4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

I used to run my old Uniden GrantXL radio on the driver's side door:


Worked well there, but is in the way of my future roll cage bars, so went to a small CObra 75.

dirtoyboy

I gave up on Firestiks after I shattered a few of them on the trail (even trying different mounting positions and springs)

Whips seem much cheaper and durable to me...dunno...

country_wheeler

Use a magnetic mount and slap it on your roof. My buddy had a 9' whip off his rear bumper and it flopped around so much he finally gave it up for a 4' mag. mount on the roof. I've got the same setup. Be cautious as the fibreglass antenas can break if they get caught on a low hanging branch or something like that, where as the mag. mount will just tip over. DON'T stick it on top of a rag though, it should have a rubber coating on the bottom to protect your paint and prevent grounding interference.
And if its just for close trail communications I wouldn't bother with a tuneable antena.

NYChopshop

I know its been a while for everyone on this thread, but I'll give it a shot anyway. I am actually looking to get the same cobra setup with the Cobra 18 WX ST II. I was going to get the firestik doorjamb mounting bracket and put it in the tailgate above the tail light, because I'm getting a marlin crawler rear bumper that seems to interfere with everything I want to stick on the back of my 94 'runner. I'll make peace with that in my own time, but I figure I could get away with the 2' antenna if the tunable tip of the firestik II protruded somewhat from the top of my roof. I dont want to reduce my clearance so much - I live in Los Angeles and often enough I have to bring my daily driver into places with low roofed parking garages etc. I'll get whatever I have to in order to get a decent SWR rating for the radio, but as far as a 101" whip antenna, thats not for me on this yota. I have a 89 K5 blazer back in New York where I'm from for all my solid axle funhaving around there, and the militart theme on the truck begs for that type of setup, but thats for a whole other forum!
If you have a cb antenna installed similarly on your 4runner, please do post some pics here so I can see how its going to look! Thanks!

pitpatt

I just got my 4 ft. firestik 2 installed with the doorjamb mount on the drives side rear corner. im just using it for trail use so im not too worried about getting it peaked and tweaked just right

abecedarian

for the record-
the best configuration will have you tune the antenna to the channel you use most often. given a tunable antenna, you want to shoot for a 1.4:1 VSWR or lower. 2:1 VSWR is too much. the closer the VSWR is to 1:1, the better, and as a benefit: more power the antenna will radiate, and the less stress placed on the final amp stage in the radio. may not help you talk to someone far away, but will help you keep from burning your radio up.
also, any metal around the antenna will affect sensitivity and influence which direction the signal travels from the antenna (when transmitting). imagine any metal near the antenna will behave like a mirror and you should get it. this is not a 100% accurate representation, but good enough for our purposes here. an antenna mounted to the side of a vehicle will transmit and receive better to another radio on the same side as the antenna and not as well to a radio on the other side. make sense?

NYChopshop

I get that much. I have heard stuff about having 2 antennae being counter-productive, but I'm so compulsive I would want to have an antenna on both sides of my truck. Could I make 2x 2' (or 3', whichever fits) firestick II's work on the same radio with a T-connection? Would this be counterproductive, or would this allow me to tune 2 stations fairly well? If I wanted to hear people talk in China, I would probably be looking further into HAM radios and not CB. I'm really inerested in having a good line of communication while out on trails or fairly within range of civilization.

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

For dual antennas, you need special co-ax cable and when a side-side mount, they give the best front-back range. However, they must be spaced about 9' apart for optimum performance, kind of hard to do on something smaller than a big rig or RV:
http://firestik.com/Tech_Docs/SNGL-or-Dual.htm

NYChopshop

Thanks for all the help. I've been doing a lot of reading, and as it looks, I can use a pair of either size antennas so long as 60% or more of the antennas are looking at one another. The 9 foot thing is for *optimal* quality, but the 2 antennas (connected with a 75 ohm special split cable) still project the signal forward and behind further. I'll have to tune the two antennas, but firestik walks through that.