ian408's 2009 DCSB TRD Sport Build

Typically, you want a large steel area to function as the ground plane. The mounting location doesn't have that. So I figured I'd go for the no ground plane.
I might be totally wrong but it seems to work

Thank you!

 

Damn good photo! Truck looks awesome!

 

Just curious, what length firestik is that?

 

4' Antenna.

 

Cool, thanks.

 

Thank you!

 

Isn't the hood a good enough ground plane? True, the cab is about half-way up the antenna, but as long as the antenna clears the cab by enough isn't it fine? I'm still shaky on the impacts of lower-quality ground planes. I've heard that right behind the cab is a bad spot, and that in the center on top of the cab is the best spot, but mixed reviews about in-betweens like the hood, bumper, and tailgate.
We'll have to see with my mom's setup!

 

It'll work. It might require more tuning or maybe have less (and more directional) range. I forget what's "enough" clearance. Firestick has the answer somewhere on their website.

I guess using the NGP antenna assures you get adequate ground plane in non-optimal locations-the corner of the hood seems suboptimal. Whether it's as good as traditional, center of roof or not? I don't know.

 

Makes sense. Well provided it doesn't rain much here today we'll be tuning and testing by the end of the day, so I'll let you know!

 

Don't forget to test/tune in an open area with the doors and windows closed.

 

The open area part won't happen for a little bit. Best we can do here is the middle of the cul-de-sac. It's still 10m from any other vehicles or trees or houses, but it's not exactly an open area. Most of the other open areas that we have access to are right under power lines, which seems even less ideal than a tree 12 meters away.
I figure we'll be close enough using the cul-de-sac and then next time we're out in the desert or somewhere open we'll re-tune. Thank goodness for the tunable-tip firesticks!

And one more question, since it's been raining all day... Where did you route your coax? In bensonX's write-up he plugged it through the firewall with all the other computer electrical cables, but some people in that thread told him that that was bad because the computer cables and the coax could interfere with each other, even though the coax is 95% shielded. I don't know if that issue is the same with NGP, but you never know. That is, however, the most convenient way to route it. Otherwise we might try routing it down under the truck and then up through the floor or something, I dunno. That's how I ran mine. We have an 18' coax cable, so we have the room to work with it.

Thanks for your help!

 

I ran mine through the firewall. But with the NGP antenna, you cannot change the length of the antenna cable.

About the noise. Yes. The cable radiates as well as receives. The reality is, it probably doesn't matter (unless you're running 1000W amp)-it's not like you use the radio all the time either.

 

That's kinda what I figured with the noise. It's not that strong of a signal in the coax.
Thanks for the help! It's been rainy all day so we're holding off for a dry day later this week.

 

Finished up and tuned my mom's cb today and it tuned beautifully! 1.15 on both channels 1 and 40. Looks like it's grounded just fine!
Maybe there's a difference in range, but who knows. It works and we tested range and it was about .8 miles over a big hill. Not the best but she's got my old uniden pro510 that even on flat ground only gets about 1.2 miles of tx.

 

Finally!!! Nice build Ian

 

Sweet! Probably enough range for most things.

I know, right?

 

Hey Ian any rubbing issues with the 305s and the total chaos arms? 305s look good brother. Thinking about those exact tires you got. Just not sure how close they would be to the UCAS

 

So far, so good! I need to beat back the body seam some more though.

 

Back to the ngp cb antenna because my setup just crapped out...you have an ngp coax to go with the antenna, right? That's what I'm seeing on right channel radios and the firestick website.