No. There is such a thing as capture area. It may be a good radiator but it's reception will suck because it's length isn't long enough to catch the waves.

A 9' whip gets better reception than a loaded whip for this reason.

Edwin

 

So an electric spool that is attached to the frame. Run a string from the spool to the top of the 9 foot whip.

When you're in town, crank the spool to bend over the whip into a horseshoe. When you're on the road, wind out the string and let the antenna go straight again.

Might work. I don't think that whip antennas have much for memory, do they? Hickish as all get out, though...

Ah, I'll come up with something better.

 

Better...or loonier?

 

Whips are out of fashion because they whack everything above you and will bend over at high speed somewhat anyway.

In the 60's when I was big in CB we had a 9' whip mounted on the back fender of our station wagon. It worked well and we had an insulated clip to bend it down when we wanted to garage the car.

Some of the base loaded whips get out a little better though because they can be mounted in the center of the roof for a good ground plane and the base load also flattens the pattern somewhat. The reception suffers some but is probably made up with the pattern enhancement.

In my electronics class we had a whole semester on nothing but antenna theory and construction. I built several very good performing antennas but since the instructor was a ham they were all amature radio types.

Edwin

 

thanks guys for all the info...so i guess i won't even try the bed rail thing. i sounded good at the time. and tyler, your whips do but IMO they don't as well look good that way. i don't think i'd do it that way, i'd rather just go without whips i guess, but i really wanted a CB in my truck. but hey as long as you like it, it don't matter what everyone else thinks.

and ratat, that don't look half bad with that type of tool box either.

now for edwin, it seems you know a lot about electronics and CBs, so now for another question, i was looking at firestik antennas today and i know you can tune them but on the back of the package it said that you need a Standing Wave Ratio meter. is this for sure true and would it be really that much better to get tunable antennas or does it matter?

thanks again

P.S. tyler, i'll probably go on ahead and mount my antennas like that too when i get stacks

 

Yeah. I was a little hesitant about mounting them up there because I didn't know what they would look like. I may still pull them down for everyday driving but when I hit the open road I'll put them back up. I only use it for long trips to get traffic and weather reports or when I'm stuck in traffic.

 

Well, an antenna system needs to be resonant at the frequency you're transmitting on. This is done by adjusting the length of the antenna, or by adjusting a reactive part somewhere. I don't know what method Firesticks use.

When an antenna isn't resonant or isn't impedance matched, only some of the energy will be radiated with the rest being reflected back down the coax to your radio and being dissipated as heat in your final RF amp. When the reflected waves meet the forward waves they create standing waves. The amount of standing waves can be measured to show how well your antenna is matched to your radio.

You can "tune" your coax length to match your antenna and get a low SWR but that just means your coax becomes part of the antenna which isn't good. You want ALL of the energy going out the antenna. A properly matched and tuned antenna (matching and tuning aren't strictly the same thing) will radiate properly and the length of the coax will be immaterial.

Objects near the antenna will also reflect energy back to the antenna and show up as a high SWR even if the antenna is properly tuned. You can see this by hooking up the meter, keying the mic and moving your hand close to the antenna. You'll see the SWR go up. (or sometimes down if the antenna isn't matched.)

A decent but not good SWR meter can be had for not to much money but unless it's a GOOD one it shouldn't be left inline since a cheap one will rob your power. Some CB's used to have a built in SWR meter but I haven't looked at any in so long I couldn't tell you what they were.

When I was installing cop radios back in the early 70's we'd put a new roof stinger on and hook up the Bird meter and start chopping 1/4 inch pieces of the antenna until the reflected power was near zero. That was back when two way radios were just beginning to go to transistors and most of the final amps were vacuum tubes. Ah! The good old days.



Edwin

 

here's a couple pics of my set up.

 

That works great if you're putting out 100+ watts, put i doubt that very many guys on here are running "tweeked and peaked" linears. for the most part I'm sure ever one on here is sticking to 4-8 watts.

BTW If you are out in the county and you have some frinds you talk to all the time but they are further than you can transmit/recive, you could always go VHF (marine radio). Is it technically illegal, Yes. But you can be 20 miles from someone. And if you sick your truck the coast guard will automatically come look for you ( feature found on somje of the new VHF's)

 

I dont know why, but the first thing that went through my head was the image of a coast guard cutter ship blazing its way through a wheat field chasing after this dodge ram on the dirt road next to the wheat field.....that will make for a great dream tonight!

 

I use VHF channels on logging (radio controlled) roads up here all the time. There are land based channels. Coast Guard has never chased me.

 

Hey! need12v where did you get that giant radio that's sitting in the back of your truck?

 

thanks edwin for the info. i think i'm gonna look into a SWR meter. that sounds like a good start. would you agree? and big blue and need12v. i do like both your setups, i'll be honest. it's not as bad as i though it'd be.

 

another question for edwin, or anyone who knows the answer for that matter. i was told by someone that if you have dual antennas, they need to be 9ft. away from each other or else they will cancel each other out. is this true or did this guy just have a few TOO many beers in him. (that's funny cause i'm not joking he was a little tipsy, but SOME people kinda make sense when they're that way)

 

Okay, I got a better idea!

Anybody ever play with those giant water cannons? The ones that you stick in the water, pull some into the tube and then push it out?

Like these things, only bigger. The ones that can knock little kids over if you push hard enough.



So, what you do is you get one of these and coil the CB antenna inside of it. Then you can suck and blow air into it in order to raise and lower the tube, and since the antenna is coiled up inside, it will expand all the way to the top and shrink back down accordingly.

It'd work, but you need a device to blow and suck air (an electric valve and compressor) and you'd need to be able to coil an antenna.

(Is it possible to coil a CB antenna and have it send a signal through plastic?)

There, I told you I'd come up with something better.