CBs & Antennas

Okay, folks..I know most of us prefer the Firestiks..anyone care to explain why?

Why use the length that you use, be it 2', 3', 4', 120" whips, etc?

Where did you mount yours, what kind of mount did you use, and what influenced you to mount it there?

Where did you buy it and for how much?





Personally, because I don't plan on talking to anyone in Hawaii from Tennessee, I don't need anything bigger than 4'. That will provide enough umph for the trails and meetups around town (ie, Xs for Xmas at the dealership). I have a temporary magnetic mount right now with a 4' whip w/ internal coil, but my long-term plans are for a dual-purpose mount similar to soccerbrace's on CX (found here).

Nissan also recommends keeping the coax AWAY from the fuel lines and the ECM, as it could interfere with the MFI. I read that in the owner's manual of my 2002.


My VHF antenna is a 12", 1/4" wave with a magnetic NMO mount that will go on the roof behind the sunroof.





This is post to encourage sharing the knowledge of the folks who know more about this stuff than the rest of us. Hopefully, we can pack enough information into it to earn it a Sticky for all to see in the future.

Where you plan to mount it really factors what size antenna you buy.. I had a 4'er but it got in the way on trails.. So im at 3' now..

The Antenna needs to stick above the roof rack about 6"s to a foot.. That gives you the best range..

Firestik is all about the Q.. Q U A L I T Y I have ran the cheaper antenna's and you just cant easily tune them...
The firestik 2 has a tip that can be tuned quickly..



This mount is a firestik ss204a mount.. Best I have seen for the X

I love FS for this reason alone, knowledge.

http://www.firestik.com/Tech_Docs.htm

http://www.firestik.com/Tech_Docs/choosing.htm

My favorite
http://www.firestik.com/Tech_Docs/63Things.htm

On top of quality, they know their $ht and share it with their customers. Read a lot before diving in. Lot of this is in general a good read.

I'm running a 4' tunable tip, quick disconnect, heavy duty spring (medium was too weak) and a door jam mount. Had a fire ring but caught it in a branch. Just had too much exposed and ripped it out.



Swr is a must, you need to tune in an open area. Follow those instructions and you will be golden.

I am running a 3 or 4 foot Firestik Firefly (more flexible) along with a 4" spring with the same mount that DRB is using.. I have mine mounted on my drivers side, so I only had to run the Coaxial to under my drivers seat. My CB is installed upside down under the drivers seat so the speaker is facing up. I bought the CB used.. bad idea, because everything works in the CB except the mic.. I also have a PA horn that I plan to install in the engine bay somewhere so I can talk to people outside of my X

I am running a Cobra 25 WX NW ST I love the radio, just hate that the mic is broke for now.

Im running a bottom of the line midland radio with a Wilson 1000 antenna. It has a 60" whip on it and I think that it's great. My reasoning for choosing the Wilson is because I didn't want to drill. I had a firestick with magnetic mount but it was too much weight up high, so it would always fall off. Now I have the wilson, it was cheaper, its flexible, and I get better reception with ut. Its also easier to tune because it tunes from the base instead of the top of the antenna. Since I chose a whip style, I have the antenna 5ft above the roof rack which gives good reception.

I run my (untuned) 3ft firestik tunable tip without a spring.

Awesome start, folks!!! I'm excited to see the participation!

I'll put mine up at some point, aka, when I get it permanent.

I'm running a ginormous Cobra 29 (nightwatch/bluetooth) mounted to the ceiling where the little net is. Antenna wise i'm running a 3' Wilson Flex with a tunable tip, haven't had an issue yet with no spring on it, it took a couple good thwacks at CC in October

If you are going to mount the antenna on your roof, a spring and easy over are your friends. Depending on where you live and wheel, wind fall and trees on the trail can wreck an antenna in a big hurry. In the midwest and east coast trees are every where. Out in the mountains and desert you dont have as much of an issue with them.

Everyone is running lol

I have a Cobra 19 DX III with a 4' Firestick, Spring, and a 18' COAX cable with FireRing by Firestick.

