Mobile Which mobile vehicle model here performs the best?

[W4KVW]

I remember the CB days of 1965 -1966 when just about everyone had a 102" whip antenna permanently installed either on the side of the rear quarter panel, on the top of the rear quarter panel deck close to the trunk hinge, or on the rear bumper with a chain-link type bracket. Some of us had the standard steel springs and they rusted-out after the first winter exposure to salted roads. Stainless steel springs were probably two-dollars more than the standard spring. The guys with pick-up trucks mounted the 102" whip either on the cab behind the driver or passenger, or on the side of the quarter panels back near the rear bumper or on the side of the rear bumpers. Obviously the Rain Gutter, Trunk Lip and Mag-Mount antennas could not compete with the 102" whip antennas.

Everyone here in North Florida had a tennis ball on the whip so the whip did not take the paint off when it hit it.I have seen a whip hit a limb in the woods & slap the top of the truck from the rear bed stake mount where it was mounted.Sounded like a gun went off when it hit the roof. LOL Those were the days.

SIX-SHOOTER

 

[Recon]

I had a 1970 Ford F-100 long bed and for a short time had two 102" co-phased steel whips on the "West Coast" style mirrors that were popular at the time. Of course I had to put an extra mirror to door support piece on each one.

Maybe it was folklore or bad scoop, but I was told that co-phased antennas had to be aligned / oriented front to rear only and the best vehicle would be a full size van.

 

[530]

Jeep. LOL!

 

[Marconi]

Jeep. LOL!

Bicycle LOL!

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

Bicycle LOL!

A ten speed counterpoise? Haha

 

[357magnum]

Mud , Thanks for that comment about the fuel pump ! It must be my old age setting in ! Believe it or not I have that annoying hum in my Explorer . Iv'e shut off switches to no avail ! Never thought of that Damn Electric Pump ! An I consider myself a Motor Head ?

 

[530]

Bicycle LOL!

That is excellent. Did alot of bike riding in my day. Not so much now.

 

[Slowmover]

That is excellent. Did alot of bike riding in my day. Not so much now.

You mean you got the noise killed on your three-whl electric scooter? Excellent!!

Keep the wife with her handheld scurrying up/down the grocery aisles from your command post at the storefront? My man!

(Believe me, I’d like to try that. Could be an example of the sort of thing my wife up and left over. Women . . . . )

I had a ballmount on the rear quarter-fender of my last big Chrysler. A car longer & wider than a Suburban. Pop the clip, and it’s the 108 twang.

Sorry now I didn’t have a giganto amp in the trunk. Light it up and let that leak through the trunk lid gasket on key-up.

As it was unit body, the front suspension subframe and exhaust was about all there was “underneath” to have to bond.

Got ill and it had to go. Years of nothing followed. Shoulda heard the truckers talk about it. Then I’d blast ‘em with my dual-finals PC-76 Uniden (Ha!).

I’d put a C-Body Chrysler product of the fuselage design-style up against any four wheel critter. Right into the 1970s, everything was an option. Standard V8 on Dodge & Chrysler, but manual steering, drum brakes and a bolt-action transmission. No power anything unless ordered.

That’d be one helluva rolling test bed.

.

 

[Recon]

Not that many people put a full size 1/4 wave on the roof of a P/U truck or SUV. Why not go for a more realistic mounting location like on the rear quarter somewhere or a smaller antenna on the roof? I suppose however everything is relative as far as patterns go as a smaller antenna will have the same horizontal pattern but just lower gain. Might want to try different mounting locations however. I have my antenna mounted on the rear corner of the box on the drivers side of my Tundra Crew Max. The truck is 18 feet long with a short 5 1/2 foot box but LARGE cab area.

I did not want to start a new thread with this question. There are numerous conversations and comments relating to mobile CB antennas, but how about the length of coax for base or mobile? If my (real old) memory is intact, I remember something about the recommended / ideal coax length should be in 9' increments. We use to buy mag-mount and/or gutter-clip antennas and I think a 18' coax was attached. Lately, I've noticed a few antenna manufacturers are stating / recommending to use either less than 12' or less than 15' of coax for a mobile installation. What's up with that?

