85gijunk4x4

is there anyway to make my own? and when you mean go straight from the antenna base, do you mean where the antenna screws into the antenna mount, or one of the bolts for the mount that go into the bed of my truck?

irab88

iTrader: (4)

you can probably buy some of the strap material and crimp (with a bamf of a crimper/press) tin-plated copper terminals on. to get the width of the terminal once flat, add one-half the diameter to the wire gauge. eg, a terminal for 1/0 gauge cable will flatten to just about .5", good enough for a .5" braided strap

xxxtreme22r

you don't wanna go from just the antenna base to the frame. You have to think different with an antenna then an electrical connection. You want to make the bed grounded which it sounds like it's not. Just grounding the antenna to the frame isn't gonna ground the bed. You have to ground the bed to make the bed the ground plane.

irab88

iTrader: (4)

hmmm... didn't think of that, brandon. what is really needed is one of these (but not practically)

xxxtreme22r

haha yeah, not needed really, but that bed has to get grounded to the frame. However, if the bolts go from the bed mount on the bed through the 4x4 and into the frame like mine did, he should be ok. But even still I would ground strap 4 corners of the bed. 1" recommended but half inch should work ok if he's not running power. Which he's not.

irab88

iTrader: (4)

the only thing i'm not too sure on is how to terminate the wires. i know i said that stuff previously, but many terminals only go up to 4/0, so if you wanted 1" straps, you'd need a huge terminal.

apparently, from looking online, you can cut copper tubing and smash lat around the end, then drill a hole through the new "terminal" and braid all at once

xxxtreme22r

I think he will be fine with the 1/2" predrilled type braid. And I imagine since there is predrilled stuff, you can use a 1" and put a metal grommet in it or simply two washers just like the predrilled stuff, no need to actually use a terminal connector. I wish I could find that bonding article, but I think it was on wilson's website and has since been deleted. I know I posted that link on here before somewhere in the communications section. I think I need to start making some stickies for CB stuff. As I find myself answering alot of questions regarding such.

85gijunk4x4

okay so the only right way to do it would be grounding the bed, by adding straps at each corner. You said if im just running four watts half inch should be okay? i might just bump it up to an inch just because though

irab88

iTrader: (4)

sounds good to me. what about you, radio station x22r?

xxxtreme22r

lol Ian, yeah 1/2" should be OK with a 4w stock radio. You can get that stuff already pre-drilled.

85gijunk4x4

sweet, thanks guys. 4 watts is about all im ever gonna run. I just gota mesure today to see what length i need. Should i go to the frame, or would be putting the predrilled hole on the Bed mount bolt and adding a jam nut be ok? i dont know what im going to do yet, i'll have to look at it to see wheres good to mount.

xxxtreme22r

bed mount bolts will work, ideally though you want it between the nut and frame that has been ground/stripped down to metal, but they might be too big for the 1/2" straps. I believe that hardware is 12mm ??? or something like that. I know my bolts right now are 1/2" bolts.

85gijunk4x4

so if my tail lights, turn signals etc. are grounded to the bed, AND work, i'll be fine?

i know when i re-did my side lights, instead of grounding to the frame, i touched the wire on the bed and they came on...

does this mean i DONT have to bond my bed to the frame?

irab88

iTrader: (4)

as i understand it, "grounding" for antennas is completely different than electrically. as long as you have a metal plane at the base of the antenna, you'll be fine. when you attach it to the metal bedside, that becomes the ground, whether connected to the battery or not. however, you will get weak signals from the dirrection where there is the least amount of ground plane. for example: you mount the antenna on the left side of your bed. since most of the bed is to the right of the antenna, signals will be sronger on that side, and realitivly weak to the left of the antenna (due to the lack of bed, or "ground plane" to that side).

hope that helps. i can draw something up if need be.

85gijunk4x4

uhmmm. You kinda lost me there irab...

I'll keep reading it and see if i can understand it

irab88

iTrader: (4)

--antenna's ground needs to be attached to a big metal thing (like your metal bed). that is the "ground plane"

--the metal thing (ground plane) does not need to be connected to the battery's ground

--the direction that the metal goes from the antenna will give the best signal

sorry for rambling, but i meant to say ^those^ three things. a diagram would help... hang on a sec...

irab88

iTrader: (4)

Merlin

actually, they have ground planes for mobile use, it's basically a chunk of metal with a 3/8 drilled hole for the antenna stud to screw into, with three radials coming out of the sides.

it goes onto the mount on your bumper, roof, whatever, and then you mount the antenna to that. adds a bit of height, but depending on where you mount it, some claim it works.

i've seen them with really long radials (parallel to ground, not diagonal like the base antennas), not really sure if they work better because the ants are already mounted on the roofs of 'burbans, cargo vans, etc... so i figure the ground plane should be pretty solid.

i've also seen fighting sticks with radials coming out the top, kinda like using a base antenna on your mobile. not for daily driver use, but i'm sure they make a difference in keydowns where you can only run one hot, or a single antenna.

85gijunk4x4

heres a question for Irab88 (or whoever else wants to chime in)

I installed a cb in my 86 the other day, mounted the antenna through what i'd call the bed rail, that flat piece about almost an inch long on the top of the bedside that seperates inside of the bed from the outside. Just drilled through the channel and used one of these mounts



mounted a Wilson flex (thanks to brandons suggestion) on the back passengers side, pretty much right above the pass. side taillight.

as far as i'd thought, the cb antenna itself had to be grounded (to the frame, and such), so I ran a 10 gauge wire from the antenna mount to a spot on the frame wich I grounded down bare and ran a self tapper through.


my radio is a dinky little trc-446 I pulled out from my 85, mainly because it was small and I liked the way I had it mounted.

my co-ax is about 12" I think? ran it behind the bedside panels, along the frame then up through a hole in the firewall....I used just about every inch of it so theres not coils of wire hanging out.

the problem I've been having is that the s.w.r. wont come down (its in the red) and it doesn't stay steady, it likes to jump around rapidly +/- 2ish.

tried different radios and different antennas and I can get none of them to tune.

so did I mess something up with my ground? ground it in the wrong spot? should I try bonding the bed to the frame and grounding it to the frame? run no ground at all?

irab88

iTrader: (4)

try it without that ground wire at all. did you try it without the tuning tip in at all?