I'm just here to share some of my experience from nearly 20 years of trucking. I do my best to break things down, so anyone can understand, and walk away more informed. I bring my personal experiences from many different trucking companies, operating many different types of equipment, years of DIY, and my love of the CB radio. I never claim to know everything, done everything, or to be the end all, be all.
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Just a small point from a radio man - if you are running a single antenna, the coax should be as short as is practical to do so. Don't run it 'tight' but nothing too excessive. Using a 50 ohm antenna with 50 ohm coax to the 50 ohm output of the set, it is all matched and you will (if the antenna is tuned correctly) deliver full power to the antenna with a low VSWR and minimal reflections. Using two antennas is different. There are two different ways to set them up to work correctly however your description will do. The length of each feeder coax is critical and they should NOT be shortened or lengthened. There is another way to feed dual antennas but it involves much more coax which means you have to stash it somewhere, so stick with the two feeds as you describe. Otherwise, all good.
My fifth wheel had been put all the way back ( towards the truck) by someone. Very dangerous as we run empty ( less than 1000 pounds) often ( military contract- dedicated) Nearly flipped the trailer on a gusty day. Went back and realized fifth wheel was all the way back- centered the fifth wheel- two notches on either side and drove back into gusty wind- was perfect.
Hope you respond. I have a 40' motorhome. Has a fiberglass roof. Don't really want a tall antenna cause it's parked in a car port. What antenna and mount would you recommend? Thanks
Dual antenna's always look super cool.....they DON'T WORK WORTH A DAMN, without the correct spacing and phazing harness but who cares, so long as it looks cool right?
I have a cobra 29Ltd i installed in my older big rig. It has the original old coex cables. I installed dual antennas 4ft tall 1000watt. Something's dont seem right. My swr is 2.5 on channel 40 and 2 on channel 1. I'm also wondering if my coex cables are not good i think i should replace them. Do yku think i need to cut a little off the tip of antennas? With a dual antenna set up do you think i have certain cables like a 2 into 1? Thanks
As someone who drives a modern cascadia with a large fiberglass roof fairing what antenna/mount location would you recommend? I do currently slip seat and I use a browning antenna with a “base” load coil mounted to the back of the cab on the horizontal grab bar it seems to work very well with my cobra 29 ltd classic with am/fm but would love some feedback back from someone with much more Cb experience/knowledge look forward to hearing back and learning
So say you flip your switch without the clutch to check for the grind but you don’t hear a grind. Does that mean it’s not engaging? And if it’s not, how do you fix that?
Hey J, I have the factory cophase coax in my truck and i want to run a new single antenna, can I leave the old coax and install the new coax? Or would it be a problem?
Thanks for sharing your knowledge, right now trying so hard to get this single antenna 6ft Skipshooter below a 2 SWR but am having major problems, my grounding may be the problem but when i hook up to the trucks stock dual antennas my SWR is below 1.5 with a 4ft fire stick on drivers side and a 3ft francis on passenger..I have a matching 4ft fire stick for the passenger side but could not get the SWR low enough..I have a lot of antennas so thats how I ended up finding out this setup WORKS FOR ME.
Hi, hi, I just talked with a manufacturer of a US company that builds US made antennas called Driver Extreme,the 66" DRX -4661 top loaded coil antenna seems a possible better choice for the trunk mount as you said becouse I think it's higher than the roof line , Thanks
Thank you, I'm looking into a Stryker SR-A10 antenna. I have a 2011 crown Victoria police interceptor. I'm mounting it on the center trunk lid. Do you think the Stryker or a top loaded fiberglass will work better....thanks
102" Stainless whip all day long. Not for everyone's application depending on vehicle, but the best I have ever used. Mine was on the rear left corner of a 1980 Chevy van. The van became the directional ground plane by pointing it at my recieving station. However, it was as good or better than anything else even off the short side. With in-town interference very common, it recived and cut thru very well. Best SWR sensitivity ever. People say the 4' wrapped wire shorties are the same electrically, but only on paper. In the atmosphere, physical mass rules. I never has an issue with low overhang structures. I just drove thru slow. The whip is indestructible. A tennis ball slid onto it provided excellent protection for the van.
I have the Stryker trucker sr a 10 can I remove the extensions and have it work properly with the extensions it’s to high. I’d use the mag mount but my 2023 ford f 150 super crew is aluminum body
The K40 is a piece of junk. I bought one and could not get the SWR down to something acceptable. They had a Little Will in the store, but only had pieces of it. I gave the K40 back right away and could not try the Little Will. I use a Browning CB antenna which I am very satisfied with. There is one thing, that gets me all the time that was not mentioned in this video. You cannot check your SWR when you are on sideband. SWR meters measure your carrier. Since there is no carrier on sideband, it cannot be done. I always forget to switch to AM when I tune an antenna. Oh well. And yes, the closer you are to 102 inches for the whip the better. 102 inches is a 1/4 wave on 11 meters.
Thanks for the video J Rich! I’ve seen trucks with antennas mounted vertically and trucks with antennas mounted at say, a 45 degree angle. Does this affect the angle that the radio waves leave the antenna? In low frequency (HF or High Frequency) radio theory this changes the distance that you transmit and receive radio waves in this frequency range and lower frequencies (changes angle that radio waves bounce off the atmosphere) for long distance communication (for those running higher power) or is this just to affect the height that the antenna sticks up in the air?
Awesome info sir! I been thinking of getting into the cb hobby with my Ram Sport..... researching antenna mount ideas as well as radio mounting. Thank you. Great stuff. My late stepfather was into HAM radio and had one in his truck.
Take your analogy with throwing a stone into a pond one step further. Throw 2 stones into the pond from the same height and the same distance apart and at the same time and you will see exactly how co-phasing works. Try 3 stones in s straight line and see what it does. 3 stones = 3 element beam, and so on. I have a tri-linear 5/8 wave for 900Mhz and the principal ie exactly the same. Sounds complicated but the principal is the same.
