Cb anntennas
Can you run a ground wire to the chase to make a regular antenna work?
Forum Discussion
wa8yxm wrote:
No the radio is generally already "Grounded" BUT.. You can get "No ground plane" antennas.. I used one.
OH. on my motor home I mounted it on the "A" pillar.. I mounted with the tip about 1" higher than the highest other point on the Rig (Instant bridge stick) Worked well.
I used half a Mirror mount... (The L shaped part) the antenna mounted as normal. 4 lag bolts to the pillar (Sealed) and a hole behind the bracket (Also sealed) for the coax to exit. the one I had had a "V" shaped notch to engage the rod it was designed to clamp to.. that's how the coax exited. Worked great.
Firesticks... they make a NGP design I'm told (mine was a differenet company)
Today I don't do CB any more.
While no ground plane antennas for CB do exist, they tend to not work as well as an antenna with a decent size of ground plane. One of the worst examples of a no ground plane antenna is the through the glass antenna mounts.
Typically the body of the vehicle will act as a ground plane, if you have a all fiberglass body then you will have to depend on the steel frame of the vehicle.
In theory the OP could create a simulated ground plane on say the roof of their RV (assuming fiberglass or non metallic roof) by running some wire radially from the antenna base on the roof like spokes. Four wires at 1/4 wavelength might be enough to create a OK makeshift ground plane.
1/4 wavelength at CB frequencies will be around 103", typically radials should be a bit longer (12% if I remember correctly) so four wires at 116" length should get the OP into the ball park..
Alternately could run some wire from the base of the antenna to the frame of the vehicle and see how well it matches.
Most likely will see very little difference in distance with either radials on the roof or connected to the frame.. CB distance typically is going to be 50ft on bad days and on good days a couple of miles.
Yeah, I no longer do CB either.. Gave my last one away for $5 at a Hamfest this last fall.. No one really wants them but mine was spotless and the guy took pity on it and took it home with him.. Feels rather nice without one laying around dong nothing :B
