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Two questions: good milage and increasing incoming signal

S

-Spazmatic-

Member
Feb 17, 2006
39
1
16
West, Texas
www.trophyshoponline.com
Hello again.

Today my friend and I got just shy of 9 miles! We're very pleased with this, but we were wondering, how can you increase your incoming signal? What I mean by this is that I could hear him towards the end of 9 miles but he couldn't hear me.


I know it is possible that it's my CB's fault, that my output is lower than my input, but I just want to make sure.

Also, my SWRs are sort of high (around 1.7 on ch1 and 2.1 on ch40, and around 1.5 on ch.20) and I was wondering what I could do to bring that down. If I mess with my antenna, won't it bring up ch1's SWR rating?

Thanks guys.
 

Well, it was. Now it's not..I think I may have messed it up because it came off the mount (vibrated itself off).

But, it went up. Don't really know why. Maybe I checked it in a more/less crowded area? It was a different spot than I checked it earlier this month.

OH, and I have another CB on there. Could that have affected it?
 
Your not running power ? Your match will do ,but it could be better (-: IM sure you will figure it out in time , as far as hearing better ,they do have independent receive amps that might help ? it just all depends with those , they tend to intensify static as well . 9 miles ain't bad on a stock radio but where you are to where your receiving target might be ? that to always depends on where your at to where they are ....make sence ? ....you could climb a mountain and be 6000 ft above every body else and i would bet to say that you could more then likely talk 50 miles away without a problem (-: it just depends on where you are to where they are ...line of sight as they say.
 
Did you say you have 2 radios on that antenna? Don't! you will damage one or both rdios! If you radios at the same time you need two antennas. But the transmit radio will clobber the second radio and you'll not be able to hear anything on the other radio.

There is a book called "Basic Radio" that may answer questions you may have. It's sold on the ARRL websight arrl.org The ARRL is a national Amateur Radio club but the book should apply to CBs too. Radio theory is the same on any band.

73
 
No no, there's only one radio on my antenna.

What I meant was, at the time when I was getting bad reception, I went to the local Walmart and bought a midland 40ch (one model under the one I bought online) just to make sure it wasn't the CBs fault for me getting around 1/2 a mile at the time. So, I had my "walmart" CB all wired up until just yesterday. I wired my other one back up yesterday afternoon.
 
Whew! You had me going for a while, there.

If you are getting five mile ranges or over, you're doing fine. Individual radios and their antenna systems will alwayas show differences and a guy who hears you and you don't heare him is nothing unusual at the edge of range and it could be the other guy's radio, not yours.

AM CBs are meant to be shortrange radios. Mobile to mobile, 5 miles a good result. A base station with a good antenna can do farther but mobile is short range. It is possible to add a pre-amp to a CB and hear more, but you will also hear more noise and garblage. It may be a waste of money.

And think real hard about the antenna mounting situation. Since you don't want to drill any holes, alternative solutions can include a magnetic mount, bumper mount, fender mount and others. A bumper mount with a ball and spring and 106" whip would do great and looks neat on trucks. Or get that mount and put your present antenna on it. It won't block that much of the signal.

73
 
I agree, with a bone stock out of the box radio, and a wound fiberglass whip, its about right.
I seem to recall that your friends antenna is only a 36" whip, correct?
That is kind of short.
Not that it will not work, but , rule of thumb thing here again
Longer/higher = better
I really do not like to see any antenna for 27.000 Mhz shorter than 48", regardless if it is a base, center, or tapered loaded antenna.
just seems better that way :D
So , even tho you do not have the best system, it works well within reason.
To improve range, you can look in to better mounting/antennas just as bandaid kid has suggested, he`s on the money there.
Lets see if we can find some links to some info online about antennas that you could read that will maybe help explain how/why antennas work.

I will look around the web for some links, and post up here.
Maybe some of the other guys have some good ones as well.
As for the radios, in order to be used for cb service you are not allowed to modify the radio.
Not that it does not get done, but those are the rules.
However this does not mean that every radio is created equal, some radios, of better quality build have better receiver circuit built into then, or there are some improvments to be gained in having a better radio.

SSB is also a good mode for better range.
Keep looking around the forum and the net , soak up some info on radio.
That way you can make the best use of monies spent on CB stuff ;) ;)
in the interm
Have Fun.

73
Jeff
 
Thanks guys. I'm satisfied with my setup.

Yes, my friend's antenna is only a 3' whip, but that's only because the 4' whips don't look good (to him) on a single cab short bed truck. I sort of agree, and although looks are not what he/I should be gauging on, it ended up ruling our decision :)


I like where my antenna is mounted, but where else would you suggest on an SUV? I mean, if I mounted it on the bumper it would be even lower and I would get less range, correct? I'm not going to mount it on the front bumper... :)

Here are some pictures and some sound/video clips of my truck.
http://www.supermotors.org/vehicles/registry/detail.php?id=9982

Maybe you can get some ideas. The picture of the antenna mounted doesn't show the ground cable I now have. The ground cable is between the antenna and the threaded adapter.
 
antennas

I run a 5.5 foot francis on the fender of my bronco the antenna is not to big nor to small you want your antenna at least above the cab of your vehicle a 3 foot or smaller antenna wont hardly penetrate the cab and for the cb your using there hard to modify i would take it back to wal mart and get a uniden 510 or 520 xl
 
-Spazmatic- said:
That's why I run a 4ft off the carrier. About half of the antenna is above the roofline.
Click to expand...

Well, I suppose if you're comfortable with the antenna setup, that's good. The mount on the bumper with the short antenna would work okay but a long whip on that bumper will be very, very close to excellent. But again, it'll work where you have it if you can beat the bolts coming loose from vibration - and that was my original arguent for moving it to the bumper. And longer is always better than short, which is where the 106'' whip comes into play. But you will get good results with the one you now have on the bumper, too.

I'll hunt the net for you, too. I have some idea to google out.

73
 
How about a good magnetic mount with a 48" or so whip on it?

Also you could swap your mirrors for the regular truck style mirrors and use a mirror mount. :twisted:
 

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