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Here is what I have used on my trucks. yes you can use this without damaging paint. There are 2 different ones (both found on same link), depending on what your antenna needs to mount to.
I would put this on front hood, forward enough that antenna does not hit overhang of camper. I have used them for years for Amateur radio, but they also work for CB radio
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http://www.firestik.com/Tech_Docs.htm
If you use two cb antennas, they use each other as their ground plane.
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BradW wrote:
If you use two cb antennas, they use each other as their ground plane.
If you use two cb antennas, they use each other as their ground plane.
Not unless one is grounded.
If both are powered, they use each other as a director......which may or not be effective if there is no good ground.
A lot of truckers use an antenna bolted to their wide mount side mirrors.
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![[image]](https://photos.smugmug.com/Base/Mics/i-wBPdCZc/1/478658db/O/P2280002.jpg)
Could not tell you why it works but it does. Electrically the rack is connected to aluminum frame so it is grounded. However I use small magnetic antenna so its only grounding thru the magnetic field. Not optimum but functions.
As far as ground 'plane' do not know whats its using. I assume its the height that compensates for otherwise poor mounting. Using everything underneath as the plane.
Most mounts the shielding sheath of coax also carries ground which is connected to base-typically mounted and its grounded.
* This post was edited 07/08/17 09:02pm by AnEv942 *
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The groundplane for an antenna is more of a reflective surface that changes the antenna's radiation pattern. A metal car body serves as an antenna's groundplane. Full size half-wave antennas don't need groundplanes but on CB frequencies they are 9 feet long.
The groundplane changes the radiation pattern from somewhat spherical (and upward) to a lower, more useful pattern (down on the ground where the other cars are).
Twin antennas like you see on big-trucks are there for two reasons... mostly these days just so they look "right" but the original reason we because they affect each other and change the radiation pattern to be stronger fore-and-aft and weaker to the sides. The idea was that was better for talking up and down the freeway.
I'm simplifying a lot here but that's some of the nuts and bolts of it.
Oh, also an antenna will tend to have a stronger pattern in the direction toward the bulk of the groundplane. If you mount an antenna at the extreme rear of a car, it will be strongest forward.
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![[image]](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/803/2156/1600/mobile_pattern.jpg)
Now by co-phasing 2 antenna on side of vehicle, the pattern changes as shown below.
![[image]](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/803/2156/1600/mobile_pattern_co.jpg)
Also an antenna is a length of wire (no need to show the math).
in CB frequencies this length is too tall for most applications so they build the antenna with a coil of wire so it still has long wire length, but is shorted physically by the coil
An antenna as a straight wire transmits from the center of that wire.
Now add a coil to the antenna and you change where the electrical center of the wire is on the physical antenna.
![[image]](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/803/2156/1600/mobile.jpg)
Here is what I like about the designs like fire stick uses.
the whole antenna is wound, but the coil is at the top, this raises your physical transmission location to the center of the wire. While it may not raise it much, it raises it enough to get the antennas electrical center above the affects of steel car parts.
![[image]](http://www.firestik.com/images/load-coil.JPG)
in an earlier post I talked about ground plane, I could have used the word
Counterpoise instead.
sch911 wrote:
Seems like a lot of work for an all but dead technology?
Seems like a lot of work for an all but dead technology?
It is something I have invested all new equipment because when/ if a real emergency occurs it might be the only form of local news/ communications. Ever have the '' all circuits are busey'' on your cell?
I like listening to the road warnings up ahead from truckers
East to west highways truckers are on 19.
North to south highways they use 18 ????? is that right?
covered wagon wrote:
It is something I have invested all new equipment because when/ if a real emergency occurs it might be the only form of local news/ communications. Ever have the '' all circuits are busey'' on your cell?
I like listening to the road warnings up ahead from truckers
East to west highways truckers are on 19.
North to south highways they use 18 ????? is that right?
sch911 wrote:
Seems like a lot of work for an all but dead technology?
Seems like a lot of work for an all but dead technology?
It is something I have invested all new equipment because when/ if a real emergency occurs it might be the only form of local news/ communications. Ever have the '' all circuits are busey'' on your cell?
I like listening to the road warnings up ahead from truckers
East to west highways truckers are on 19.
North to south highways they use 18 ????? is that right?
x2
all but dead, PSHAW
bumpy
covered wagon wrote:
...
East to west highways truckers are on 19.
North to south highways they use 18 ????? is that right?
...
East to west highways truckers are on 19.
North to south highways they use 18 ????? is that right?
Never heard that before, possibly -though have, at least our area, that 19 used for hiways, 18 for local traffic between commercial drivers.
17 is the north-south channel.
If you want emergency communications, go 2-meter ham. CB really is mostly dead, extremely short range (reliably, not talking about "skip shooting") and not a very likely source of news or help in an emergency compared to 2-meters.
burningman wrote:
If you want emergency communications, go 2-meter ham. CB really is mostly dead, extremely short range (reliably, not talking about "skip shooting") and not a very likely source of news or help in an emergency compared to 2-meters.
If you want emergency communications, go 2-meter ham. CB really is mostly dead, extremely short range (reliably, not talking about "skip shooting") and not a very likely source of news or help in an emergency compared to 2-meters.
and if I want to ask an oncoming trucker whether to take the N or the S bypass or go straight thru exactly how do I reach him on ham radio?
dead, hogwash.
bumpy
Your best bet is the same thing the truckers use, a GPS. That's a FAR more reliable way to find out how to get where you wanna go.
I haul horses in a big truck (Peterbilt 379) from the Pacific Northwest to Southern California and there's barely any CB going on at all. There isn't even nearly the professional courtesy there used to be among truckers (flashing lights to signal OK to pull into lane, tail light flash "thank you" etc). A whole lot of trucking is now done by immigrants from other places who aren't familiar with American ways and customs.
