New Fiberglass Antennas

[Nick23]

I just took a trip to my hometown of Topeka, KS. As I was driving I started to notice all the fiberglass antennas on the 18 wheelers. Once I got into Topeka a lot of the CB hobbyist had fiberglass antennas on their vehicles. I remember Wilson 2000's or the like on the 18 wheelers and Wilson 1000 or 5000 as the mobile antenna of choice. Does anyone have an idea on the growing popularity of the fiberglass antennas?

 

[Lil'Yeshua]

CB Radio Antennnas - Which one is right for you
Antenna Myths
Fiberglass CB Antennas | Right Channel Radios

 

[AudioShockwav]

Does anyone have an idea on the growing popularity of the fiberglass antennas?

Every truck stop sells them, so that is what is in the case when you go in.
They are cheap compared to center loaded coil antennas.
Tip:
No one single antenna is best for everyone, because almost every mobile antenna install presents different challenges due to height restrictions, mounting location and body style of the car/pickup/truck you are mounting them on.
My own personal rule of thumb:
Stick with antennas that have an overall length of at least 48 inches, this is my own observation after playing radio for 30 years or so.
Forget about the 18" tall center loads, or 2 foot fire sticks....yes i have played with them, and they will tune...but the overall efficiency is just poor.
My fav antennas for mobile:
No longer available 96 inch francis great antenna if you can find one and get it mounted and live with the height
102' on a solid mount.
Kales Predator 10K ( Not the Comp Coil, Not the 30K, NOT the freedom one antenna these antennas are sales hype) is a decent antenna. I feel the 27" shaft is the best, followed by the 22 " shaft, lightweight, easy to tune. Most helical wound fiberglass whips are about the same.
I have used everything from the Everhardt Tiger 1.5 wave and Quad wrap antennas to wilson superflex, to 96" Radioshack whips with stainless steel braided wire in them.
73
Jeff

 

[Nick23]

I agree with you, I can't understand why these CB "hobbyist" are using 3ft fiberglass whips.

 

[Road Squawker]

...My fav antennas for mobile:
No longer available 96 inch francis great antenna if you can find one...

didn't the wire actually make 3 'passes up & down the 96 inch whip?.

one wire , about 278 inches long inside the 'glass, not spirialy wound, more of an elongated S shape.

 

[AudioShockwav]

didn't the wire actually make 3 'passes up & down the 96 inch whip?.

Negative, the "triple quarter wave" is 3 separate wires of varying length connected at the same point in the base.
The whole patent is posted here on the forum if you use the search feature.
It is a good antenna and covers a good frequency range, with the addition of being able to stand up better in the wind than the SS whip.
The down side to that is that the SS whip is more flexible and will bend and spring back at a point were the Fiberglass whip will break if you try to flex it that much.

73
Jeff

 

[Sarcasm]

The only fiberglass antenna that I've seen test good was 5' or longer on the analyzer. Comparing to a whip that is. Anything shorter of any make was a big loss.

 

[roadrage]

I have had two different sets of fiberglass 4' whips. First I had some old flexible Archer 4' antennas given to me. I recently replaced them with some Everhardt TSM 4' and expected a little improvement. But they seem to work no better or worse than the others. I will say that the Archers feel brittle like they would break easy but they took such a beating and never gave me a problem. I could bend them lower than the cab easily. And when I say a beating, you'd have to witness it or you'd think I was exaggerating. The Everhardt TSM antennas feel very flexible, but when I attempted to bend them down below the cab, I could start hearing the fibers stressing like it would break if I went any further.

I hear people bash fiberglass whips but I think mine perform about as good as my Wilson 1000. I even have made several DX contacts with a barefoot Cobra 29 with a co-phase set up on my fishing truck. My 102" performed the best, but even with that I wasn't wowed by its local performance. It was even mounted on the center of my roof. I expected more than it did. It is far superior shooting skip though. That is just the experience I've had on my installs.

 

[959]

cheep

because they are cheep and they don't want to pay over 100.00 for a good set up