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I did not want to start a new thread with this question. There are numerous conversations and comments relating to mobile CB antennas, but how about the length of coax for base or mobile? If my (real old) memory is intact, I remember something about the recommended / ideal coax length should be in 9' increments. We use to buy mag-mount and/or gutter-clip antennas and I think a 18' coax was attached. Lately, I've noticed a few antenna manufacturers are stating / recommending to use either less than 12' or less than 15' of coax for a mobile installation. What's up with that?

Man this has been absolutely beaten to death.........THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A PROPER LENGTH OF COAX TO USE. PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE. FULL STOP. Sorry but I get SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO tired of hearing this BS. If the antenna is PROPERLY tuned then coax length does NOT matter. If it did how could a multiband antenna work with just one feedline? My six band vertical is fed with one length of coax cable. What band do I cut to too? 10m? 15? 17m? 20m? 40m? or 80m?
FWIW I have NEVER measured ANY coax cable for my antennas. If the cable was long enough to reach from the feedpoint to the radio with a little slack to move things around then oit was the proper length. That goes for ANY antenna whether it was for ham radio HF or VHF or CB or marine band or aviation band etc.

 

[Recon]

Man this has been absolutely beaten to death.........THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A PROPER LENGTH OF COAX TO USE. PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE. FULL STOP. Sorry but I get SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO tired of hearing this BS. If the antenna is PROPERLY tuned then coax length does NOT matter. If it did how could a multiband antenna work with just one feedline? My six band vertical is fed with one length of coax cable. What band do I cut to too? 10m? 15? 17m? 20m? 40m? or 80m?
FWIW I have NEVER measured ANY coax cable for my antennas. If the cable was long enough to reach from the feedpoint to the radio with a little slack to move things around then oit was the proper length. That goes for ANY antenna whether it was for ham radio HF or VHF or CB or marine band or aviation band etc.

Hey, I was seventeen years old in 1965 and that's when I heard about it. A few months later I was eighteen and was in the US Marines and CB had taken a back seat for many years. I sure as h*** did not intend to aggravate anyone by asking a question about a BS subject.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Hey, I was seventeen years old in 1965 and that's when I heard about it. A few months later I was eighteen and was in the US Marines and CB had taken a back seat for many years. I sure as h*** did not intend to aggravate anyone by asking a question about a BS subject.

Not really aggravated. See where I said SORRY. It's one of those things that as a tech that worked 22 years in commercial broadcasting and over 40 years in radio communications in general I get frustrated by the plethora of bullshit theories that abound especially regarding the CB band. Most of the proponents of these swear by them despite all facts pointing to the contrary and will not listen to anybody that says something different then what they heard somewhere at sometime from someone that heard it from someone else sometime before etc.

 

[Slowmover]

Dude, once you move to a chrome antenna, that Newtonian stuff don’t apply no more . . . that’s like believing this planet is an oblate spheroid, geesh.

 

[2NC995]

Like everyone, I heard all the BS about coax lengths, and believed them when I saw changes on my SWR meter. Also, I noticed that coax seemed to come at 3’, 6’, etc...and factory mobile antennas almost always had 18’...there must be something to it!

Once setting up a pickup I came upon a need for some atypical lengths. Around the same time I was discovering coax velocity factors, and realized that all the recommended lengths didn’t make any sense at all...because they would be different for all the various types of cable. I went with the non-recommended length and everything worked out fine.

That’s been 20+ years now, and I’ve been just cutting coax to the length needed ever since. I don’t even know how long any piece of coax I am using is beyond a approximate guess.

 

[Recon]

Not that many people put a full size 1/4 wave on the roof of a P/U truck or SUV. Why not go for a more realistic mounting location like on the rear quarter somewhere or a smaller antenna on the roof? I suppose however everything is relative as far as patterns go as a smaller antenna will have the same horizontal pattern but just lower gain. Might want to try different mounting locations however. I have my antenna mounted on the rear corner of the box on the drivers side of my Tundra Crew Max. The truck is 18 feet long with a short 5 1/2 foot box but LARGE cab area.

How about this scenario? The roof on my truck is approximately a 6 foot square area. I have a 40" President Iowa antenna mounted on the rear edge of the roof on center line using the Third Light Antenna Adapter. Is the ground plane effect being compromised because the antenna is not in the center of the roof, or is the bed of the truck providing a ground plane surface? Note: The roof is approximately 25" higher than the bed and the bed has the OEM spray-on protectant.