CB Radio Information and Installation

1 Can't tell you about the radio every one will have a different ideal.
2 No. But do not wire it to existing wiring if you are trying to keep noise out, wire it directly to the battery.
3 You can, it probably will make no difference unless it was in a poor place to begin with like against the cab that will change the SWR and if it is tuned there it will be wrong once it's moved.
4. Any extra cable will create loss coiled or other wise.
5 If you are going up a tree with a CB antenna you would need to make a resonate dipole antenna in order to make it work with any real results (simple project). You could use a stick antenna but it will have to have radials.
6 The ground is every part of your mobile install including the truck it's self so no it would not have to be insulated. Go back to #2 coax is a poor power cord for many reasons.

 

Thank you.

What about a coupling and extending the coax cable in scenario 5, will there be an issue with the coupling?

 

1) For a basic radio, the 510 is okay...not my first choice however. I think there are better radios with better noise reducing circuitry and, having been involved with radio since the mid-80s, I prefer radios that have sideband capability.

2) Do NOT use coax to power the radio. Just use the power cable that came with the radio and run it directly to the battery...both negative and positive.

3) You MIGHT need to re-tune the antenna if you move it...and you may not.

4) Coiling it up is fine. There is no need to do a figure 8. Coiling it up essentially creates a current balun which helps ensure that RF does not come back down on the outside (shield) of the coax. IF coiling the coax causes problems with your SWR...then you have other problems to be concerned about. You can also cut it to length and put a new PL-259 connector on the end. Some will say cutting it is best to cut down on loss but the amount of loss in a few extra feet of cable is negligible...maybe one or two milliwatts at best.

5) If you need to move the antenna and need extra length, yes, you can use an SO-239 barrel connector to add an extra length of coax. The loss by inserting the barrel connector will be negligible. That said - putting a vehicle mounted antenna into a tree is not going to work very well since the antenna would lack a ground plane which is actually the second half of the antenna. If you think you're going to be in a position where you need put an antenna up higher, you may want to consider purchasing and carrying with you a separate antenna that can be collapsed and stored in the truck. Or you can build an 11M dipole and install it in an inverted V configuration from a tree. This will give you almost omni-directional performance that will be far better than using a mobile CB antenna mounted in a tree.

6) Not sure what you mean by "well insulated" on the antenna ground. The body and frame of the vehicle make up the "ground" half of the antenna. The only thing that you need to ensure is that the radiator is not making any kind of electrical contact with the "ground" side of the antenna. And, technically speaking, it's preferred that you bond all parts of the vehicle to the frame using copper braid. This isn't as critical on 11M as it is on lower frequencies such as 7 MHz.

 

CB radios have an output of 4 watts of RF any install you do with a CB has pretty much be spot on don't use cheap stuff make very good connections tune your antenna with a meter that has a brand name or have some one tune it for you not with some thing your buddy picked up at a yard sale for $5. Do not plaster the antenna against the back of the cab. 11 meters is a fairly poor band except on the rare occasions of an opening so every thing has to be right to have any thing that resembles reliable communications. The CB band is also AM it is a mode that is prone to noise so power connections need to be good and well grounded at the battery and coax not routed in the engine compartment.

 

Since this thread has a lot more traction, for those of you who have successfully installed a CB with the antenna behind the cab:

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/technical-chat/368919-help-antenna-behind-cab-mount-ground.html

That thread is only 2 pages as of now. Still looking for help.

 

Well, yes and no...it's predominantly AM but there is a lot of SSB on 35 through 40 when the band is open.

 

I haven't used CB radios for over 30 years and at that time SSB was very rare and it really was hard to find any one on. Even today I would venture to guess it would be hard to find any one in a large group with a SSB rig. So if the decision was made to go to SSB it would leave the majority of the uses with no one to talk to. The bottom line a proper install would take care of the noise issue and make SSB even more enjoyable. The CB band is a vast waste land of miss information and a lack of understanding of how radios work in general other wise more users would be using SSB.

