BOSTON4RUNNER

Hi

I am curious to learn what type of transmitting and receiving ranges can be had if you add an antenna amp or go with longer firesticks.

Currently I have dual 4 foot firesticks and a simple $130.00 Radio Shack CB with the 7 Wave / Surf reports.

It seems to work good, but am thinking if I get dual 8 footers or longer ( do they make such a thing? )that I can swap in before wheeling or trips I may be better off.

Also how well do those antenna amplifiers work?

what type of range, mileage wise can I expect.

Thanks!

mastacox

An important thing to consider is that dual antennas make your transmission strong front-back but weaker side to side. This is o.k. for truckers that are driving on relatively straight highways, but off-road when you need 360* reception. For omni-directional transmission it is better to have one antenna as high as you can get it, like in the center of your roof.

BOSTON4RUNNER

can I simply unscrew one antenna? or do I need to run an entirely new lead?

mastacox

Unscrewing one would have the same effect, but I'm assuming it isn't mounted on your roof, but rather down by your mirrors or something... you might be able to make up for mounting position with a nice long antenna.

BOSTON4RUNNER

I have it mounted off my rear bumper...

think I should buy a pair of real long antennas? if so where should I get them online and what do they cost typically? thanks!!!

mastacox

It should be relatively easy to find nice long antennas, perhaps at truck stops or trucker stores. I have seen metal whip ones up to 10 feet long I think. I would check these kinds of stores forst before looking online since shipping would be bad news on an 8 ft. antenna.

Make sure you get your CB's SWR calibrated also. This can make a huge difference in available range of reception and transmission.

BOSTON4RUNNER

thanks again

I will check some local places

think I should get two long antennas?

mastacox

Sure why not for highway driving, but make sure to only use one off-road for better omnidirectional reception and transmission. Don't forget SWR either, lots of trucker CB stores can do it for cheap...

pennywize

amplifiers help tremendously but are illegal. maximum transmit power allowed for a CB is 4 watts per FCC regs.
i once had a 17 foot ( 1\2 wavelength) fiberglass antenna mounted atop a 20 foot mast at my house with a 250 watt amplifier and on good days on SSB (single side band) i could talk to australia.
if your out wheelin' and you have an amplifier, you are going to transmit much further, but everyone else is still runnin 4 watts so they probably wont be able to reply if the distance is far.
like someone said before, i would get a good tunable antenna mounted on the roof in the center and calibrate your SWR.

BOSTON4RUNNER

what do you think will work better?

dual firesticks as it is 4 footers

or run a new single lead and use only one of the 4 footers

pennywize

if it was me personally i would use a single firestick either 2 or 4 foot. get it tuned up and you should be good to go. use only one cable from the radio to the antenna. if it is set up now for 2 antennas replace the cable and run a single.
if it is set up for 2 antennas removing one and keeping the 'split' cable will change the load the transmitter sees and can damage the radio. one cable one antenna.
on my previous toyota i used a single 4 foot, worked great for what i needed.
my $0.02

KD7NAC_07FJ

Lets see if this helps.

With the antenna in the middle you have equal field strength all the way around your truck.

in the corner your truck blocks part of the field.

Duals in the back "focus" the field like so

BOSTON4RUNNER

hi

thanks! I just bought a single cable, going to run that tonight

I will leave the dual cable, physically in the rig and leave the other firestick mounted in case I want to swap back, say for a long highway drive or something....

BOSTON4RUNNER

how many miles, should this be good for,,,,rough estimate, if set up tuned right etc?

thanks

Lysmachia

Any particular reason you want to have such huge range? (Just curious). Also are you up in MA? If so wouldn't a long antenna on your roof get stuck in all the trees while wheeling?

BOSTON4RUNNER

dont need a long range, just curious of what they typically get for mileage

alot of my off roading is on beaches and beach areas, me and my friends are always on various parts of the coast checking surf spots, so would be helpful if we could talk via cb, during storms etc

thanks!

BOSTON4RUNNER

plus I want to talk to my relatives on melzabatron...I am an alien

Lysmachia

Bwa Ha Ha! Good answer. If you get ahold of Zork on Archimedes.... let me know!

Yeah often I wish I had better range when we ar ein Moab, because then I would be able to hail and hear some of our other groups across the valley.

ewong

If you REALLY want range - get a HAM license

Its a tad easier to get a GMRS license (its just $75 I think - and lot of people dont seem to do that) and run a GMRS base. Then everyone uses those "FRS" radios when out of the rig... Set up a repeater in the truck and have a reall communications net

Also - the width seperation for dual antennas to work well is so wide that - well it works on big rigs but not so well on Toyotas... (dont recall the exact width)

CB "linear amps" are illegal.

Best bet for a CB is a center roof mounted antenna with a LONG (1/2 wave) whip - but thats too tall for wheelin.

I use a mag mount Wilson BTW...

SWR will help alot too.

I went and got a Ham license for "long range" talking - or use the cell phone

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

I think you need approx. 9 feet of antenna separation for dual antennas to work right:
- http://firestik.com/Tech_Docs/SNGL-or-Dual.htm

I used to get pretty good range on my old Uniden GrantXL + 4' FireStick on high power mode. Could get 10-20 miles or so given good line of sight.