SUPREHATER88ER

Yeah I was being irresponsibile/foolish when I got my cease and decist... Running BIG power, right in the middle of Des Moines (Three blocks from the Capital), bleeding over all 40, talking on my neighbor's toaster...

Ian

noble

hey MYYota, how did you like the taillight mount? how is it working for you? And for anybody else... Would a Wilson trucker antenna (2000 series) be totally overkill for a rear mount like that?

swampfox

High power is not always necessary to be heard. I have a cobra 140 gtl side band that I bought from a friend for the rk-56 mic and the radio came with it . The radio looks like it was used as a wheel scotch . It will dead key about one watt but the modulation is off the scale. When hooked to a shooting star 225 liner it sounds great and does not bleed channels like a lot of over driven units.
If I remember right it was putting out about 100 to 125 watts on high and around 80 watts on low. This was with the 102" steel whip.

xxxtreme22r

haha that's the same amp I am running, shooting star 225 plus. Have too keep it on medium though. As the Wilson flex antenna I have now only allows for 100w. I am probably overdriving that unit slightly though with a tuned Superstar SS-39. I have to keep the radio RF power output on lo (1W) to keep from squealing. At high it puts out a 30W dead key and swings to a 40W pep.

SUPREHATER88ER

Had a Uniden 510 tuned to do a 2 1/2watt dead key,swinging bout 20! Astatic D104 mic. 110% moduoulation(sp). 102 SS whip best barefoot radio EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IAN

Mudd Duck 1

I'm runnin' a peaked and tuned Uniden pc66 with an Astatic road devil power mic dead keys at about 3 watts and swings around 45 that coupled with my fatboy 2 pill linear gets out pretty well.

5vzT100

how do you set your dead key? im thinking you have to send your radio out but is there a way to do it yourself?

Merlin

you can do a quick search, i believe it's VR34 on the board.

you'd want to have a meter to set d/k, though.

if you're going to run power, i've heard that you should tune for 4:1 d/k to swing.

if you're going to run a large foot warmer, you might want to consider getting a kicker to drive it too.

Merlin

+1 on that. my pc122 is one of the best radios i've ever owned - they're still quite popular for those looking for a tunable radio in a small package. as easy to work on as the pc244 and cobra 148s, but fits into a single DIN space in your dash.

easily drives a 6 pill in all gears stock, with an astatic teardrop modulation is clean even running power with no overmodulation.

Merlin

ayup. i've seen people run 1k plus bird watts on a 102" whip. the thing gets hot enough to light a cigarette off the tip, but never melted or anything.

most i've done on mine is a 6 pill, not sure how many bird watts.

for the sky's the limit and a/c class guys, most seem to like the coil antennas or fighting sticks.

Merlin

last person i know of that got busted around here got a ticket, a big fine, and his equipment confiscated by uncle charlie.

Mudd Duck 1

Never seen one get that hot but my dad was able the hold a florescent light bulb next to his old Wilson and light er on up when he keyed up lol we got a kick outta that!

Merlin

heh... yeah, we used to see how far we could get from the ant. w/ the flourescent tubes and still light 'em up.

i remember one guy was running a tube amp about the size of a 10 gal aquarium - i think it was like a 10k amp. he had a trunk full of batteries, two alternators, and a BBC just to spin up the alts. he used to turn on street lights when he keyed up.

i didn't run that much power, so i relied on either the ground plane of the pacific ocean (ran a ground strap straight into the ocean) or altitude (went up on the side of a mountain road) to get out.

SUPREHATER88ER

Power is nice, but ground is GREAT!!

Merlin

^^ heh... yeah, when i was going to college in iowa i grounded my antenna outside of my dorm window straight to the metal fire escape ladder outside our window. we were on the third floor (top floor) so didn't have to worry about theft or anything, the only thing that happened to my firestik was that squirrels would chew on the vinyl covering.

i could hear des moines and iowa city from Grinnell. couldn't get back to them barefoot, but i'm sure i could get out a bit more than if i was running it off the mobile and a mag mount.

i thought about trying to ground the antenna to the railroad tracks that ran through our school, but it was too much trouble and way too illegal (tx distance-wise). found out later our school radio station actually did ground their antenna to the tracks w/ about 200w of power, and got in BIG trouble w/ the FCC because there were reports of their station being heard all the way up in Montana and all the day down in Florida.

after the FCC got through fining them and such, they got their license back after a year or two. they were, however, limited to like 5 or 10w. couldn't even hear them on the far edges of campus.

5vzT100

how do you ground your antenna? do you attach the ground strap to the antenna? Im assuming that you attach one end of the strap to the antenna mount then you bolt it somewhere on your vehicle body or frame. Pics would be helpful

xxxtreme22r

your antenna mount should ground the antenna, just have to make sure what ever your mount is attached to is grounded well to the frame. But gounding the antenna it's self helps as well, but not as well a "bonding"

Don't think of an antenna ground as in a power ground it's an RF ground. Two different things.

Here is some reading to do. : http://www.k0bg.com/bonding.html

Merlin

^ good reading, that.

the braid off used coax with eyelets soldered on the end makes for a decent, low-buck ground strap (mostly because i've got lots of old coax lying around).

don't need lots of it, because the runs are pretty short (door to body, hood to body, trunk to body, you get the picture).

i figure there must be something to it, because the police interceptor/crown vics have lots of extra grounding (partly because of the ford fuel pump noise, but also because they have tons of commo gear as well, and the crown vics were supposedly notoriously bad for poor grounds).

i was looking at a used police crown vic for a radio car, because it already came w/ h/o alternator, upgraded grounding and shielded electricals, and upgraded everything else. all i'd really need to do is add a couple of optima blue tops, and i think i'd be set. wouldn't even need to drill holes for antenna mounts, because the police dept. just pulls out the old gear and leaves the holes in the roof and trunk when they sell the cars off. perfect for a fighting stick or coily on the roof.

T.O'Brien

all of this is good reading, But I'm looking for a few close up pics of antenna installs just because I'm curious to see if all antenna mounts have the nylon/rubber grommets and how everything is grounded amongst all different installs. Feel free to PM me some pics. Before I buy a new CB I just wanted to narrow down how everything is mounted (by pics) on other rigs because I'm not sure if me free-bee CB was bad to begin with or if I blew it up because of improper SWR or bad grounds, or ...idk

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

A decent antenna/mount will include all those parts and installation instructions. And yes, there will be an insulating ring that will go into the mount in a specific orientation and position. An example below:
- http://firestik.com/Catalog/K-4.htm