Why you don't coil excess coax! Here's the proof. 

Coiling the coax creates a choke at the point where it is coiled. The coil terminates the counterpoise at the point where it is coiled. That is what is causing the change in SWR, not any perceived damage to the coax.

Great video! I immediately saw a difference when I uncoiled my cable!! Thanks for Sharing!!

Great Video "J". Two thumbs up! Coiling causes inductance. Bunch it up make the coil oval, do anything but a round coil. If you open your radios, inside the radio, by the coax connector, you will observe small coils. Those coils make your radios work properly. Screwing with your coax is like adding or subtracting from those needed coils inside your radios.

You can coil coax if you set it up correctly..it is called in "ugly balun" look it up..I use one on my antennas at my house with 1200 watts going to them and my swr on any of my antennas never go over 1.4 ever..Every time you stand close to a car/truck whatever and check swr your body has a effect on it..Just as if you sit in the seat and leave the door open..The coil is not the biggest problem with this video or saying not to coil the coax

Thank you, thats very informative info for a newer CB hobbyist

Thank U J.Rich for such short , useful and close up video . in my Opinion (i could be wrong) part of outer skin of Coaxial Cable was acting as Antenna Radial particularly with this Antenna setup , as you coil it up , Virtually you had eliminate the Radial , and that's why the SWR went Up . Perhaps you do repeat this experiment with 50 Ohm Dummy Load and get the SWR reading (With and Without coiling the Coaxial) and let see what Happen .. Another experiment might be executed using a (Stretched , No ZigZag) Quarter Wave length Cable (Roughly = 2.7 Meter @ CB Frequencies) to be connected to the outer skin of the Coaxial as Close as Possible to the Antenna Base Radial , Then Repeat the "Drama" Also You may consider (Diamond Antenna Magnet Earth Sheet Type MAT50) to be put on the Car Roof and Check Again. Good Luck

Good explanation 👍🏼

The vertical antenna on your vehicle uses the vehicle itself as a ground return and part of it is on the shield of the coax. When you move the coax around or coil it will effect the SWR.

Always have kept the length only as long as needed, always set swr’s by length of antenna, never had a problem!

Excess? Why would you have excess? If my antenna, coax, antenna are all 50 ohms then I make it as short as possible.

Great video. Something I've always known but, nice to teach the newbies!

The coiled up coax needs to be at the antenna feed point to lower the swr and increase efficiency.

No problem with coiling coax. A coil of coax is often used by ham operators to form a choke to reduce common mode currents caused by an imbalance at the antenna. Also the difference between swr’s of 1.2 and 1.8 is insignificant. The only advantage to lower swr is to keep the transmitter happy. A 10 foot length of coax has virtually no loss at CB frequencies regardless of swr.

I run a hair over 11 ft from my mag mount sirio(almost ctr of my roof to my dash..Its all routed behind the back seats under my console and behind the dash..

I coil my coax to make a balun Just so many things wrong with this video But if it works for you and makes you happy then keep at it

Super video LucDM 16IR101 Belgium

Mmm. Most of your vids are true and accurate, but I feel you may have embarrassed yourself here. There's a few things going on, apart from this practical being very non scientific. First I want to get out of the way that those Dosy meters are crap. On top of this, they may too have a poor design in measuring SWR. The end fed mono pole mounted on your car would definitely be a factor for common mode current. You also have a limited ground plane with a car, and this may contribute. The coax is becoming part of the antenna, it's radiating. One ways of combating CMC is to run your coax along the ground. It makes sense if you simply think about it as basic antenna theory, and height above ground. You raise it to your bonnet, then you put it closer to the ground. There's all sorts of things possibly going on , and it depends how you look at it. The coax could/would be acting as a counterpoise and altering the impedance of the antenna as you change the proximity and angle. But back to my previous point CMC can affect meter readings! If I were to ignore the points previous to this, the coiling up of coax may be the more accurate SWR reading because you have just formed a coaxial choke. Anyone who wants to argue this, don't bother, you will wrong so just keep praising people even though you don't fact check.

That is an eye opening experiment.

I don't see an email address fr J Rich Truckin & CB Tips here so I am leaving comments as suggested here in the comments below the video. I APPRECIATE THE HONESTY AND GOOD INFO HERE !👍

I causes a choke point like a ferrite choke.

I would consider the best idea is to cut the coax to the correct length. If you're after lowest SWR then make that a multiple half wavelengths allowing for velocity factor. That's OK if you can get what you need to tell you that length. If you're after best performance and you don't have that then cut the coax to should cut to shortest length possible. Either way, then use a SWR bridge to tune the antenna. If don't know what any of this means then leave it alone until you do or until you can find someone else who does. The second way is relying on luck that you don't get an odd multiple of quarter wavelengths of coax which is the worst thing that can happen. 🤣 👍 🇦🇺

Just wrapped my Stryker A10 antenna and black widow lead wire for my antenna in my pickup. Cleaned up ALL of my static from the vehicle. I’ll leave it wrapped up.

Why not just cut the extra cable out and put a new end on the cable?

Like a metaldetector coil picking up car electronics . inductance is present from the first coiling.. great RF filter tho

I get my RG8X coax in long lengths and I'll cut to length as needed but at a minimum of 16' and I install my own PL-259 connectors to eliminate access coax then I'll do a resistance or ohm test and swr test with my MFJ analyzer.

