ZUKIWORLD Online | Suzuki 4x4 Editorial and Forum
ZUKIWORLD Discussion Forum => Suzuki 4x4 Forum => Topic started by: Digger on December 02, 2004, 10:06:29 AM
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I searched the topic of CB Antenna mounting and came up with one mounted beside the hood, a couple mounted to the spare tire carrier, one mounted to the back bumper, etc. But only one pic. I curious to see how you all have solved the dilemma of where to mount it.
My new friends in the sammys use CBs all the time, so I wanted to get mine up to par. When I went out with them last sunday, found out that my range was only about 75 yards or so with a tiny little rubber duck magnet mount on the targa bar. This just would not do. A couple days ago I made my own heavy duty bracket and bolted it to the tailgate, just to the right side of the spare, and added a slim type spring and a 4 foot fiberglass trucker style that I had gotten at a garage sale. This worked a little better, but still not good enough for me. So tonight I went to a local CB shop and got some helpful info, as well as a new whip and cable. For the antenna to work it's best, the tip's got to be at least 1 1/2' above the roofline. Usually the antenna uses the roof of the vehicle as the ground-plane, but in our little convertables, this doesn't work. In our rigs, the antennas end up using the vehicle's floor as the ground plane. Not ideal, but it works with a tall enough whip.
For my rig, I got a 5 1/2' Francis whip and an 18' hi-performance cable with waterproof plugs. As soon as I installed it in my mount, I was picking up drivers over 5 miles away clearly and they could hear me clearly. Not that big of a deal except there was a couple hills between us, I was down in a valley. The Francis whips aren't tunable, they require the 18 foot cable for proper SWR tuning, and it seems to work great.
Once I get the chance in daylight, probably saturday, I'll snap a pic and post of how I mounted mine. In the meantime, anyone else have any pics of how they mounted their antennas and how well they work for you?
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I'm mounting a firestick "venice" (a 3' whip) to my targa this weekend. I'll let you know the SWR I end up with.
I'm a big fan of whips over fiberglass, and mag mounts plain suck.
I've got a 5.5' whip on my truck (1.1 SWR), and was able to talk very reliably to a handheld cb 10 miles across water (the handheld was in a boat running on step at the time).
If you get a good SWR, you can get very good distance with CB's.
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I want to have a setup for a CB too,
could you explane the difference between
a whip and a fiberglass antenna ?
Wild
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Whips are the ones you may see some people have on their pickups that are like 40 feet high, I have seen a few hit stoplights when they go under, and they are metal and about the same thickness as a regular AM/FM car radio antenna. Firesticks in my opinion are the best, very good reception, and very durable, the best place to pick-up any CB stuff such as mikes, antennas, speakers is truck stops. I said this a few months ago on here, a pawn shop is best place to go for the actual CB deck, I paid I think it was $15 for mine, a Uniden 40 channel that works great.
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I want to have a setup for a CB too,
could you explane the difference between
a whip and a fiberglass antenna ?
Wild
Whips are the ones where you are spotting a guy ( or gal , sorry Heather) and they're so damn thin you don't notice it, and then their rig hits a bump and this thing smacks you on top of your head. Damn you Sam. I hate them. OK, I'm better now. Sorry about that. The steel whips take a beating better, but I've ran 6' francis whips on my sammy and my sidekick, and have had only one go bad. And that was from putting the samurai ontop of it. When I took it back to my CB shop he even replaced for free.
Brian
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Big_Bad_Brian; where did you have the 6' whip mounted on your kick?
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OK, Thanks KC Tracker
I have the 40 ch mini uniden
it has a built in speaker that
you can't hear anything on and
I also have a 2-3 foot mag base
antenna, but I wanted to put a
mount on the drivers side rear
and route the cable thru the body.
The Mag base sticks down OK on
the steel targa bar, but if I have
the top on I don't trust that it will
stay there.
The other thing is where to mount
the deck, under dash seems to be
the only spot left for an easy mount
Wild
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if you have the small cb's like the uniden you can fit them into the ashtray area if you dont use yours that is. just pull out your ashtray and take off the metal protector that is on the top of the hole flip it over bend the sides of it so it will hold the cb attach the back of the metal thingy to the inside dash brace and slip you cb in it fits so good you would think its stock equipment.
shane.
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How well do fiberglass antenna's hold up against trees and brush being rubbed against them going through thickly overgrown trails? My snorkel's already taken quite a beating, and I don't want to end up breaking off a fiberglass antenna.
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Big_Bad_Brian; where did you have the 6' whip mounted on your kick?
