Wilson 5000 trucker for base

[coolhand]

I am setting up a base in my house finally have a little room. Spending money right now is not an option. I have a 16ft section of conduit and a wilson 5000 trucker. Will this antenna work? I have to get my hands on some coax, a ground rod and some grounding wire. Any sudjestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[park]

Yes it will get you on the air but as you probably know it's not going to work very good. You can expect to have SWR problems.
You can save yourself a little money by not worrying about the ground rod and wire, it wouldn’t make much of a difference.
I know what you mean about the money thing, my radio buying is on hold at the moment, times are getting tight!

 

[Moleculo]

It would work better if you can get it higher. Yes it will work, but don't expect miracles.

 

[Beetle]

Radials.

You'll need more than one ground rod and some "grounding wire". Radials, each one 1/4 wavelength long. As many as you can install, but at least four, running 90 degrees apart.

That antenna expects to be mounted to a well-bonded metallic structure to provide the counterpoise/ground plane that it absolutely NEEDS. If there's no vehicle to do that, you have to make the antenna think it's there anyway.

 

[coolhand]

The ground rod was more for lightning than anything else. I know it probably wont be great but hopefully I can get out a few miles.

 

[Beetle]

Your call. Let us know what happens.

 

[mackmobile43]

Should'nt that antenna be insulated from the mounting pole?

 

[MisterFatty]

Save your antenna for the mobile, for just a few $$$, maybe FREE, depending what you have lying around you could build yourself a dipole, they are pretty simple, and it will work much better then the Wilson...

Construction details can be found via Google, or possibly one of the members here can point you to a good web site.

 

[Radio Tech]

I agree with Mister Fatty.
A dipole hanging vertical will work much better than the Wilson.

468 divided by the frequency. I cut mine for channel 20.
468/27.205 = 17.2. Cut that in half for each leg. 8.6 feet.
Be sure to leave a couple of inches for binding and trimming.

I have also done this with 2 10 fo0t pieces of conduit and a 1 foot block of 2x4 for the center insulator.

 

[coolhand]

wouldn't this have to be mounted up high? the dipole i mean. Thats like 22ft above my roof. The city I live in has all sorts of laws about antennas and stuff, I don't want to have to pull a permit it can get expensive around here.

 

[MisterFatty]

A simple inverted V would probably kick the Wilson's behind... Of course higher the better but they work surprisingly well even indoors....

 

[Switch Kit]

OK , the Wilson 5000 trucker would and could do a fine job , bottom line is , YOU NEED A GROUND PLANE OF SOME KIND. If you have a air conditoner unit on the roof you could buy a magmount for the 5000 and just screw it in and slap it on the unit , you should get a pretty GOOD swr , NO AC UNIT ? You could get a nice cut of sheet metal at your local hardware store , mag would stick to that or you could use a solid mount .

Number one , if you have 20 ft of hight and open air around the antenna , with a decent match , you will get out and you will do surprisingly well , especially on SSB. The best of luck to you.

 

[coolhand]

Thanks for the info guys, I'll let you know how it goes.