Trucker's Forum

Two antennas on either side of the pick-up would do more harm than good, in terms of performance. My CB shop has told me that even Class 8 trucks with duals have a dummy stick just to make the truck look more balanced. The compromise for me will be a roof top mount on the truck. I'll lose some performance direcctly behind me because of the height of the fifth wheel but there's really no way around it, IMHO.

I run with a Wilson 1000 magnetic-base antenna set in the middle of the cab of my pickup. This is a 5-foot antenna, and towing my travel trailer the antenna is higher than the trailer by some margin. Works well up the road, down the road, and across the fields.

Some truckers are going to a single antenna on the center back of the cab. I was told that singles work better. I used to run dual antennas on my pickup using the front bed stake holes. Worked ok, but if not tuned right, I think they actually almost cancel each other out. I now use a single Lil Wil magnet mount and it works ok even with my camper hooked up. It has more with to do with it being tuned (right length for the radio wave). Check with a CB shop if your CB isn't working well. It may be an easy fix with the current setup.

Yep 150 watt amp will do that! My Galaxy DX 95T has been tweaked. I have talked to San Diego and lately Texas from here in NW, Ohio.

Don

KD4UPL wrote:

Led 67 wrote:

KD4UPL wrote:
CB can be operated in AM mode which is the "normal" mode. Higher end CB radios can also operate single side band (SSB). This can be upper or lower. The frequency is the same, the transmission method is different. SSB is more efficient and will give you better range than AM but the fidelity is slightly degraded.
Any one operating a radio "off the CB frequency close to ham but not on it" is operating illegally. There are lots of operators who buy the illegal CB radios sold in truck stops as "10 meter" radios. They operate them on the frequencies between the 27 Mhz CB band and the 28 Mhz 10 meter ham radio band. It is not legal. Some truck stop chains have been fined by the FCC for even selling the radios.

Gee that is intertesting considering that I still have my Grant XL with the SSB and it was the way to talk without as many clowns jamming up the radio :B

That's a nice radio. It's not one of the illegal ones I'm referring too. It's a legit, legal, SSB capable CB radio. Have fun with it.

Ohh trust me when I was driving my radio could walk the dog and kick the cat. The only times I had problems was around Alton IL where a couple of clowns were running base stations with amps. and they liked to mess with the drivers or others that would have there radios modified beyond rediculos.

ford truck guy wrote:
I have always used a K-40 with magnetic mount dead center of my roof... Never a problem with fine reception...

X2

The main reason you see truckers running mirror mounted ant/ants is most drivers (not all) do not run the same truck everyday. Look closely and you might notice that most mirror mounts are using a vise-grip mount. Now most trucks have plastic mirrors without a mounting surface for an ant. and I have been seeing antennas mounted inside the upper cab air dam.

As Hank stated dual antennas have a min spacing requirement that I do not believe can be meet with a pick-up. A stop at a CB shop be it a truck stop shop or otherwise would be a good idea IMO. Or find a CB forum, might be a better idea.

Don

spindrift wrote:

wintersun wrote:
You get the best outgoing and inbound signal strength from two antennas mounted on each side of the truck. Pretty easy to find kits from Wilson and others to do this. Easier to mount two 1-meter antennas than it is to find a place to mount a 2 meter long antenna.

With a Class 8 truck you may get better performance with duals...if you're careful. However, it has always been my understanding that on a pick-up, where duals would be close together, performance will suffer.

Only one example but a friend did both and the duel set up was better ,when he was single and centre of truck there was no contact directly behind (when his 5th was on ).
Two side mounts and problem went away.

Led 67 wrote:

KD4UPL wrote:
CB can be operated in AM mode which is the "normal" mode. Higher end CB radios can also operate single side band (SSB). This can be upper or lower. The frequency is the same, the transmission method is different. SSB is more efficient and will give you better range than AM but the fidelity is slightly degraded.
Any one operating a radio "off the CB frequency close to ham but not on it" is operating illegally. There are lots of operators who buy the illegal CB radios sold in truck stops as "10 meter" radios. They operate them on the frequencies between the 27 Mhz CB band and the 28 Mhz 10 meter ham radio band. It is not legal. Some truck stop chains have been fined by the FCC for even selling the radios.

Gee that is intertesting considering that I still have my Grant XL with the SSB and it was the way to talk without as many clowns jamming up the radio :B

That's a nice radio. It's not one of the illegal ones I'm referring too. It's a legit, legal, SSB capable CB radio. Have fun with it.

wintersun wrote:
You get the best outgoing and inbound signal strength from two antennas mounted on each side of the truck. Pretty easy to find kits from Wilson and others to do this. Easier to mount two 1-meter antennas than it is to find a place to mount a 2 meter long antenna.

With a Class 8 truck you may get better performance with duals...if you're careful. However, it has always been my understanding that on a pick-up, where duals would be close together, performance will suffer.

You get the best outgoing and inbound signal strength from two antennas mounted on each side of the truck. Pretty easy to find kits from Wilson and others to do this. Easier to mount two 1-meter antennas than it is to find a place to mount a 2 meter long antenna.