 

Yep, there's a lot of misinformation out there. Some by other radio users and some by manufacturers.

The example I like to use in that regard is Firestick. They don't come out and say it but they imply that their 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 ft antennas are 5/8 wave while their 7 ft model is a 3/4 wave antenna..and perform like one. So, to a beginner, they think - wow, I can buy a 2 ft antenna and get 5/8 wavelength performance. *Bzzzt* Nope...Firestick used a 5/8 wavelength piece of wire...but they coiled it on a 2 ft length of fiberglass and any antenna, regardless of the wavelength of wire used, will perform based on its physical length.

Another misconception - one that I was even guilty of - that in a mobile installation you need to use 18' of coax or multiples of 3'. The length of the coax should be irrelevant - if the length affects your SWR then you have a problem.

Anyway - yes, you're hard pressed to find any any SSB activity except in large cities and even then it isn't prolific. But when the band opens - you'll find a lot of activity.

 

In the land of CB's there are manufactures that have been at it for a long while and in fact make pretty good 11 meter antennas. Any short stick antenna regardless of what HF band it is on is a compromise a dead giveaway is a CB base antenna one look at it and one can see that anything less is going to be a disappointment of course it's very hard to go down the road with a full size base antenna so with a mobile antenna it's all about the build quality and that is where some really shine. By the time one ventures into the 6 meter band ¼ wave antennas are possible but anything below that they are going to have to be wound. Things get pretty dicey when you try to cram the necessary wire into a short stick and the capture area is diminished so yes you are correct short sticks don’t cut it. That being said some things defy logic and work anyway. I use a screwdriver electrically tunable antenna on a wide range of frequencies, for every frequency but maybe 10 meters it is very short but it still works. The key is good install to get all of your 4 watts out of the antenna that you can. With SSB your little 4 watts magically becomes 12 watts because you are only TXing one side band instead of two but the entire ideal is to talk to someone and 11 meters lacks SSB users. Gain figures mobile antennas have all ways been overly generous and some seem to grab figures out of thin air. The DBi figures are based on an antenna that does not exist except in theory it has zero gain so it’s easy to invent figures that are better than nothing.

 

I've had two screwdriver antennas - the Yaesu ATAS 100, which worked for a little while but had a major design flaw - after a few months, the spring clips inside that made contact with radiator half of the antenna system lost tension and no longer made contact. I ended up with a Tarheel screwdriver antenna and used that for a little while...but I only did mobile HF for a short time. I'd love to try doing it again.

 

Yeah the Yaesu ones kind of had a tendency to fill up with water. The one on my truck is a Lil Tarheel and the one for the camper is a High Sierra I have nothing but good to say about the Tarheel. Don't know about your neighborhood but in Maine nothing is close the closest big box store is in another state so I get to spend a fair amount of time in the truck and all ways have the HF on think my record was 21 countries in one trip.

 

Subbed

 

Bump and sub!

 

question about an antenna, if i have my cb radio installed and the antenna on a BAMF bracket at the tailgate. It shows good readings is it fine to unscrew it and store it until im in need of it or will that mess with the swr reading and what not. I was also going to put a rubber cap over the stud in the BAMF bracket.

 

You could get a quick disconnect instead.

 

whats the difference, unscrewing it takes like 10 sec longer? still screw it in to be tight the same as disconnecting it with a clip

 

I'm just saying it would be easier/less tedious to use a quick disconnect rather that keep unscrewing it every time. All it takes is a 90* turn and the whole antenna is off, and you don't have to mess with the lower part, the mount, or the coax cable. It's up to you, I'm just merely making a suggestion based on my own experience with the same thing.

 

Agreed get a disconnect. Less ware on the antenna connections they are soft brass. There are two types I would not use the bayonet type they don't tighten all that well.

 

thanks.

 

Of course, don't want to key the mic with no antenna