Eliminator89
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Winona, Mn
Yes, $35 is a bit to toss, but it'll cost you much more than that to have it repaired. How cheap do you suppose an electronic tech works for?
Would you really spend $150 to have that cheap radio fixed? Call any tech that works on CBs and ask what their bench fee is (thats the charge just to check the radio out, no repair work yet). Trust me, you'll toss that $35 radio.
Two way radio antennas consist of two parts. The antenna itself and the ground plane it works off of. That ground plane is your vehicle body (provided its metal). The higher the antenna and the more metal around it, the better its going to work. A 3' antenna on your trailer hitch is going work far worse than the same antenna on the your roof.
Mobile antennas are a compromise. How tall an antenna you can live with and where on the vehicle you are willing to mount it. A bumper mount moves the antenna down, out of the way of tree limbs and low flying aircraft but it also seriously compromises the efficiency. On the roof is the best place for efficiency but you start whacking tree limbs.
What can you live with? If your radio is simply for trail rides and the drive to and from, efficiency is not much of a consideration because the folks you are talking to are nearby.
If you enjoy gabbing on the radio with as much range as you can get, then efficiency becomes much more important. You would have a different set of priorities for the antenna system. You likely would be willing to live with the occasional tree limb whack to gain that efficiency.
You can reduce, or more likely, eliminate trail damage to the antenna be using a spring. Mount the spring on the mount and screw the antenna into it. This is generally for the fiberglass antennas as they usually have the 3/8" screw type mount. A base loaded antenna (Wilson 1000 - K40 - etc) will have a tall, thin whip that will easily bend when encountering obstacles.
REMEMBER: if you are going to use a fiberglass antenna on the trail AND it is likely to hit things, you are not done buying stuff until you have that spring also. That spring should be an integral part of any fiberglass antenna installation.
Having said that, I don't have a spring for my fiberglass antenna on my old Mustang. But then, I don't do trails with it. If damage (from hitting stuff) is likely, put that spring on there. Thats what they are for.
Would you really spend $150 to have that cheap radio fixed? Call any tech that works on CBs and ask what their bench fee is (thats the charge just to check the radio out, no repair work yet). Trust me, you'll toss that $35 radio.
Two way radio antennas consist of two parts. The antenna itself and the ground plane it works off of. That ground plane is your vehicle body (provided its metal). The higher the antenna and the more metal around it, the better its going to work. A 3' antenna on your trailer hitch is going work far worse than the same antenna on the your roof.
Mobile antennas are a compromise. How tall an antenna you can live with and where on the vehicle you are willing to mount it. A bumper mount moves the antenna down, out of the way of tree limbs and low flying aircraft but it also seriously compromises the efficiency. On the roof is the best place for efficiency but you start whacking tree limbs.
What can you live with? If your radio is simply for trail rides and the drive to and from, efficiency is not much of a consideration because the folks you are talking to are nearby.
If you enjoy gabbing on the radio with as much range as you can get, then efficiency becomes much more important. You would have a different set of priorities for the antenna system. You likely would be willing to live with the occasional tree limb whack to gain that efficiency.
You can reduce, or more likely, eliminate trail damage to the antenna be using a spring. Mount the spring on the mount and screw the antenna into it. This is generally for the fiberglass antennas as they usually have the 3/8" screw type mount. A base loaded antenna (Wilson 1000 - K40 - etc) will have a tall, thin whip that will easily bend when encountering obstacles.
REMEMBER: if you are going to use a fiberglass antenna on the trail AND it is likely to hit things, you are not done buying stuff until you have that spring also. That spring should be an integral part of any fiberglass antenna installation.
Having said that, I don't have a spring for my fiberglass antenna on my old Mustang. But then, I don't do trails with it. If damage (from hitting stuff) is likely, put that spring on there. Thats what they are for.
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Learned a lot over the years. Read books, the electronic and radio mags. Used to mess with Cbs and Ham radios a lot but these days I don't open them up as much.