The antenna is located above the right rear taillight and cannot be tuned enough to receive perfect reception.

The antenna is next to my Yakima basket and Hi-Lift Jack which causes the signals to & from, to bounce off and disrupt the reception. Basically, the only way to get a good reception is to drive highway speeds or get a longer antenna.

Moral of the story, keep your wiggle stick away from large metal objects... wait a minute.

Sent from my HTC Thunderbolt thru Time and Space, using Tapatalk.

I use a Cobra 75 WX ST Radio:






With a Wilson Flex 4' Antenna:






I like the CB because there's not a lot of room to spare in my rig as its packed for work all the time, etc...and the Mike IS the CB, so, its super compact.



A simple jack is all it takes to power it up, and that means I can just put a jack in my other rigs, and swap the CB from one to the other in 30 seconds, instead of needing to buy each rig its own CB, etc.


I like the antenna because I go through parking garages, under trees and overhangs, etc...and my old antennas took a pounding, which is also hard on the mounts....and with a spring mount, the old antennae were at a large angle when moving due to wind resistance, etc...which hurts reception/transmission, etc.


The Flex is able to bend like crazy, so you don't even need a spring, and, WHEN I do whack it, it is fine, and able to bend like a willow instead of snap like an oak, etc.


Here's a shot of the darn thing bent all the way around back onto itself....try that with a steel whip or other fiberglass antenna.




I mounted it so the Mike is on the dash where I can see the display as I drive (Its a lit display....nice at night...).




I mounted it to the rear Shrock bumper carrier, on the carrier tube with U-Bolts/Clamp.









I just ran the ant cable out through the same bumper hole for the other stuff, so that the swing arm can open/close, and the ant cable just moves with it.



It works like a charm, and I have enough line of sight antenna clearance over the roof for good forward/rear range, quite a few miles on the hwy, at least 10 I think based upon who I reach then, etc....probably more.

On the trails I never even had range problems with my handheld CB with a built-in rubber stubby ant on it....so trail range is almost never a problem anyway.

I do do my own tuning, and for those of you who mentioned you have not checked/adjusted the SWR yet....PLEASE do it before you destroy your CB.

The SWR is related to TRANSMISSION, so, when you key the mike, if the SWR is too high, your electronics in the CB get too hot, and parts start to fry, etc.

The SWR is essentially telling you how much power is turned into a SIGNAL, and how much power (Whatever's missing from the power for the signal) is being turned into HEAT.



The HIGHER the SWR, the more likely you are to fry the CB.

A perfect SWR is 1:1, (We call that 1.0) which is not a field set-up typically....but a GREAT field set-up might be hitting ~ 1.5 or so.

1 means 100% of all the power is turned into signal, and ZERO is turned to heat.

1:1.5 means some heat is being generated, but not that much.



Over ~ 3 is starting to do serious damage, and so forth.

TJ, you fit in a parking garage? I'm jealous lol

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RATTFINK said:

TJ, you fit in a parking garage? I'm jealous lol

Sent from my HTC Thunderbolt thru Time and Space, using Tapatalk.

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LOL


Some.

When I have to go to the city, some of my hospitals, etc....I try to check ahead of time with them to see what the clearances/parking options are. The ones that can park commercial/fullsized vans and so forth are fine...the others, well, some of them I think a Mini Cooper is worried, they are so low.

One of my fondest (In a bad way...) memories on this issue was in Toronto at a parking garage, the sign for clearance had a plastic barrel hanging down, so if you could fit under it, you'd be OK, etc...my steel whip antenna at the time was all that hit, so I figured I was good to go.

It was a tight twisty parking garage, all one way, one lane, between the rows of parked cars, in the typical Mobius Strip arrangement, etc....

As I'm driving up and up, looking for an empty spot, my whip is whacking the sheet out of the fluorescent lights and fiberglass insulated steam pipes, etc...crossing over the ceilings...