It won't hurt to put in a CB. I'm just saying, it's not like it once was.
burningman wrote:
If only things were still like that!
Your best bet is the same thing the truckers use, a GPS. That's a FAR more reliable way to find out how to get where you wanna go.
I haul horses in a big truck (Peterbilt 379) from the Pacific Northwest to Southern California and there's barely any CB going on at all. There isn't even nearly the professional courtesy there used to be among truckers (flashing lights to signal OK to pull into lane, tail light flash "thank you" etc). A whole lot of trucking is now done by immigrants from other places who aren't familiar with American ways and customs.
It won't hurt to put in a CB. I'm just saying, it's not like it once was.
If only things were still like that!
Your best bet is the same thing the truckers use, a GPS. That's a FAR more reliable way to find out how to get where you wanna go.
I haul horses in a big truck (Peterbilt 379) from the Pacific Northwest to Southern California and there's barely any CB going on at all. There isn't even nearly the professional courtesy there used to be among truckers (flashing lights to signal OK to pull into lane, tail light flash "thank you" etc). A whole lot of trucking is now done by immigrants from other places who aren't familiar with American ways and customs.
It won't hurt to put in a CB. I'm just saying, it's not like it once was.
gee I never thought life would be more orderly on the right coast than the left.
bumpy
burningman wrote:
It won't hurt to put in a CB. I'm just saying, it's not like it once was.
It won't hurt to put in a CB. I'm just saying, it's not like it once was.
Which is not all bad.
When every truck and about 1 of 10 cars had a CB, it was pretty much useless much of the time because of ZERO courtesy. Two radio users with illegal linears carrying on an hour long gab-fest could blank out all communications for 10 miles or more on half the channels.
Skip just made it even worse.
burningman wrote:
If you want emergency communications, go 2-meter ham.
If you want emergency communications, go 2-meter ham.
So keep going please.
What's the effective range of a mobile 2-meter rig....on average ? (without repeaters)
And out on the open highway, how many stations would you guess are active within that range.....on average ?
I still think that a cell phone is best in the overwhelming majority of the situations.....unless maybe you spend a LOT of time out in the boonies.
Sam Spade wrote:
Not unless one is grounded.
If both are powered, they use each other as a director......which may or not be effective if there is no good ground.
A lot of truckers use an antenna bolted to their wide mount side mirrors.
BradW wrote:
If you use two cb antennas, they use each other as their ground plane.
If you use two cb antennas, they use each other as their ground plane.
Not unless one is grounded.
If both are powered, they use each other as a director......which may or not be effective if there is no good ground.
A lot of truckers use an antenna bolted to their wide mount side mirrors.
http://www.firestik.com/Tech_Docs/Cab-over.htm
I am glad the CB traffic is just a small fraction of what it was during the Breaker/Breaker days. Most of that traffic was pure chit-chat anyway. That's not what I want the CB for.
In my area of the South, Channel 19 going in any direction is where the truckers stay.
![[image]](file:///C:/Users/mered/Pictures/2001-01-06/GEDC0742.JPG)
![[image]](file:///C:/Users/mered/Pictures/2001-01-06/GEDC0741.JPG)
CB is 27.195 Mhz (channel 19) which is an 11 meter waveform, this is called HF (high frequency).
2M is a service you need to be licensed for, but its only requires a simple test that is mostly about the rules.
Actually 2m is a "line of sight" signal that does not bend very much as it goes out through the air. 2M will pass through the atmosphere into space.
11m can bend around the curve of the earth some. in mountain areas you used to see the local police would still use HF radios because in some places they it just worked better. 11m mostly reflects off the atmosphere and "skips" back to the ground (depending on atmosphere conditions) that is why CB is so noisy, where sometimes its even unusable.
But where 2 meters shines is there is amateur radio clubs that put "repeaters" on top of mountains.
Your radio receives freqency A, and transmitters on frequency B.
The repeater receives this signal B and re transmits the signal (at same time it receives it) on frequency A.
Everybody's radio has both frequencies programed, and everybody is listening to frequency A.
the advantages of this is your mobile can transmit maybe 50 miles or more to the repeater, which re transmits the frequency the same distance or more, thus you can reach over 100 miles using repeaters. Sometimes these repeaters also have the ability to connect to a phone, or even the internet to attach to another repeater anywhere in the world.
The problem is there may not be many amateur radio operators listening to the repeaters.
* This post was edited 01/06/17 10:20am by towpro *
notsobigjoe wrote:
What is the two meter?
What is the two meter?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-meter_band
chuckbear wrote:
It may be dead for those of you that don't use it anymore. But for those of us that still use it, it's alive and well. Chuck
It may be dead for those of you that don't use it anymore. But for those of us that still use it, it's alive and well. Chuck
Maybe, but it must be a generation thing.
![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/smile.gif "smile")
(And I'm 50)Waze.... is way better and free to any whippersnapper young'n with a smartphone.
https://www.waze.com
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tmartin000 wrote:
Maybe, but it must be a generation thing. (And I'm 50)
Waze.... is way better and free to any whippersnapper young'n with a smartphone.
https://www.waze.com
chuckbear wrote:
It may be dead for those of you that don't use it anymore. But for those of us that still use it, it's alive and well. Chuck
It may be dead for those of you that don't use it anymore. But for those of us that still use it, it's alive and well. Chuck
Maybe, but it must be a generation thing.
(And I'm 50)Waze.... is way better and free to any whippersnapper young'n with a smartphone.
https://www.waze.com
True, but it uses a lot of my data running for 8 or 10 hours while driving. CB, no data use. To each his own. And we never put all our eggs in one basket. Chuck