CB Antenna location and quantity advice

Due to cost of a co-phase set-up vs. questionable benefit, I have decided to go with a single antenna.

Thanks for all of the suggestion and help.

 

Op did you make that tire holder or did you buy it ? I'm looking to pick something like that up but I'm having trouble finding them .

 

I made it myself. All pro was going to make one similar but never did. Colin (colinb17) can build you one though. I developed some plans for the bed bars/ tire carrier. Just give them to a builder and they can make it up for you.

 

Good deal man. You will be fine. I am running ngp one antenna and it's perfect for my needs.

 

when you run a dual antenna set-up, for maximum potential the antennas need to be as close to 108" away from each other as possible...
$0.02

 

At best all I could have managed was 60 inches.

 

Half wave length would be ideal for twin antennas. 204" but that's never gonna happen.

 

bumper to bumper, start a new trend lol.

 

I just received my radio and antenna in the mail; can you believe it, they sent me two antennas when I only ordered and paid for one. Is a higher power telling me that I should have gone with a co-phase set up after all?

 

did it come with the cophase cable to run them at the same time?
I'd still reccomend only one antenna.
All the antenna does is amplify your recieving power, in the lowers thousands, most top at about 1000 watts.

whats the point of recieving that much when your radio is only capable of about 5 watts output??

 

My "Mack Office" only has 1 antenna and I can hear anything IF I adjust the RF floor.....

Why would you want to run 2 antennas on a pick-up ???? for the looks,because that is about all you will gain ...

"Large cars" run duals for one "true" reason, that radial pattern!!!! with a huge trailer attached to your back, "waves" can be hidden BUT in my case I got tired of replacing antennas ,coax ends and mounts.

My "Office" now has a quality 4' fiberglass mounted driver side ......tree branches can be nasty at 10'6" high ,never mind 13'....

The best part of CB's is with the right equipment-tuned properly, a $50 set-up can talk locally just like the big-guns who spent $4-500...

 

I just finished hooking up my new CB (Cobra 29WXNWST) and mounting a 4' firestik antenna at the right rear of the truck next to the tailgate using a firestik door jamb mount. Still need to properly route the Fire-Flex cable but I wanted to check my SWR before taking this step. The reading was less than 1 and I haven't bothered to tune the antenna yet. Should I bother trying to get lower readings?

 

i've heard the best SWR is between 1 and like 1.5 (correct me if i'm wrong)

 

I used some pipe insulator from a plumbing store to cover the bottom of the antenna and it doesn't whack my cab.

 

You want as low as you can get. The higher the reading the more power you're losing.

 

Nice shot of the truck. What's on the other side?

 

Ran my cable last night and rechecked my SWR; using the radio's built in calibration meter: channel 1 was ~ 0.2, channel 20 was~ 0.8 and channel 40 was ~ 0.2. Still haven't attempted to tune the antenna and given the readings, I'm not sure if it is worth the effort. I've heard that the built in meters are not very accurate; with initial readings this low, is worth the expense to buy a more accurate meter?

 

I would check it with an inline meter. You can buy one from Amazon pretty cheap or you could find a truck stop that will tune it for you. If you were closer, I'd let you borrow mine.

 

Anyone attach the antenna to a bed rail on the 2nd gens?

 

You're better off mounting to something metal such as the hood, bumper or roof.