Best ground for cb antenna

That is correct unless it is a wound antenna it would have to be 5.5 meters long. Think about this I operate on 80 meters mobile from my truck the antenna I use costs $400 not including the controller or the radio. It has a motor driven tuner built in to it and even at that price it can't come close to a half wave wire dipole. I have used wire wound antennas mobile the only one that was worth a hoot was cut for 10 meters and it was about 6 1/2 feet long with the stinger I tried one for 20 meters and may have well just leaned out the window and yelled. So If any one is really serious about CB just go buy a 108" whip bolt it to the side of the truck and be done with it.

 

1.3:1 Pardon me, didn't know I was being critiqued on my typing.

 

I have a K40 mounted on my fiberglass tonneau cover. Not grounded to taco and works great

 

going to mount an 3ft firestick to the left rear of my bed using the two bolts on the bed stiffener, i have a cap on my taco, and was thinking about getting the little all in one cobra (the one that has all the controlls in the mic) , fabricating a bracket that will put the antenna about an inch away and above the left rear tail light, with that set up how much will the cap inhibit my ability to get my signal out. excuse my ignorance, the last time i had a cb was in 1987 in my little honda civic 3dr and my first and last education on signal transmission was in 2003 @ DeVry and that was just one semester. thanks for your help. btw i am just going to use this for hwy driving and around town talking to my friends and family when on trips.

 

Have a look at this mount:
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/fa...8-cb-antenna-flag-mount-through-tailgate.html

I think this would work good with a cap. I'd suggest going with a 4ft Firefly with a cap. The Cobra 75 is what you are talking about and they do perform fairly well. I've been able to tune them up and have had a lot of luck with them.

I actually have a deal going right now for $240 that includes the 4' Firefly antenna, mount, coax, HD spring, quick disconnect, Mounting stud and the 18ft Fire Ring coax as well as the cobra 75 radio. That includes shipping in the CONUS. PM me or email me at: nick@excopllc.com if you are interested in that setup.

 

I'm using a relentless fabrication hood mount for my antenna and it works great

 

The best spot to mount any antenna depends of the transmission propagation pattern you want to achieve. For most vehicles, the center of the ground plane will give the best pattern in all directions. When the antenna is mounted on one corner of the ground plane, the best propagation will be opposite corner of the ground plane. For example, if the antenna is mounted in right rear, the strongest transmission lobe would be to the front left, and little signal will be transmitted from the right rear. For better radio transmission performance, insure that the vehicle's body and frame are bonded together to provide a good ground plane.

A full wave whip CB antenna is great, but not very practical and hard on garage doors and ceilings and filling station lighting.

 

This is my mount and location. I have so far had no problems receiving or transmitting. I have been able on the highway to secure around 4 miles without loss of signal. I figure I am doing pretty decent.

 

The shorter one is a VHF/UHF/ FM for local and repeater use (50-60 miles). The long one is a HF antenna allowing me to talk to pretty much any place on the globe. The ground is the frame no extra wires just a good body ground is all that is needed.

 

how is this for a ground? I'll be using a firestik II
or should i just ground it directly to the frame?

 

It might work but that ground wire is way too long. The shorter the better or the ground wire can act as it's own antenna and cause all kinds of heartache.

 

thanks for the quick reply!

Yes, i'm cutting that sucker. Would never install something that sloppy! lol