mjeff87 Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 Not glamorous tech, but I rigged up a new CB today. Mounted it where the ashtray was. Temporarily mounted the antenna on the side of the toolbox because I only had 9' of antenna cable to work with....will be moving it to the rear bumper shortly. I'm also going to mount a remote speaker either between the visors or on the back cabwall under the rear window, between the buckets. Jeff Image Not Found Image Not Found Image Not Found temporary antenna mount (pulling a 3 on the SWR meter :roll: ) Image Not Found Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landlubber Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 nice, I gotta wire mine up. this is where its mocked up: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CWLONGSHOT Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 Jeff, that's the same radio I have and Landlubber, yours is mounted same place as mine!! Did you set your SWR? I finally got a short cable so I can set mine!! CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMC-MJ Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 :mad: a SWR of 3 is really bad, you need to get that Standing Wave ratio down a lot. :cheers: I'm very impressed you know about SWR :cheers: Lot's of guys just toss them whips on and think that's it, they have no idea whip's need to be tuned. 62' GMC 4500 running twin K40's: after fighting the pair for a while I tuned each whip separately then I linked them back in tandum install my Co-phase cable and did a final tune i got them to hold at 1.1-1.3 SWR best i could get most shops shoot for 1.5 or less i normally can pull a .9-1.1 tune's on single whip's running duel's is more tricky . . . I'm pushing them with a Cobra 148 with weather radio channels. Good luck Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted January 10, 2010 Author Share Posted January 10, 2010 yeah, I'm not transmitting with it (just a quick mic check or two to make sure TX works...). I'll fully tune the antenna once I get it mounted in a better location and have the correct length cable for it. I may run down to the Pilot service center (it's nice living right off I95) and pick up a 3 or 4 ft Firestick, too. Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CWLONGSHOT Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 :mad: a SWR of 3 is really bad, you need to get that Standing Wave ratio down a lot. :cheers: I'm very impressed you know about SWR :cheers: Lot's of guys just toss them whips on and think that's it, they have no idea whip's need to be tuned. Good luck Mike Yup, this ain't my first time at this dance. :brows: I have been at this CB thang for some time now... ;) CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMC-MJ Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 :cheers: Good to know that people do know what is going and why :cheers: Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knever3 Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 It's good to hear that someone is still using CB's. I loved cb's when I was a little younger. I had a cheap radio shack but I had a linear amp and got around 50 miles with it in the car and at home. My friends had cobra's and uniden's and we loved to mess with them. I remember soldering in roger beep boards and echo boards, oh the days. I later had a uniden Grant XL with upper and lower channnels with the power turned down a bit and the modulation up, with the linear from time to time. One person had a Uniden President radio and wilson 1000 that I was so jealous of. Making only $60 per week I couldn't afford much but I could dream. Too bad Nextel's two way and cell phones in general wiped out the CB craze because I sure like it and would go back in a second!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knever3 Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 I'm also going to mount a remote speaker either between the visors or on the back cabwall under the rear window, between the buckets. If you had stereo speakers in the doors it would be the coolest thing to mount two stereo talk back speakers in the OE locations behind the grills in the dash!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMC-MJ Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 I'm also going to mount a remote speaker either between the visors or on the back cabwall under the rear window, between the buckets. If you had stereo speakers in the doors it would be the coolest thing to mount two stereo talk back speakers in the OE locations behind the grills in the dash!!!! I have done this, I had an S-10 which had door speaker's so i used the dash speaker port's got some nice pioneer 2way speakers and an 80watt amp. I plugged the the end for the external speaker ran the wires into the high range in puts and with a little tuning of the gain and setting's i got perfectly Chrystal clear incoming CB transmission's. Worked out awsome for CB tag. . . Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RLCollins Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Can someone with a little knowledge in Eletronics tune a wip antenna? How do you do it, and with what tools? Where can I buy a sealed or weather proof cable -meaning from the radio inside the cab to the rear bumper? What size cable would you use? What type of antenna would you use? :hmm: Seems like you have more knowledge than me I have a CB in my truck that I have not had the time to check it out yet -The main unit is mounted behind my seat with the mic up front with all the bells on whistles on it - what do I have? :hmm: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87Warrior Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 RLCollins- sounds like you have the Cobra 75, IIRC. It is the unit with all of the functions built into the handset. Popular for the Jeep crowd because of its small size. You should be able to find all of the installation hardware (antenna, mounts, cable) at a truck stop or radio shack. I run a Uniden PRO538W with 3 weather channels and a 3' firestick in my TJ. SWR stays below 1.3, 1-40 :D Will be installing the extra Uniden 520XL in the MJ someday. Still have to find an antenna mounting set up I like for the MJ :nuts: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RLCollins Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Thanks for the infor as far as the antenna mount, mine was through the top of the rear bumper on the drivers side end. The only problem that i saw was the top of the bumper was not strong enough to support a wip antenna swinging. So when I mount it back in place, i will strengthen the support based on the underside of the bumper with a piece of steel maybe like 4 inches by 4 inches by 1/16 inch thick. What do you think? :chillin: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmJay Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Can someone with a little knowledge in Eletronics tune a wip antenna? How do you do it, and with what tools? It's been a long time maybe 20 or 30 years since I've messed with CBs. If I remember there is a cap on the end of the Whip. If you remove the cap there is a coil of copper. To tune the whip you trim the copper using an SWR meter to get the best tune. If the whip is used it may allready have been trimmed shorter than you need. I think you can buy replacement coils. I may be all wrong, but it's been a while. Mac... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeep stuff Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 how do you tune your whip? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMC-MJ Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Just like AmJay said pretty much . . . its one of them things you can do it or you can't . . . i have tried teaching people how i have only had about a 20% success rate and a 80% failure rate. . . Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knever3 Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 I would try buying a rubber grommet for your antenna and drilling a hole in the rear of the cab facing the bed. Running the antenna wire up between the cab and bed and mounting the antenna to the box between the cab and your tool box if it fits. You will have to droop the cable so water doesn't run down into the cab just to be safe and silicone the grommet just for more added insurance. I would get the standing wave good before any of this permanent install. This pic is nice, the bracket would work great on the back of the bed too! http://jeepin.net/miscweb_album/images/DSC00567.jpg Find it here for $17.95 http://www.truckers-store.com/store-pro ... 55308.html And for antenna: http://www.amazon.com/FireStik-FS5-B-Tu ... 813&sr=1-7 Let us know what you come up with, based on budget I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87Warrior Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 A 5' antenna seems like it might be a bit excessive. Is there any advantage to running the 5' pole vs. the 3' pole? I only ask because my 3' FireStik gets about 5 miles of reception, which is what I though was on the high end for a CB radio. Obviously if your mount is down low, the taller antenna would get you a less obstructed signal. I think I will look into doing a bed mounted antenna. I think positioning a mount on the inside of the box, to the far right would be a good option, assuming the mount would get the antenna away from the top lip on the bed. Some interesting ideas are coming out of this thread. Nice to see what has worked for others while thinking through a set up :clapping: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMC-MJ Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 whip length has to dp many with wave length, 1/8th wave 1/4 wave 1/2 wave full wave ect . . . I don't recall what a wave length is . . . It's not uncommon to bale to transmit n receive several miles 5 10 15 25 . . .rarely do people get over 25 miles but it can be done. Some guy's running a full wave whip 100ft in the air hooked to a base station running some crazy high wattage and super low SWR that have gotten Side band transmit receive for 100 miles . . . Now my 148 IIRC put out 5 watts 1-40 and upper n lower side band 1-40 had 20watts. . . Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted January 15, 2010 Author Share Posted January 15, 2010 I changed the mount a bit and trimmed the top of the stick, and got my SWR's a bit better, but still have more work to do. I'm now pulling just a hair under 2 on ch1, about a .8 on 19, and about 1.3 on 40. I don't think it's gonna get any better than that with the el cheapo stick I have.....gonna go pick up a 4' Firestick from the truckstop in the morning. Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CWLONGSHOT Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 First off, a couple terminology corrections for you guys... In a vehicular mounted antenna, a "whip" has a 1/4 wave 102" mast. Generally it is not needed to be tuned. BUT, not the best idea for a wheeler as it whips everywhere and can hurt people standing beside observing. Also it hits everything above your vehicle on the trail. All shorter antenna masts are sticks and must be loaded. Either with wire wrapped around there length or with a "coil" in the mast. This is to make up for the length being less than 102". SWR, can be set for any one channel, BUT NOT FOR ALL, at least not SPECIFICALLY. Its generally set at channel 19. This is done for two reasons, its also the reason channel "10" is a popular one with on road vehicles. Channel 19 is almost centered in a 30channel set. So setting SWR for here gives you the best SWR for all 40 channels. If you had a need for one certain channel and didn't much care about the rest, you could set the SWR for that channel. But the farthest channel form that channel, will be the worst for SWR. 1:1 is the best you can achieve is a perfect world. 1:2 or 1:3 are more of a commonality. Ground planes are also something that is very important in a CB antenna setup. This is partially why antennas like the "K40 mag mount" are so popular. They sit on the middle of the trunk or roof lid. Both a good sized, flat metal surface, making a good ground plane. Do not "coil" extra antenna wire in the vehicle. Cut to proper length or run it around inside to "use up" the extra distance. Just do not make a closed loop with it. Here is some tips from Radioshack I found with a quick search on GOOGLE: http://support.radioshack.com/support_t ... dio03A.htm Hope this helps, CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMC-MJ Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 First off, a couple terminology corrections for you guys... In a vehicular mounted antenna, a "whip" has a 1/4 wave 102" mast. Generally it is not needed to be tuned. BUT, not the best idea for a wheeler as it whips everywhere and can hurt people standing beside observing. Also it hits everything above your vehicle on the trail. All shorter antenna masts are sticks and must be loaded. Either with wire wrapped around there length or with a "coil" in the mast. This is to make up for the length being less than 102". SWR, can be set for any one channel, BUT NOT FOR ALL, at least not SPECIFICALLY. Its generally set at channel 19. This is done for two reasons, its also the reason channel "10" is a popular one with on road vehicles. Channel 19 is almost centered in a 30channel set. So setting SWR for here gives you the best SWR for all 40 channels. If you had a need for one certain channel and didn't much care about the rest, you could set the SWR for that channel. But the farthest channel form that channel, will be the worst for SWR. 1:1 is the best you can achieve is a perfect world. 1:2 or 1:3 are more of a commonality. Ground planes are also something that is very important in a CB antenna setup. This is partially why antennas like the "K40 mag mount" are so popular. They sit on the middle of the trunk or roof lid. Both a good sized, flat metal surface, making a good ground plane. Do not "coil" extra antenna wire in the vehicle. Cut to proper length or run it around inside to "use up" the extra distance. Just do not make a closed loop with it. Here is some tips from Radioshack I found with a quick search on GOOGLE: http://support.radioshack.com/support_t ... dio03A.htm Hope this helps, CW :thumbsup: Good true and accurate info right here guy's :thumbsup: :bowdown: CW Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CWLONGSHOT Posted January 16, 2010 Share Posted January 16, 2010 I see a couple miss types on my part... :wall: Like I meant to type channel 19 not channel 10 and of coarse I meant 40 channel set not a 30 channel model. :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1990 Pioneer 4x4 Posted January 16, 2010 Share Posted January 16, 2010 Image Not Found I like that antennae mount location Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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