It is on the back passenger side of my tailgate door. Just to the SW of the door hinge. Works better than I thought it would. I harldey ever hear bounce off the the back of the rig.
Brian
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How well do fiberglass antenna's hold up against trees and brush being rubbed against them going through thickly overgrown trails? My snorkel's already taken quite a beating, and I don't want to end up breaking off a fiberglass antenna.
Mine gets beat to hell off of trees and whatever else is in it's way. Like I said, the only one I've ever had fail is the one I landed on.
Brian
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I use my ashtray, it holds my change :)
and to the sides I have a boost guage
and a mixture meter, so I don't think I
can use that spot. I'll get it mounted
somewhere
Thanks
Wild
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Here's how I mounted my radio (as others have done, I ditched the ashtray)
(http://www.avalonforest.com/geo/radios/radio-fitting.jpg)
One problem I have with fiberglass antennas is the force a tree hit can exude onto the mounting area. For a tracker targa mount, the mount area is fairly sturdy, so the forces probably wont deform the sheet metal. On a wide expanse of roof tho ...
Mounting a whip up high on a roof shouldn't smack a spotter, but bumper/Qpanel mounting one, watch out!
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hey thats a slick spot! I found that with my f glass ant. after I put one of those coil springs under it I had no problems with busted ones.
where did you move the cig. lighter to? I have two ports in my sidekick I need to look around and find a spot for both of them.
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SnoFalls- that looks nice! I mounted mine under steering wheel, a tad off center to the right. But, I like the ashtray idea, my ashtray was stolen a few months back, so I should fill up that open spot. The whole speaker thing, you can get those little auxillary speakers for around $10, and they sound pretty good. I have my CB mounted, but have to get an antenna for it and mount it somewhere.
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Wildgood- that spot on top of dash above heater vents may be a decent spot for you.
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FOr those lucky few that have the center console still in you can (I have) mount CB here.
(http://www.eye-irritant.com/august2004/CB%20location.jpg)
And for the Antenna. I have a mount on the tailgate that holds a 4ft firestick.
(http://www.eye-irritant.com/august2004/CB%20antenna.jpg)
If you do this and have the Swing-a-way bumper. mount the antenna closer to the door hindges. I didn't and I have to swing the tire all the way to open the door all the way. the antenna mount hits the jack bracket, OOps. :-*
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The francis is a 3/4 wave antenna, i.e. 3 times the wire than a steel ant. alot of clubs do not alow steel whips for safety reasons, the best place to mount a antenna for electrical ground plane is dead center of the rig on the targa bar above your dome light, any where else it will be directional, no biggie unless you can't turn your rig.
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Wild: I have my CB unit mounted on top of the center of the dash, just above the pocket that's over the middle vents. In this position, the little built-in speaker bounces the sound out of the pocket on top of the dash right into my ears, it's nice and loud now!
Mounting my CB under the dash was out for me, mainly because I'm 6'5" and need all the legroom I can get!!!LOL!!!
Big_Bad_brian and HotRod: I have my antenna mounted pretty much in the same exact place! It seems to work pretty well, especially once I got the new cable and whip...
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I just stopped by the local Radio Shack and picked up a 102" stainless whip to put on my Sammy. I am going to be using an old school fender ball mount on the rear fender. I am also going to be putting one on the opposite fender for a highband antenna for my fire dept radio system. Not sure on the CB yet or where it will be mounted.
Kevin
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I just stopped by the local Radio Shack and picked up a 102" stainless whip to put on my Sammy.  I am going to be using an old school fender ball mount on the rear fender.  I am also going to be putting one on the opposite fender for a highband antenna for my fire dept radio system.  Not sure on the CB yet or where it will be mounted.
Kevin
I don't know where you wheel, but around here fender mounted cb antennas are the first thing for a tree to grab onto. My tires are 77" rubber to rubber and I still rub my flares sometimes. The people that aren't as wide rubbered as me rub the fenders. If they had anything mounted on them, it would be gone. My 2 cents.
Brian
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Yeah, definately! That's why I didn't put it on the side, because I knew it would be ripped off on my next offroad trip!
And actually if your fire department runs on the VHF band(|removethispart|@155mhz), the antennas I've seen for that range are only 18" tall...
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Here's a couple pics I just snapped of my setup:
My CB unit:
(http://pic5.picturetrail.com/VOL72/842221/4978461/75534567.jpg)
My antenna mount:
(http://pic5.picturetrail.com/VOL72/842221/4978461/75534564.jpg)
The CB model I have can be had at walmart for $29.96 and according to the local CB shop, "it's a good little unit". The CB shop wanted $54 for the same exact model. Where I have it mounted on the dash works pretty well and seems to amplify the sound coming from the small speaker underneath the unit. Even rolling down the highway with the windows down on swampers, I don't need to go above 1/2 volume.
