what is bad about that? im just curious at this point.


and to tell you the truth...i have never tuned my antennas, i have never had a problem with them and i have had them on 3 different vehicles and i have set up 3 of my friends trucks with dual antennas and have never tuned them and i have never had a problem. i even knew someone who was running 2 different antennas and they worked fine. i am no expert on antennas or cbs but i only know what i have experienced. i have never heard of or seen cables getting hot or anything like that. but what i do know, is that my radio had the swr calibration on it. and that makes a huge difference. my buddy has the cheap walmart one that is 30 dollars or whatever and it works fine, just less quality. i think you should be fine in running your dual antennas and if not, then i would look into tuning them. that is just my 2 cents.

 

no, you just wont be getting the best signal and range possible, but nothing wrong with it at all.

 

what is bad (tho not really) it can cause interference on other frequencies such as police/fire/EMS, but since most departments use digital systems it wont effect them, just a case of better safe than sorry... and as of 03/18/2004, allowable CB wattage has increased to 10watt MAXimum at an SWR of no less than 1.5.

 

thanks, now i gota figure out whether its worth it to get a swr metter or take it somewhere to have them tuned when they get here.

 

Ima take a few pics and post up in a bit.

 

go to your local radioshack, you can get an swr meter #21-534 for $49.99. Most stores will be able to tune it for you, anytime a customer comes into my location for one we offer to tune it for them.

 

Go with the 102", that's what I have! I love it! I park in my garage, but I have it mounted on the side, with a ball joint and spring mount. It just bends down and then I just move it around from the garage door to sticking straight up - but the actual cieling in the garage is like 20 feet or so.... But sometimes I just stick is down into the upper hole on next to the tailgate, it does fine... when backing out it just bends back down and flings right back up... BE SURE TO GET A TENNIS BALL - IT WILL PROTECT YOUR TRUCK!!!

 

i have the 108", its freakin huge and hit everything so i took it off. i use the PA function the most any ways.

 

Actually it doesn't interfere with other frequencies when tuned correctly... even if tuned incorrectly, it still won't harm much other than the other CB frequencies.

Also, the police/fire/EMS systems are trunked digital systems. Meaning they use packet-type data transfer... similar to cell phone or VoIP telecommunications. Depending on the location though, they might still use VHF or UHF... but because of the usage, nothing like CB which is really close to 10M HF in the HAM hobby would be a good candidate for a point-to-point communication because of the nature of HF. HF is great because it uses the ionosphere of the Earth to propagate the signal. Since HF is an electromagnetic type of resonant frequency, it also gets absorbed very well into hills and such. So if you were to be sitting in a valley, don't expect to pick up much with a CB. VHF and UHF on the other hand are excellent because they can slice right through hills and valleys practically. However, the only downside is the communication distance. At about 50 watts of 2m (144-148 Mhz) with a properly balanced and matched antenna meeting at a good 1.5:1 to 1:1 SWR, with good Belden feedline, you are looking at a ERP of ~45 watts at the antenna, with an effective range of about 75 miles; still dependant on your location. Sending 50 watts of HF for example, would get your signal out further, but it won't be where you necessarily want it. That is due to it's wide wavefront and wavepattern through the air. Since it uses the upper atmosphere to reflect the signal, you get a lot of dead spots. That is due to the fact that the signal is passing right over that particular region.

Hence if you were to go to the top of a hill, especially during a cold, clear night, and turn on your AM radio in your truck, in the right locations you can pickup distant AM radio stations with high power transmitters like if you were right next to the station. However, as the night progresses and the sun comes around, which emits a gross amount of RF alone, they tend to fade out. That is also due to the fact that the ionosphere heats up too.

It's a very complicated thing! Trust me!

Also, the real reason why CBs and FRS radios have power restrictions is majorly because it is dangerous to play with high power RF, without training or any type of instruction a normal person would not know RF safety, ERP/PEP calculations, how to tune the antenna, and more over, the responsibility of operating such equipment. If you get a HAM license for example, you are taking a test and they are forcing you to read and understand what you are doing with RF.