The only thing affected by coiling feed line is what's on the outside of it, not what's inside the feed line. If there's a change in SWR when you coil the coax then you have a problem to start with, not because the coiled coax caused it.

Yet we get 18 feet for a pick up truck or car 😂

Outstanding video! Great demonstration to prove why not to coil coax!

I coil coax with no problems. This is a case of r.f. on the braid. Use ferrite rings to stop it. G4GHB.

the mag mount is using the coax sheld as a ground plane. if you tried a 102 whip with a good rf ground is would have little/ no effect.

Thanks buddy!! 🤙🏻🤙🏻

Coax comes on a spool dude

Every piece of cable should be rough equivilent of the wave length i have 6' rg8 ( the 1/2" ) from radio to swr both the radio and the meter shows 1.1+ changing the jumper to 3' rg8x still shows swr 1.2 but radio transmit has dropped to only 3S on radio meter( still no swr issue on radio either ) But all done and said i get best on air responses from the 6' 8 jumper 🤯🤯

The shielding of the coax doesn't matter, coiling it up does. You're making an electromagnet if you coil the coax. They all leak.

When I installed my antenna I accidentally purchased a two-headed coax would it be all right if I cut the extra line that I didn't need

It is best to buy coax in the length needed. If you need to coil it, use a formula for the 11 m band, coil in a diameter of 4 1/2” and in 5 to 6 wraps, this creates a dirty choke or air choke, these keep the signal from transmitting on the coax and sends it to the antenna.

Thanks. Great experiment.

How about doing why u don't need excess coax ?

Great vid man👍🏼👍🏼

Thanks for the videos, they're very explanatory and thought out. I have a question though, in most truck/semi set ups, or more so, the one I have in My kenworth, the cb is in the center above the window and the antenna is 4.5 feet away on either side of the truck, mounted on the mirrors. If you recommend 18 feet on each side, but not to coil them, what do you do with the excess 12/14 feet? Or is 18 feet still necessary in this case?

I wanna see a Stryker at10 mag mount vs a 6 foot skipshooter vs 102. Thank you 🙏

Here's to you 👍

You're doing it right!

So throwing the coax up on top of the rig like you did, which would be in the ground plane, would not effect the SWR's??? When you have the coax uncoiled, it's off to the side of the vehicle. I would think the SWR's would be more affected by the coax laying in the ground plane. There are other vids from other channels where the coax is not in the ground plane, and the SWR's are not affected at all by the coax being coiled up or stretched out..... Now I am aware that electricity creates an inductance. And that coiling wire greatly increases the inductance. I could be wrong, but it is my understanding that the shielding in the coax is to help prevent against any unwanted inductance from inside or outside the coax. Otherwise, all the inductance generated by the wiring and alternator in a vehicle would bleed through the radio so bad, it would be pointless to even try to use a radio..... And this is more of a question than a statement.

My coax is coiled under the dash. My cb has swr at 1 all day week.

Good videos! Hey, on a 2022 freightliner cascadia midroof with wind dome, would you recommend the 7' Skipshooter mounted on the mirror bolts or that Stryker SRA10 above the passenger door on a bird perch? Your reviews of these Antennas indicated that they are very good. Please share your thoughts.

Thanks for the video, What is the best coax to get and where to buy? I run a conventional tractor and just put a bracket on the back bar on the cab with a new clear jacketed coax like the one you showed with a Francis that checked out ok with an Antenna Analyzer on my pick up but is high on the big truck.

What happens if you coil your coax in a figure 8. I've heard it cancels out any impedance mismatch from circular coils...

That is about as basic a test as you can get. There is no way to argue with simply, definitive, accurate, results.

Informative video, very much learn from your videos. FYI, always mount the camera. Also, when you were coiling the coax the camera was bouncing, reason you were holding the camera and could not use both hands. While you are outside at your truck providing important information the movement of the camera quickly became extremely annoying. You say something, point at something, then quickly point the camera to something else, then back to something, ad-nauseam. Enough already! It becomes difficult following your explanation. Mount the camera, with a pencil or some such device point to what you are talking about. As the video is now, I must stop it, backup up the video, find what I need to look at what you are talking about then start the video.

Hi Richard can you tell your viewers what’s the best cable to use what you think is the best cable

What length of coax should be used for cb in a car ?

Just read online that you don't coil it but you do about a 1ft figure 8 with the excess.

My coax doesn’t do that when store further back . Hmm? I’ve figured 8 it coiled it? Tested it. Still same swrs!

It gets packaged in a tight coil like that in the shops

His name here is "toms life" does coiling your coax effect your swr. Look at his test alot better then the car test uou did😮😮😮

I need help new to the game! Tryn to get set up. Got a brand new road king and lil will mag mount. How far can I reach when set up

Coiling coax that small just makes it an air choke

In general, it’s not a good practice to have excess wiring of any kind held in a coil. You’ll see this a lot with home computer networks. Nice tight coils of network cables zip tied up under the desk ( or whatever). And folks will wonder why they have a spotty connection. All coils of wire, network, antenna, telephone, extension cords or whatever, will create a magnetic field when electricity runs through it, whether from an actual power source, or from radio frequency absorption or emission. That magnetic field also generates heat which can cause power losses, internal radio (computer, modem, router, phone, etc…) interference, overheating, and other issues. Never a good practice to have excess wire in coils that is being actively used.

So you should never coil your coax?

Have a question when I key up when using my amp my turn signal flasher clicks any one have this problem

Jesus , bye bye