The antenna mast I got from the CB shop for $16.96, the cable from the same place was $16.96, the spring for the base of the mast was $4.99 from radio shack and the mount itself I made with a piece of aluminum angle I had laying around and a mounting stud bought from radio shack for $5-$6. Overall it seems to work really well and is really simple to operate, without any fancy side-bands or extra controls to figure out. It might not be the best performing setup out there, but it does the job much better than one of those "emergency" setups with the cig lighter plug and slap on magnet mount!
I wanna see some of your guy's mounts. More pics!
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I moved my head unit today to be where the ashstray was. The Uniden I have is as wide as the ashtray was, so I didn't even have to cut anything, just slid it in, tightened to mount bracket screws onto the ashtray mount plate, looks good. Now for the antenna!
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PS- just remember, it's not a rear fender, that's called a 1/4 panel :P
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Het HotRod- where'd ya get that antenna mount? That is nice.
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Yeah, definately! That's why I didn't put it on the side, because I knew it would be ripped off on my next offroad trip!
And actually if your fire department runs on the VHF band(|removethispart|@155mhz), the antennas I've seen for that range are only 18" tall...
I generally don't wheel very narrow trails. The ball mount should work out good for my situation. The 18" VHF antennas are a 1/4 wave antenna. I am looking at a Pro-am model CX-144. It is a 5/8 wave that uses a 3/8 x 24 mount instead of the normal NMO mount that is common to the VHF stuff. This antenna is 49" tall.
My current truck has a VHF/UHF on the front fender, a VHF for the FD on the roof (drilled mount), a VHF low on the driver side rear and a 102" whip on the pass rear. The VHF/UHF and the 102" whip are run off of my IC-706MkIIG for amateur use from the 40 meter band through the 440 band. The VHF that is roof mounted and the VHF low (46mhz) are used for my Kenwood TK-690/790 for the fire department.
I still think that a 102" whip is the best CB antenna out there!
Kevin
N2ZPY
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To keep the ant. from smacking the back of your rig, Take a tennis ball and poke holes in it and slide it down over your ant.
My c.b. is mounted to the roof above my head so it stays dry and you can here it better. I Also run a 1000 watt linear to make sure im heard. LOL
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My c.b. is mounted to the roof above my head so it stays dry and you can here it better. I Also run a 1000 watt linear to make sure im heard
This is why some circles in the radio world refer to CB as the "Childrens Band"
Kevin
N2ZPY
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Het HotRod- where'd ya get that antenna mount? That is nice.
You can probley find it at local CB shops. I found mine at a Stereo Store, They had a whole corner for CB stuff.
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BTW. DIGGER.
The two reasons not to mount it on top of the dash.
1. People can see it and may decide they need one.
2. It sets in direct sunlight and in front of the defroster vents that may not be too good for it. (too much heat can fry electronics)
But then again
And what is with the winsheild always cracking right there?
Mine was that way when I got it.
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I realized about the defroster vents blowing right on either side of it, but I'm being careful about how much heat I'm throwing up on the windsheild. As for sun, might become an issue in the summer, but it's too dang cold here to worry about it right now. Plus I'm running a hard top right now which has made my rig a little more difficult to break into. I throw a ball cap over it whenever I park somewhere I'm not sure about... I just really like how well I can hear it mounted up there, plus I don't hit it with my head or knees!
My windsheild was cracked like that when I got the trucklet. My mechanic passed it because the crack wasn't in my line of sight(I'm 6'5", so the crack only cuts across my view of the hood!).
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PS- just remember, it's not a rear fender, that's called a 1/4 panel  :P
Which part of your "quarter panel" is the first to cave in when you rub on a tree or rock ??? Swize guy ;)
Brian
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(http://www.eye-irritant.com/august2004/cb005.jpg)
(http://www.eye-irritant.com/august2004/cb001.jpg)
Some of my stuff,not a lot of room in a sammie! Video camera,guages,CB,stereo,tach, power inverter,12volt sockets . M.Z.
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Even though CBs are pretty cool, I haven't heard of a CB coming up stolen since the Carter administration, but hey, I guess anything can get stolen, that's why I am without an ashtray now I guess.
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LOL, it's a coin tray ;)
Ashes go in the fireplace ;D
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Yeah, I live around the corner from a gas station where all the winos and crackheads are. I am sure the $2 I had in there in loose change bought a 40 that night it disappeared. So yeah, I used to call mine a coin holder too.