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Noob needs advise with setup, please!

S

shoebox

Member
Oct 26, 2005
9
0
11
Kentucky
Need help with my setup.

I have just bought a Uniden PC68 ELITE Bearcat Pro Series off Ebay.

I am learning, and based on some things i have read here and other forums I am planning on buying a Wilson 4' or 5' Silverload antenna. This will be mounted with a bracket behind the tailight of my Jeep Grand Cherokee. Right now I have a 4' Firestik KW (which I don't like because it doesn't have the adjustable tip, but when I bought it I didn't know you had to tune antennas)

For Coax I currently I have a 12' mini 8 from Pilot. I want to get something better if it will make my radio sound better, recomendations? and where can I get it? Also do i need to get a different length (I think I may have seen 18' works better?)

What is a good affordable mic to use with this setup?

I am just learning about SWR and am planning on getting a meter from radioshack to test this.

Also I will be using a 60 watt Speco PA speaker I got from Ebay. Does this need an amp to reach it's full potential?
 

new set up

I would upgrade the antenna to a wilson 2000 . The fire stick is ok but dont get out as well as the wilson . speaker wil work with it just fine your antenna should come with instuctions to set your swr . radio shacks meter will work just fine for you
 
I would like to be able to fit into my garage with the antenna on, (not to mention parking garages) that is why I was thinking about the 4' or 5' fiberglass. How tall are the W 2000 with the wip on? Also, even though it's a stupid reason I like the look of the fiberglass.

Should I upgrade my mic? What coax should I use?
Anyone know a CB shop or tech in the Northern Kentucky, Southern OH, IN area that could peak and tune my radio?
 
the coax should be fine as long as you are not running any major power (amp). i would also have to say go with a wilson 2000. as far as mic's thats a hard question to answer since it's a personnal thing especially since the best handheld mics are not made anymore,IMHO. get some on the air reports, or get a buddy with a radio and have him drive down the road and talk to you on your radio and listen for yourself. welcome to the board. 8)
 
Ok, well after looking at the wilson site the actual height of the antenna could work for me except it says the coil has to be above the roofline. Even if I get the longer 22" shaft, which would not work anyways because it would be too high for my garage, most drive through's, and parking garages this would still not put the coil over my roofline since it is not being mounted on a semi, but from a mount that is behind the tailight of my Jeep Grand Cherokee.

The only way for me to go with the 2000 would be the shortest shaft, maybe even the sw2000 preferably, and the coil would be way below my roofline.

I would think if I ignored this i would have ground plane issues?
Any other recomendations?
 
Wilson 1000 magnet mount antenna would work just fine also......when you need to you can remove the load and whip from the magnet very easily. :D
 
The 2000 would work good but the coil needs to be above the roof for best preformance. If not then a wilson silver load but I like the fire stik antennas with the tunning tip. Pilot sells them for a decent price and they are simple to tune! I have ran one as a base antenna before on the air conditioner outside my house it was one crazy setup but I got about 15 miles out of a stock radio with it :shock: Anyways the radio shack SWR meter will work good for you. Its a good meter for the price! Good Luck! 73s
 
If you really want to use a fibrerglass antenna get one thats at least 6 feet and adjust the mounting location to suit your needs-- the 4 footer will work but not sa good as a 6-- an the 6 will not work as good as a wilson 1000-- wilson 1000 would be the best bet, even if its hits the garage it will take a beating
As for a mic, a Superstar type power mic (with echpo if you want) and electret mic are really loud and decent sounding and they are cheap-- there are alot of companies that make these-- Desil, workman, superstar but they are all the same mic-- just a power mic with a slide control at the top for echo or gain-- most of the guys in town here use them because they are loud and decent sounding and cheap
To set your SWR you will need 18 feet of coax between the radio and antenna to tune the antenna-- once its tuned you can use any length but most guys just keep the 18 feet of coax perminently hooked up-- RG8 mini is fine and what most guys use since there is really no loss at small lengths
The speaker will be fine, point it towards the driver seat
I say get a wilson 1000 or 2000 but if you want a fiberglass antenna get it as long as possible like 6 feet-- you should be able to run that length without any trouble
As long as you get a good antenna set up, everything else is extra
 
Measure from the place where your antenna mount will be to just a little above the roof line.If you can use a top load antenna like a Wilson silver load,skip shooter,or fire stick,whatever.Get it just long enough so that the tip of the antenna sticks up above the roof line and you will talk just fine.

Throw that cheap truck stop coax out the door(you need 18 foot) and pay for the good stuff.It will be worth it in the long run because your antenna and coax is over 90% of your radios performance!

Dont run a power mike because it will pick up all kinds of noise from inside and outside when you key up to talk.You would be better off (and sound better)using your stock mike with the gain turned back a little.

And the 60 watt speaker....that does not mean it needs 60 watts to work,it means that how much power it can handle.

As far as good shops go....I myself dont know of any GOOD shops in your area.I think you would be better off talking to Justin here about your needs and ship it off to him.It may take a while to get back but you can be damn sure that radio will be doing all it can once he is done with it!
 
A 6 foot would be way to long for my application. I went ahead and got a 4' silverload. It is mounted as low as possible on the passenger taillight and it comes above the roofline about 1' 3/4 ft. I was hoping (and your statement makes me more confident) that it will be good enough, without the entire 2/3 above roofline as recomended. I have less than an inch to spare getting into my garage.

As for coax should I just get the cable that is a step up from mini 8 or is there a particular brand that is better?

Yes I know the PA doesn't need 60 watts but I would like to make sure i'm giving it around about 40 so it will be as loud as possible, would this require an amp? The speaker I got off Ebay offers no intructions, I assume I just wire the white wire up to the red one from a plug and the black to black and plug it in?

Still havn't recieved my new radio yet, hoping for monday, already got the antenna and speaker.
 
RG8X,18 feet and grey in color is what i have used on my mobiles and its always done a good job,most if not all cb shops have this in stock.There are better coax out there(and higher priced)but for right now this will serve your needs fine.As far as the PA goes i would think that it should be loud with just a basic radio.

Im not really sure how you have your antenna mounted but remember...if your swr reading is high you will need to run a ground wire from your antenna mount to the frame of the car/truck using at least 8 gauge wire.This will help get the swr down and also the better ground you have the better the antenna will work.
 
Well I have the Firestik mount that is meant to mount inside vertcal doorframes and stick out the gap (as on hatchbacks of mini vans and suv's. I took off my passenger tailight and mounted it behind that as low as possible and then put my tailight back on, does that make sense?

As far as grounding it is screwed into the sheetmetal and my Jeep is a unibody (frame and body are one) so I shouldn't have ground issues with the mount should I?
 
Well they say hight is might so it may work but not the best the key here is to get it as high as possible. People often choose looks over preformance and it afects the radio greatly. Also need to get the lowest swr possible and if your antennas swr is good and you can lower by all means try to do so. The ground should be good but you may want to run a couple of ground straps or some decent size wire to the nearest fixed metal point. Best be would be by the hinges and use as short of a run as possible.
 
Yes getting the SWR down is my main goal I hope for less than 1.5 I am going to see how the wilson antenna does and if it's high I am going to try either raising the mount up some or a 'hot rod' antenna someone recomended them to me because of the linear load they have

Radio came today, got it hooked up and the recieve sounds awesome. I am still waiting on my meter from radioshack so I didn't try to transmit, but so far very impressed with the radio.

I picked up 18' of Wilson (Belden) super 8 coax to use with it by the way.
 

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