GMRS is similar, but you are still required to pay for a FCC Radio Station Authorization fee. This gives you a call sign, and when you get it, you signify that you will operate under PEP of 50 watts of the assigned frequences, and if you are in certain zones, that you will not, under any circumstances operate on primary or interstitial channels within those certain zones.

Modding CB radios is not only illegal, but if you are caught... well, it's worse than you think. I'm not going to go there.

But you are right about the 10 watts the FCC enacted upon the CB radio. I think that is as high as they should go.

 

bracket is 1/8" x 1.5" flat stock steel available at lowes cut to 7" length and bent (at about the five inch mark but that also depends on how far out you want it to stick from the side of the truck) in a vise at a 90 degree angle, punch a hole in the flat stock for the antenna mount (forgot what size), i then rounded the corners on a grinder and painted it black. then placed over the bed rail and held in place while i bolted down the tool box. the tool box had a soft adheasive foam on the bottom which keeps the steel from sliding on the rail. this may seem like it's not secured well, but i can't even move it when installed and it left no damage to the truck or my $350 tool box . sorry i had no pics of the mount uninstalled, i thought that i did but can't find them or deleted them. these should give you a pretty good idea though. took about fifteen mins. to make and install mount.


mount


wireing connection using i believe what is called a bolt mount (no plug on bottom = greater clearance)


scanner and cb inside the truck, the scanner is just clipped into the side of the cb bracket (other side of cb there is a small metal tab that the belt clip on the scanner goes on) and the cb antenna wire is plugged into scanner, you can only use one at a time


heres a pic of the scanner to cb adapter attached to my radioshack handheld scanner, the adapter can be purchased at radioshack (i put a link in the original thread)

 

ya with 200w kicker i can talk about 60 to 70 miles but after that i cant get any one with a enough power to talk back only tried it once!

 

In my old truck ('95 Ranger Extended Cab 2.3L) I used to run a Cobra 148GTL (with Expo Channel Expansion kit- turned it into a 10 meter) with variable deadkey. I was deadkeying 1/2 watt, swinging 14 watts into a Palomar 225 amp. Deadkey was then 10 watts swinging 180. SUPER LOUD modulation! This was just my driver... behind the seat was a Texas Star DX1600 "Sweet Sixteen" 8 pill amp with twin fan cooling kit. Deadkey was 400 watts swinging right at 2 kilowatts (2000 watts!). I could get a 48" fluorescent light and hold it up about two feet from my 102" steel whip, key down and light that sucker up! Talk into the mic and the light would get brighter with the modulation!

I traded the Sweet Sixteen for this laptop I'm typing on right now

 

I like the K-40 because you can twist the antenna off the mount for low clearances. I tried 'em all in the last 30+ year's. Wilson, Antler, Hustler, Firestick and they all work pretty good. I have a small Midland that I velcro down up on the dash when I want to use it. I also have a Uniden Grant SSB that's got all the extra's done to it and a Silver Eagle 200 watt amp. I haven't used it in about 10 yrs.

 

i know im hijacking a little but i figured id ask here instead of of start a new thread. so i have a inexpensive midland radio powered through the cigarete lighther in my truck. had a k-30 mag mount antenna that worked ok with some static but worked. then I upgraded to dual 4' firesticks mounted about 5' apart. radio worked occasionaly but with alot of static. now it will only occasinaly have transmit power. ive narowed it down to a gournding problem with the antennas on the toolbox, the extra coax that i have going from side to side of the cab(no real place to put it, i know not to coil it up), or something entirely different. any help or ideas fellas?

 

I find the K-40 magnet mount on top of the cab work's best. I have a small Midland that has been peaked up and plugged into one of the 12v outlet's it work's great. Dual antenna's are more directional and harder to tune. I alway's ran a single antenna even when I drove a big truck.