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My CB Install Thread

where did you get that metal strip?
 
bosco01xj said:
where did you get that metal strip?
Click to expand...

Which do you mean? The aluminum for the mounts? I bought it at Lowe's.




Well, I found a 5' toploaded fiberglass whip laying around in the building at the house (imagine my surprise!) and started testing friday evening. I also have a 102" SS whip that I tried. Results are as follows:
102" between 1.3:1 and 1.5:1 SWR. Its also so heavy it was bending my trick mount and rear gate. Decided it was too much effort to change coax and everything I'd need to remount the antenna elsewhere.

5' toploaded fiberglass: between 2.2:1 and 2.4:1 SWR. The antenna isn't in the best shape, as it was a hand me down from when I was little. Probably 20+ years old when I got it. I'm going to replace it with a new 5' firestick and a spring to keep it from snapping off in the brush around here. I'll report back with my SWR's after the spring and all is installed.
 
Latest news: I bought a new Wilson 5' Silverload toploaded fiberglass antenna and brought my SWR's down from 2.X to 0.2 across the board. Seems that the bottom loaded SS whip that I started with was projecting into the body, and the fiberglass one I had after it was shot. So, its working well now!
 
Looks good. FWIW I have had a 3' Firefly mounted to my tire carrier for a while now and haven't had any issues with branches bending/breaking the antenna.

The CB shop guys do get pissed when you don't have the "perfect" mounting setup. They wouldn't tune the antenna on my TJ because I installed it by the taillight :dunno:
 
I've found the best SWR meters are the cheapest ones on Ebay. I've bought two so far and they're both still running strong. Granted I've used each one twice, so they don't see alot of use.
 
Well, my antenna mount broke the other day. The aluminum cracked in the top 90* bend and dropped my antenna down behind the jeep. Luckily it was on the trail and didn't hurt anything. I'm going to try to re-do the mount out of steel, probably a little thicker this time, and see how that works. I'll keep you posted.
 
The loading coil is too close to the metal "ground" of the Jeep. If you want to keep that mount point change to an antenna with a center load, or one of those 3/4 foot whips.

The short whips have a loading coil as well, but I believe it is more distributed over the length of the whip, where as this antenna has the coil at the base.

BTW, the higher the coil on the antenna the better your radiation pattern to the ground. So center, or top load antennas are better for talking to people around you. More radiation to the ground and less up to the sky.
 
Just installed my CB yesterday. Unfortunately some jack ass drilled a hole in the roof for the one thats there now its just a little foot-tall antenna. I don't wanna take it out just yet. I thought about maybe a 2 foot firestick
 
FlexdXJ said:
Just installed my CB yesterday. Unfortunately some jack ass drilled a hole in the roof for the one thats there now its just a little foot-tall antenna. I don't wanna take it out just yet. I thought about maybe a 2 foot firestick
Click to expand...

Sounds like a 2 meter antenna or a scanner antenna. You should be able to find a plastic plug made to cover that hole. Check with an electronics store that carries ham and scanner antennas.
 
Mudderoy said:
Sounds like a 2 meter antenna or a scanner antenna. You should be able to find a plastic plug made to cover that hole. Check with an electronics store that carries ham and scanner antennas.
Click to expand...

thanks man, i am new to the CB tuning stuff so i am kinda lost. I just bought it for trail use but i figured the antenna was shit anyways
 
terryd said:
Well, my antenna mount broke the other day. The aluminum cracked in the top 90* bend and dropped my antenna down behind the jeep. Luckily it was on the trail and didn't hurt anything. I'm going to try to re-do the mount out of steel, probably a little thicker this time, and see how that works. I'll keep you posted.
Click to expand...

Terry, I noticed on the Bobcat ride it was getting floppy at the mount but it looked more like it was flexing the rear hatch. You may want to use a steel plate inside the hatch to to spread the load on the sheet metal or use a spring to soften the shock to it.

I know you are aware that most of the trails we run around here are antenna killers, thats why I put mine on the front and with a light spring so I can keep an eye on it and if i do whack something with it, it will just pop back.

We need to get together on another trail ride soon!

Jon
 
I like the ingenuity behind the mount. But, when you bend extruded aluminum, it tends to fracture. If you can use the L part of a standard mirror mount, you will get better results from a durability standpoint.

That model of antenna (see original post) is a bit finicky on transmission line length, and is a bit hard to tune. The Coax with these 5/8 antennas is part of the whole system and will not tune correctly with a random length. You may need to shorten the whip. To find out if longer or shorter is what you need, measure the SWR at 1, 18, and 40. If the SWR is bad across the band, but the "best" on 1, your whip is too long.

I use a slightly different BARJAN (Brand, they own Wilson) base load on my Wranger, and I like it. The model I have, has an adjustable loading coil (it screws up and down to adjust the SWR). I ended up having to cut a good 4" off mine to get it to load, but then I also ran the Coax an exact length.

Also, the gate is not grounded to the body except weakly though the hinges and latch, and you will have to do so with a ground strap.

There are many ways of mounting antennas, and radio locations. Each depends on what YOU want to accomplish, how you want it to behave in the cab, and how much room you have in the garage.
 
xjtrailrider said:
Terry, I noticed on the Bobcat ride it was getting floppy at the mount but it looked more like it was flexing the rear hatch. You may want to use a steel plate inside the hatch to to spread the load on the sheet metal or use a spring to soften the shock to it.

I know you are aware that most of the trails we run around here are antenna killers, thats why I put mine on the front and with a light spring so I can keep an eye on it and if i do whack something with it, it will just pop back.

We need to get together on another trail ride soon!

Jon
Click to expand...


Yeah, I've got a spring to go on it, but on Bobcat, I can usually stay away from any brush that will hurt it. I'm going to build one out of steel (hopefully tonite) and put a brace on the inside. We'll see how that goes. I'd like to come down and ride Lignite with you guys the next time you go. We'll have to see how the $$ situation goes though. I hate I had to leave the SWVa ride.
 
Last edited:
For the guys who apparently missed post #24, I've switched from the SS whip to a Top Loaded Wilson 5' Fiberglass "Silver Load" antenna.

Also, I've added a braided ground strap between the gate and body.
DSCN2271.jpg
 
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