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CB and Anteanna Mounting


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if u want your cb to reach out and tuch some one mount it top dead center on the roof that is were u will get the best out of it cb itself don't matter

 

Yes top dead center and about 500w pushing through it and talk about 30 miles down the road ;)

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if u want your cb to reach out and tuch some one mount it top dead center on the roof that is were u will get the best out of it cb itself don't matter

I would have, but some of us cool guys have sunroof glass there ;)

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if u want your cb to reach out and tuch some one mount it top dead center on the roof that is were u will get the best out of it cb itself don't matter

I would have, but some of us cool guys have sunroof glass there ;)

 

x2, so now i have two 4 footers on the front corners of the bed.

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waaa i will have my sunroof in soon to but should mount right behind it

and there is no need for 500 w 20 will do just fine with good ant setup

my 150 w will talk flat line for 45 miles and skip all over the us /canada

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Centerline of the roof, near the back is best. The antenna uses the body of the truck as the ground plane. You want the best balance of metal around the antenna. The bed is included in this. The difference in performance between the center of the roof and the rear of the roof is umimportant. The difference between the hood or bed rail and the roof is noticeable.

 

The higher the better. The longer the antenna, the better. The more metal surrounding the antenna, the better.

 

Get a good brand name. A $100 CB with a $5 antenna gets out like a $5 CB.

 

Get the antenna tuned or get an SWR meter and tune it yourself. VERY important. Don't just mount it and think its good.

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I plan on mounting a nice metal whip antenna opossite of the am/fm antenna accompanied by a 3 foot magnetic antenna in the middle-rear of the roof. that should allow for plenty of power.

 

how do you calibrate a cb?

 

the 3800 will be getting a very small cobra cb and a 3 foot magnetic whip antenna (felt bottom to save paint), once I get the split rear in it that is...

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ok lets start with felt bottom bad

bummy ant. bad more than one not real bad but not the bestall that stuff screws with the ground plane whitch ever way u have more metal pointing away from the ant. the more u will talk and hear less metal less distance any bummy ant or extra ant. will cut a hole in a wedge shape in that direction that u can't talk or here from more than 200 feet

(if u mount it in on the back bumper u will talk forward but not behind u )

top dead center of vehical always the best as high as u can always at least 3/4 of ant. above roof line

and those springs he has are the worst thing to put on an ant.

cb's are the pickyest thing to set up and like he said get the match set

and the cobra 19 i have in my semi has a lil willy magnet mount ant. on it

and talks for ten miles with no power added

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lol just got home from work tyerd lol

cb's are picky how thay are set up

everything effects them the best thing to do is put a good magnet mount ant. on the center of the roof

either a k40 or a wilson ant.

 

hehe, i'm good with my "free" antenna. i like that word. it rolls off the tongue.

 

everybody now, ....

 

 

freee

 

ah, that's better.

 

 

 

yeah, I don't wanna spend $$$ on an antenna at the moment...need the lift and stuff first so the antenna will come after that. till then i'm stuck with what i've got. for *free*

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how do you calibrate a cb?

 

 

Most of the calibration involves adjusting the antenna. You will need a SWR meter from Radio Shack ($25 +/-) to do so. here's a good link that describes what is involved to calibrate: http://jeephorizons.com/tech/swr.html

 

It's not that hard, especially if you pick up a SWR meter and follow their steps rtft.gif .

Hope this helps.

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this is the exact CB i have

 

cobra25ltd.JPG

it's not quite as clean, and i don't have the power cord for it, but it does work when i hook it up with a set of nipper wires. it's old.

That is a nice unit, alot orf truckers use them, and they are still availible brand new, however, mostly found at truck stops. it is not your regular rat shack or wal mart level of quality found in those, but a much higher quality.

 

I need to get me one of them... jamminz.gif

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The older Cobras were made by Uniden and Maxon. Uniden, Maxon and Cybernet made about 90% of CB radios back in the day. Didn't matter whose name was on the front.

 

I bought lots a of great radios (for cheap) by buying Radio Shack radios that were exactly the same radio as Cobras, Unidens, Midlands, and Presidents. Only the names were different and the fronts looked different. Open them up, they were the same exact chassis.

 

GE, RCA, JCPenny, HyGain and lots of others were made by Cybernet.

 

Maxon made only AM CBs (I've never seen, nor heard of, a sideband Maxon) for just about everybody.

 

Don't dismiss a brand you've never heard of, it could be a bargain. The Robyn 510D is the same radio as the President Adams, Uniden AX144, the Radio Shack 449, Sears Roadtalker, Midland (don't recall the model number), the Cobra 138XLR and several others. Ever heard of Robyn before today?

 

Recent Radio Shacks have been made by Hyundai (actually a sub-division of Hyundai). Modern Cobras are made in China. Don't know much more than that about modern CBs.

 

Transmitting antennas must be tuned for the frequency they will be used on and the vehicle the antenna is mounted on. Since CBs have 40 channels (40 discrete frequencies), you generally tune the antenna at channel 20. You then check the tuning at channel 1 and channel 40 to be sure the antenna is broadbanded enough to maintain a good match at the upper and lower channels limits (it will change but can't be allowed to get too bad). Some cheap antennas may have a good match at channel 20 but it gets much worse the farther away from channel 20 you go. If the match gets bad enough, you risk burning out the CB's output transisters.

 

Also, if you move the antenna to a different part of the vehicle you better recheck the antenna tuning (it generally doesn't change much but it can). Move the antenna to a different vehicle, you need to retune.

 

With the antenna using the metal body of the vehicle as the ground plane, the placement of the antenna affects the pattern of the signal from the vehicle. Put the antenna in the right rear corner, most of the metal of the body is towards the left front. The signal (transmit and receive) will be noticably stronger in that direction. If you spend a lot of time on the highway and use your CB mostly then, the right rear corner is a good place for it. Your signal will be stronger towards the front and slightly skewed to the left.

 

And you thought this CB stuff was simple, didn't you? Huh? Buy a radio, an antenna, mount them and off you go. Not so.

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