants and mics. now keep in mind i am a truck driver these are radios i have run or have seen run, i also tune build and repair my own radios as a hobby.

Radios (listed in order of my person favs)

1) Older Galaxy 33hp from the 80s( newer are good but not as good)
2) Galaxy 55 great radio at a good price
3) galaxy 98 ( for those who want a big bad radio will cost though
4) a built cobra 29( has to be built to be up in th top) sorry
5) connex 3300 or 4400
6)styker (newest radio company on the market but they hit the ground with an amazing radio
7)cobra 148gt great stock radio
8)galaxy 44
9)night watch( same as a 29 just differnt face plate design and weather band
10)galaxy 959 or 979 great radio for the price but needs tweaked alittle)

NOTE: for those who want different colors you can change the color of the channel display and the back light for the meter on any radio made its a simple job with a little soldering. most specs can be googled to find the correct points to connect

Ants (this is a short list )
1)wilson 3000( best ant for any radio setup out of the box)
2)K 40( same as wilson 3000 really a tie for 1st)
3) wilson 5000(great for bigger built radios)

Note there are lots of them on the market but most would be way to much for your standard out of box or even a mild built radio. I prefer these over fiberglass sticks as they are easy to tune and the whips can be replaced as need from ie bent from trees

Mics

1)road king 56( great for any radio listed above. gives great sound while cutting out background noice)
2)astic mic( great mic has a more trebbile tone though can get hard to understand when radio is not tune correctly

Note. I do not recommend power mics while they are a great idea they tend to squel alot do you feed back. also i do ont recommend the look alike mics(rk 56 most common look alike)

coax tips.

Buy only the lenght needed and never coil it up as this mess up your swr.(always check your swr when making any changes to major setup. ie moving ants or power tuning the radio.

hope this helps some people again i now its alittle late but since this is a sticky and i have posted on a bunch of others that will fade i figure on last time here any questions PM me

 

ant ground improper

another quick note. I see so many people on here with ant issues. ants do not require a ground most of the time. those that do will have a factory installed ground strap off the ant. If you look at a brand new mount you will see there is a nylon or rubber space between the ant stud and the mount. this stops grounding. grounding an ant can cause power feed back to the radio and burn out your finals in the radio itself. please read you ants instructions to find out if at all it requires a ground

 

All antennas need a good ground to operate properly. An antenna works on the signal going to the antenna in an electrical pulse and then retuning to the radio ground and on to the battery, the idea is to setup a path of least resistance, so a good ground wire to the frame will help the flow and help create a flow back and in turn a good ground plane for the radio signals to work off of.
Some may have an inductive ground like a Magnet Mount and some MAY get lucky and get a good ground through the body mounts, hinges, bumper mounting and all of the rust and corrosion build up BUT… adding a ground wire can’t hurt.

You may have lucked out on yours and found the right spot and got a good inductive ground but not a good hard wired ground.

If you are mounting the antenna on a separate bracket, not a magnet mount, alway run an additional ground wire from the antenna mount to the frame of the vehicle, getting to bare metal where you mount the wire. Use Ring Lugs for grounding and good quality s/s external tooth lock washers and it doesn’t hurt to use some anti-corrosion paste on the connection too.

Mirror Mounted Antennas, they need a good ground too and as stated above add the ground wire from your antenna mount to the door frame and then to the frame, not just the body. Corrosion build up is the big ground killer and the only way to fix it is a ground wire to the frame.

 

Anyone have more CB Info ?
Here is a little... about Antenna Mounting Locations.

The phrase, "Transmission Pattern"' this is the way an antenna put out or transmits the radio frequency when you press the button on the microphone and talk.

Remember that the body of the vehicle will determine the transmission pattern and the antenna will transmit the radio frequency towards the largest part of the vehicle body based on mounting location.
So what does does mean... if you mount the antenna in the middle of the vehicle or as close to it as possible the antenna will transmit in an even pattern around the vehicle.
If you mount the antenna in the rear of the vehicle the transmission pattern will towards the front and towards the opposite side that the antenna is mounted on; this applies to the front but in the opposite direction.

Take into account the transmission pattern when deciding where to mount the antenna.
Most people like the forward pattern so they can talk to people in front of them, that will require the antenna mounted in the rear, that simple. BUT... you do need a little towards the rear just in case the "Boys" are coming up behind.

I hope this is of some help.

Just to mention AGAIN... The dual antenna setup.
Remember, they need to be a minimum of 9.5 feet apart to work properly and if you do mount the two antennas and only use one there is two problems that will come up.
One is that the second antenna, the dummy, will couple with the one doing the work and may interfer with the transmission causing less power out and a screwed up SWR and second, with the real antenna mounted on one side of the vehicle most of your transmission power will go out the other side of the vehicle. So think on the idea of dual antennas before using them. Oh ya, believe it or not dual antennas, setup properly, will split up some of the power and in turn reduce the output of the system. Big truck use higher power CBs than stock so they can afford this lose.

What else, there are a lot of aspects of radio communications that most do not take into consideration, you really don't need to know it all but always tune your antenna to the total system by adjusting the antenna for lowest SWR.

Pay the most for the antenna and coax.

Luck to ya, I will stop talking now.

 

It has been a little while and no one has bothered to add to this thread, a good one too but we keep repeating ourselves.

Maybe this info and other threads of this type need a separate Forum, maybe call it "Radio Communications - CB and HAM".
Extra work for the Admin having an additional forum but it seems that this topic keeps coming up and the same info is being tossed around time and time again, so maybe it is not as accessible as it need to be.

Just a suggestion, I like helping anyone with their CB or HAM setups, antennas and coax are animals all to themselves and need attention when installed but lets get it together in one place.

Thanks for listening and post up people, we can all learn new things.

 

Hey, I know it has a while but how did you make out on this .

Wondering what CB and antenna you ended up with ?

Did you tune the Antenna for lowest SWR ?

Ltr

 

Before buying the CB decide what you want to do with it.