As I went higher and higher up in the garage, the ceilings got closer and closer, and my hi-lift started to tear chunks of insulation out, and smash the crap out of the same lights, etc....and I'm getting a bit worried.

I finally realized that this wasn't "Just a lower section", it was getting lower and lower...and my hi-lift was against the concrete deck by now.

I thought about just removing it, but figured it was sort of a ceiling skid at this point, and next I'd need to remove the roof racks if going that route, so I aired down instead....which bought me about 6" more inches of clearance...enough to continue onwards and upwards, finally parking on the roof.


I did the job, found out from the booth guy coming out of the garage that the chain had been broken on that barrel, and the repair guy had just re-attached it with the remaining links, so it was a few inches HIGHER than it used to be (sorry) and drove back out onto the streets of Toronto, found a place to park to get out and air back up, fired up the OBA, and the skies opened up like a drench shower while I was crouched at the first tire.

I wanted this one but at the time it just wasnt in the budget

drbandkgb said:

I wanted this one but at the time it just wasnt in the budget

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My kids got it for me for Xmas.

I still need to get my CB tuned... Think I have a bad coax as I can't get it tuned at all. I'm planning on ordering a new mount and coax and then trying to get it tuned then.

^^pretty sure that someone has my SWR meter lol. Have you thought about going with a magnetic whip style antenna. It spreads the ground plain out over the roof. From what I have experienced at CC, none of the guys with permanently mounted antennas are heard well at all. Thats not saying that everyone that goes with that setup doesn't have a good setup, but just that in my experience, the magnetic mounts seem to work better.

ryandavenport said:

^^pretty sure that someone has my SWR meter lol. Have you thought about going with a magnetic whip style antenna. It spreads the ground plain out over the roof. From what I have experienced at CC, none of the guys with permanently mounted antennas are heard well at all. Thats not saying that everyone that goes with that setup doesn't have a good setup, but just that in my experience, the magnetic mounts seem to work better.

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Wonder who has that SWR meter...haha I had a magnet mounted 3 foot whip but it kept getting knocked off. I was considering that really short K40 or Lil Wil antenna but I don't know how well those work. Have you heard anything about those Ry? The magnetic mount one I had worked pretty good when I had it on.

Mounting an antenna on the center of the roof is the absolute best location for transmitting or recieving. The more antenna that is above major structural elements the better. If you can use the entire roof as the ground plane it will evenly distribute the radiation. If it is on the back, and most of the antenna is below the roof line then the majority of the of the energy will be transmitted to the back. While this works pretty well for close in tail work, putting it up higher as close to the center of the roof gives the best overall transmision.

On a clear day I normally get 5-6 miles out of my setup, the key is grounding the antenna itself as well as the ground plane. When tuning the antenna the SWR meter will indicate if you have a good ground or not.

I've got a magnetic mount now and throw it behind my basket when I actually use it. I believe it's a 3'....I also believe that it needs tuned.

I have a three foot Wilson Lil Will magnetic mount on the roof. When I go into a low parking garage I hop out and lay it in the basket.

Xterraforce said:

I have a three foot Wilson Lil Will magnetic mount on the roof. When I go into a low parking garage I hop out and lay it in the basket.

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I had to do that Saturday...I also thought I wasn't going to clear the roof rack, either. I also took it down yesterday during the lightning storm.

This is also why I went with an Xoskel low profile light cage instead of a B&M. One place I have to go I think would be very close now with top mounted lights, but since I planning on lifting it I knew it wouldn't clear in the near future.

Just so like me. Lift it and don't park in anymore parking garages. I haven't been in a parking garage in I don't know how long.

ryandavenport said:

Just so like me. Lift it and don't park in anymore parking garages. I haven't been in a parking garage in I don't know how long.

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Parking on the street for quite some time, and I dont have a lift.. yet.





But on a real side note. Does anyone know where to get a new 4 pin CB Mic? I believe mine is shot, and well I don't want to pay a ridiculous price for one.. but I would like to have a new one.

Truck stops....mostly the bigger ones, like Loves or Pilot, have a good selection on hand.

