Clean VHF/CB radio installs

I have a 3 foot Firestick mounted on the Cali bracket which is about top of the bed rail height.
I don't have a spring. I know it's best to have one if the antenna should hit something, but is it necessary? I mean, with highway driving, is there too much stress on the antenna?

 

Nice! Looks good. That's the confirmation that I was looking for.

 

What rack are you mounting to ?

 

Installed my Diamond Dual Band NR 770 ham antenna on power tilt mount during nice weather today.

Did a quick test for planner omnidirectionality and it was excellent. I’m in the market for a mid priced 2M/70cm 5-10-50 to permanently mount but for now I will slog my Icom in and out. Will post to thread when I do the project.

The Diamond can be manually folded in any direction too in case the XYL can’t find the switch on the way to the mall.

 

If you hardwire the antenna, make sure you don't make the mistake I did. I wired the power antenna backwards and cooked one of the switches. Now I have to put power right to the wires with a small 12 volt battery.

 

Thanks. I’ll be careful and use my volt meter. You should be able to rig a crossover DP (switch not the other) to operate it. “Phase III” I may design or mod a circuit to automatically lower on rig power down whilst keeping it manual up to avoid mistakes in the garage. The other thought I had was driving the down from a garage door opener but I’m too cheap to put in those!
73 K1SIB

 

I'm actually waiting on some parts to make it automatic.

Got a on off switch, and a universal power antenna from a car. Going to use the wiring and electrical from the power antenna to make the antenna go up when I turn on the switch and go down when I turn it off.

 

In the mean time I'd probably use a three position (off) DTDP:

Wire the Top 1, 2 and Bottom 5, 6 Leads together in an X. 1 to 6, 2 to 5.
Wire Mids to Line and Either the Top or Bottom to the Load.

1 2 Load that reverses polarity
\ /
3x4 Line at consistent polarity
/ \
5 6

 

-----REPOST------ Any opinion?

I have a 3 foot Firestick mounted on the Cali bracket which is about top of the bed rail height.
I don't have a spring. I know it's best to have one if the antenna should hit something, but is it necessary? I mean, with highway speeds, is there too much wind stress on the antenna?

 

Not needed, but keep in mind parking garages have low clearance. My antenna would always hit my parking garage.

 

More for parking garages and trees, etc. Normal highway speeds you'll be fine, no spring needed.

 

Thanks guys. No parking garages, butt I def gotta remember about the car wash.

 

The ditch light manufacturer didn't do a very good job of reducing emissions. It's likely they use a switching DC-DC converter to convert 12V to whatever voltage they need. That would be the source of the noise. With the antenna inches from lights, it could be tough to eliminate. You could try a ferrite bead on the power lead to the ditch light very close to the light. You could do the light manufacturers job and modify the light with shielding and filtering. You could try lights from another manufacturer.

 

So I think I've got my power antenna switch all figured out.

I'm going to use one of my arduino feather boards. Then a single h bridge, when I push the on off switch (CB radio one from air on board) it will send signal to the arduino to send power to the motor. When the switch is off, then it will detect the signal change and send reverse power to lower the antenna.

With the arduino I can set a timer for 10 seconds each way to ensure its not always getting power to the antenna.

The arduino runs on very little power, so it could actually stay live when the truck is off. This should allow me to lower the antenna when I key off too automatically. I will probably have the arduino keyed though just to be safe.

I can also use this switch to turn on off the cb radio, so when I push it, the radio powers on and the antenna raises up.

 

After the Arduino powers off, will it remember what state it's in? Ie up or down?

 

Good question, I'm not sure. I don't think it will, but that should be just fine. Even when pushing the up or down, the antenna has a stop that prevents it from getting power when it's at it's desired position.

If it works out well, I may put together a kit for people with the power antenna.

 

Got my cb power switch. Going to start wiring this up to my arduino tonight to get the code going. Still waiting on some h bridges and a 12v -> 3.7v converter to power the arduino board.

 

Great Lookin' Switch. Does it fit the opening slot?

 

It fits in the slots in the center under the hvac controls. I have 1 open one there for this. I do want to move over my ect power button so the cb button can be next to my cb hand set plug.

I have not put it in yet because I need to get all the wiring sorted out.