cb radio and antennas

[walrus]

Ok, I want to be a Redneck. Who knows a lot about cbs? Magnetic bases are best? It needs to be high and in the center of vehicle? Are some antennas pretuned and don't need adjustment? It is better to get a tunable one and adjust it?

I was thinking about a magnetic mount on the roof at the middle rear of the storage box. I was conteplating putting the base underneath the box and drilling a hole in it for the antenna which can be unscrewed for clearance.
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1987 Syncro west. conversion
1991 Jetta gli

[Deep_Blue]

CB's work best with a good ground. Even a cheesy unit will sound good if the ground is solid.
A magnetic base antenna will be ok, because the ground is running through the mag base, but only for a standard CB. (sticking it through the fiberglass of a westy top may not work well) If you run any amps or extra power (or just want a good setup) you will need to use a gutter-mount with a good solid ground. The perfect setup would have 18 feet of co-ax from the unit to the antenna, deviation from 18 feet and you will probably have to tune the antenna manually. Most come with tuning ability by raising or lowering the top portion of the antenna with a hex nut, or they have a screw in the tip.
If you just run 18 feet of co-ax, and give the unit it's own power lead (no running from the FM radio) then it will sound great.
For reference, the closer the 'coil' of your antenna is to the top of the stick, the better. Most fiberglass 'firestick' types have the coil wound at the top, for max dispersion of your signal. If you really want to impress da bros, and 'get out' like heck, mount a solid steel whip to your rear bumper. Heh. Then shout yee-haw!
(It's all about the length of the antenna wire...fiberglass and others have coils to make them shorter, but all must have so much feet of wire to 'modulate' correctly.)
For the mag-mounts, you'll want it as close to the center of the roof as possible because it uses the roof (and body) of the van as a ground plane. Not sure if that is possible for a westy.
Seriously...18 feet of '8X' co-ax (clear is kewl), separate your power leads, and mount the gutter mount with a separate ground screwed into metal. Top it with a 3 foot firestick and you'll be heard.
Good luck! 73's!

[Tom Hutch]

I use a magnetic base antenna and it holds very thightly on a really big 3" dia metal washer that I screwed into the left rear corner of the luggage rack. Most of the time, the antenna is behind the drivers seat with the antenna shoved into the sink cabinet by way of the seat belt notch. I'm with ya good buddy about the redneck image, but when you get in a traffic mess nothing better than a trucker to get you out.
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Cheers,
TomHutch - 85 Westfalia

[buspor63]

If had had mirrors from a VW LT, you could mount the antenna to it "trucker style"!

[Dogpilot]

If you are going to drill holes in the top, why not put a side swivel mount on. You could then go with the full 'Rat Patrol" style long whip with a pennet. It would be in keeping with the Syncro look. The long whips are 1/4 wave and put out the best signal.

Cheeers,
James
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Geology with a Syncro rocks!
86 Syncro Westy AKA "The Bughunter"
98 Disco I
08 Range Rover SC
08 VW Rabbit S
1951 O-1G

[CF]

ok this is what i know you don't want the ant. near any metal even thou it is a sorce of ground it also acts like a magnet by "absorbing "the signal . that why if you see the "big rigs " the ant are facing forward like antenas on a insect. if you realy want power get a linear (power ampiflier) which will get you out there (over 5-10 miles ) bigger means farther . also if you realy want to run with the big dogs . get a galexy radio . that goes by frequency not channels . with the wanna be big dog will have a regular 40 channel with "uppers","lowers" and "sides" that is frequency "mods" don't gget to cocky about tem thou,a regular 40 channel with a small linear (about 30 - 50 watts ) and a magnet mount still gets me around 55 mile radius

[Dogpilot]

Don't want to be too technical here. Antennas need as large of a ground plane as the antenna. On aircraft, which tend to be metal, the ground is as important as the blade. When we install antennas on newer composite aircraft we have to put an aluminum plate below the skin to act as the ground plane, or you get no range and lose half the Db that your radio puts out. You can reference AC-43.10 for further details. I was mainly an electronic warfare pilot during my Navy pilot time, and we got to know a bit about antennas and the theory. The last aircraft I flew in the Navy put out 1.2 MILLION watts of rf power. Truckers would be my last source of actual technical radio information. Linear amp are illegal on CB frequencies. On other amateur frequencies they require different licensing.

Illegal is a reletive thing (reference copying videos), but in the new homeland defence era, they are a bit more attentive to outlaw radio. High radio power also leads to higher rates of corrosion on your vehicle. We nearly always have corrosion at antenna bases, no matter how we prep the area. Remember corrosion is electrochemical in nature.

Try some of the amateur radio sites for good antennas that actually work, and have published data to support them. A decent antenna is worth 5 times the power.

http://www.echolinkradio.com/antenna.html

Cheers,
James
_________________
Geology with a Syncro rocks!
86 Syncro Westy AKA "The Bughunter"
98 Disco I
08 Range Rover SC
08 VW Rabbit S
1951 O-1G

[78BayDriver]