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CB Radio antenna

cubbear
Explorer
Explorer
I understand a CB radio antenna needs to be grounded. where is a good place to mount as camper is fiberglass?
34 REPLIES 34

notsobigjoe
Nomad III
Nomad III
Very informative stuff, Thank you

chuckbear
Explorer
Explorer
tmartin000 wrote:
chuckbear wrote:
It may be dead for those of you that don't use it anymore. But for those of us that still use it, it's alive and well. Chuck


Maybe, but it must be a generation thing. ๐Ÿ™‚ (And I'm 50)

Waze.... is way better and free to any whippersnapper young'n with a smartphone.

https://www.waze.com


True, but it uses a lot of my data running for 8 or 10 hours while driving. CB, no data use. To each his own. And we never put all our eggs in one basket. Chuck

tmartin000
Explorer II
Explorer II
chuckbear wrote:
It may be dead for those of you that don't use it anymore. But for those of us that still use it, it's alive and well. Chuck


Maybe, but it must be a generation thing. ๐Ÿ™‚ (And I'm 50)

Waze.... is way better and free to any whippersnapper young'n with a smartphone.

https://www.waze.com
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wnjj
Explorer II
Explorer II
notsobigjoe wrote:
What is the two meter?


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-meter_band

towpro
Explorer
Explorer
2 meter is a Ham radio (amateur radio) frequency band around 144.000-148.000 Mhz. 2 meter is the length of the waveform of this AC signal. this is also called VHF (very High Frequency)

CB is 27.195 Mhz (channel 19) which is an 11 meter waveform, this is called HF (high frequency).

2M is a service you need to be licensed for, but its only requires a simple test that is mostly about the rules.

Actually 2m is a "line of sight" signal that does not bend very much as it goes out through the air. 2M will pass through the atmosphere into space.

11m can bend around the curve of the earth some. in mountain areas you used to see the local police would still use HF radios because in some places they it just worked better. 11m mostly reflects off the atmosphere and "skips" back to the ground (depending on atmosphere conditions) that is why CB is so noisy, where sometimes its even unusable.

But where 2 meters shines is there is amateur radio clubs that put "repeaters" on top of mountains.
Your radio receives freqency A, and transmitters on frequency B.
The repeater receives this signal B and re transmits the signal (at same time it receives it) on frequency A.
Everybody's radio has both frequencies programed, and everybody is listening to frequency A.

the advantages of this is your mobile can transmit maybe 50 miles or more to the repeater, which re transmits the frequency the same distance or more, thus you can reach over 100 miles using repeaters. Sometimes these repeaters also have the ability to connect to a phone, or even the internet to attach to another repeater anywhere in the world.

The problem is there may not be many amateur radio operators listening to the repeaters.
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notsobigjoe
Nomad III
Nomad III
What is the two meter?

slickrock_steve
Explorer
Explorer
I wonder if folks who do not live/travel in the western states understand that 2 meter will carry out to get you emergency help, where a CB will be blocked by all the mountains, and valleys we have. In the middle of the country, the terrain is much flatter, and the same goes for the far east, where a 4000 ft hill is what they call a mountain, and we look at 5-7,000, or even 10,000ft and more at times. I have, and use both while on my many Jeep excursions, and the calling between Jeeps is easier and more common with CB. That is when the CB's are about 2-3 miles at most. But, when we had an emergency rollover, and needed to get to the Kern County Sheriffs, we used the 2 meter, and were able to have clear communication to Randsburg, and Mojave, to airlift to Ridgecrest.

notsobigjoe
Nomad III
Nomad III
I totally agree, It's a life saver.

Airstreamer67
Explorer
Explorer
The CB radio is the greatest invention ever for short-range warnings of road hazards. Nothing else will give instant alerts to the dangers that matter most, the ones in your immediate vicinity. Unfortunately, there isn't always a trucker who is nearby to give you warnings that there's danger or a traffic-delaying wreck up ahead, but there's enough to make the $100 CB setup worth it.

I am glad the CB traffic is just a small fraction of what it was during the Breaker/Breaker days. Most of that traffic was pure chit-chat anyway. That's not what I want the CB for.

In my area of the South, Channel 19 going in any direction is where the truckers stay.

BradW
Explorer II
Explorer II
Sam Spade wrote:
BradW wrote:

If you use two cb antennas, they use each other as their ground plane.


Not unless one is grounded.

If both are powered, they use each other as a director......which may or not be effective if there is no good ground.

A lot of truckers use an antenna bolted to their wide mount side mirrors.


http://www.firestik.com/Tech_Docs/Cab-over.htm
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notsobigjoe
Nomad III
Nomad III
I have an ant. mounted on my rear window. It is mounted low so there wont be to much bend when the truck camper is on. Mounted like this it gets about 2.5 miles which is all I ever need to listen to the truckers reporting accidents and construction. It's not old tech to me. I use it every time I go camping. It has saved me days on the road in traffic over the years.

Sam_Spade
Explorer
Explorer
burningman wrote:

If you want emergency communications, go 2-meter ham.


So keep going please.

What's the effective range of a mobile 2-meter rig....on average ? (without repeaters)

And out on the open highway, how many stations would you guess are active within that range.....on average ?

I still think that a cell phone is best in the overwhelming majority of the situations.....unless maybe you spend a LOT of time out in the boonies.
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Sam_Spade
Explorer
Explorer
burningman wrote:

It won't hurt to put in a CB. I'm just saying, it's not like it once was.


Which is not all bad.

When every truck and about 1 of 10 cars had a CB, it was pretty much useless much of the time because of ZERO courtesy. Two radio users with illegal linears carrying on an hour long gab-fest could blank out all communications for 10 miles or more on half the channels.
Skip just made it even worse.
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chuckbear
Explorer
Explorer
Ham radio will not get you local news, or any news for that matter. My wife is a ham operator and there are many ham "nets" that she participates in as well as staying in touch with friends that are also ham operators. We can talk even when they are thousands of miles away. Often ham radio is the only means of communications during natural disasters. Chuck