Xterraforce said:

This is also why I went with an Xoskel low profile light cage instead of a B&M. One place I have to go I think would be very close now with top mounted lights, but since I planning on lifting it I knew it wouldn't clear in the near future.

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I kid!!!

drbandkgb said:

I kid!!!

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Surely, between the two of us, we can come up with something LOW profile.



I'm just saying...


/hijacking my own thread.

Funny pic.



Yeah, the center of the roof gives the best ground plane...and will maximize performance.

The mag mounts are ok if you don't have overhanging obstacles, etc...but, around here, get knocked off all the time due to low branches, etc.

Luckily, on the trails, you rarely need more than a mile or so of range to talk to the rest of your group, etc...so almost anything works.

If in a convoy TO the trails though, having more range is handy, the more the merrier....as it makes it easier to shoot the sheet while stopped for gas and/or hooking up with people converging from other directions, etc.

A lot go with a spring mounted long whip on a folding mount...so that they can unfold the ant to full height in the middle of the roof for maximum range, but leave it folded when not needed....with the caveat that if they key the mike while the ant is folded down, it can fry the CB, etc.

Uniden Bearcat 68XL CB:


4' RoadPro Antenna on HD Spring:


My biggest concern with this setup was the speaker is on the bottom side of the CB, but as you can tell in this video, hearing wasn't a problem. (thanks to Kelly for the words)

http://youtu.be/q6TKIIaWxM0

I have a nightwatch 29 cobra peaked & tuned with echo & auxilary talkback with 18ft of coax and 102" stainless whip mounted on my rear bumper.


You can just barely see the antenna but it works amazing.

I'm running Cobra 75 WX ST and I have 102" Stainless whip mounted on my roof on the DepHep rack.

Have the 4' FireStik mounted the same as everyone else...though I ran it behind the tail light and through the grommet that the tail light wires go through. That way there is nothing hanging down to get snagged.




And then I have one of the top shelf Cobra units (forget the model number) but the display changes color and its all black, which was a big plus for me.


FireStik also makes this neat little splitter, AR-1A, that I'm using that you can bring your CB antenna in and split it to your FM in on the radio without compromising your CB signal. Allowed me to remove my bent ass stock radio arial. So I only have the one antenna that does both jobs.

Gotta link to that? My fm antenna is long gone and i miss just putting it on a radio station.

Here you go, Midget. http://www.amazon.com/FireStik-AR-1A-Matchmaker-antenna-splitter/dp/B000RF26FK


EDIT: Just realized it's already linked in the post above yours. Hard to tell because links show up in such a dark blue that it looks like black text. I've started to get in the habit of underlining mine so they stand out.

Prime said:

And then I have one of the top shelf Cobra units (forget the model number) but the display changes color and its all black, which was a big plus for me.

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Well looks like this answered my question before I even asked. Looks like it fits well.

Sent from my HTCEVOV4G

Now what's wrong with 108" whip? I have one and its been great on my old Green X and I plan on mounting that onto my DepHep once I find a CB and time to do it all together too.

The length of the antenna effects the efficiency of the cb. I don't know the frequencies involved, but usually the closer to 1/2 wave the better. The other reason most people go with 3' is that it's easier to mount and you have fewer clearance ( read: garage) issues.

Sent via wild ferrets on crack

I'm running a inexpensive Uniden Pro 510xl cb, 18ft of cable, 4' Tiger antenna mounted on the LabRak antenna mount. Have the cb bolted to the stock radio bracket, mounted below the stereo. I have my sheet of styrene to build the lower panel below the cb and make a small pocket to the right of the cb. Perfect pocket for my sunglasses to rest.

^That's a nice looking setup.

I had a 4' tuneable tip Firestik II on a heavy duty spring mounted on my rear tire carrier. I had an orange warning flag atop it. But it managed to twist itself out of my spring somewhere along a trail in the mountains and thus lost.

Now I have a 3' Firestik. With a Midland weatherscan CB mounted on the space below my front console in front of my gear shifter using the 18' cord.