Bad Mic?

[JohnnyU]

Class doesn't start till Aug 25 woo hoo

Never heard of Stan's. You mean Stewert? That's where I went yesterday to get the spring.

Yea, whatever. Stewart Radio. I knew it started with an "ST".... I bought my 4' FireStik from him. He told me that the antennas shorther than 48" can be very difficult to tune. I was originally looking for a 24" antenna, so that it sat closer to the height of my cab.

 

[86 slo-vo]

the firesticks will take more of a beating then you think

mine has been there since i bought the truck, its hit every limb in the county and took a rough ride through the parking garage hitting the concrete beams every 3 foot for 200-300 feet and didnt hurt it a bit..and thats with no spring

so you should be fine

 

[02RangerXLT]

You may not be able to see any damage slo-vo, but there is a good possibility that there is internal damage...

 

[86 slo-vo]

still the same swr as the day i put it on, there is one small knick in the outer plastic between the wire as it goes up but other then that it looks fine...

since im going tube bed it will be mounted up closer to the cab and will probably go with a 5 foot firestick

 

[Bray D]

Yea, whatever. Stewart Radio. I knew it started with an "ST".... I bought my 4' FireStik from him. He told me that the antennas shorther than 48" can be very difficult to tune. I was originally looking for a 24" antenna, so that it sat closer to the height of my cab.

Yep, He let me throw a 24" on there - but I couldn't get it to tune. Looks like I'm stayin with the 36" antenna on the spring. It doesn't look terrible, just wish I could've run the 24" antenna. Cab would've protected it, wouldn't hit in parking decks, lower profile, etc.

ALSO, I had an 18' coax on my old setup. Thought I'd start with all fresh equipment, so I bought a new 9' Belden coax. From what I read it didn't really matter the length of coax, as long as its in multiples of 3.

I got a 1.9 tune with the 18'er. Swapped on the 9' coax and the tune was closer to 2.5 (didn't spend the time tuning it, just saw that ch1 was 2 and ch40 was ~3). That tells me that coax length matters. 18' it is.

I'll tuck all the wires away neatly tomorrow, do a final tune, and be ready to rock for the weekend

 

[feellnfroggy]

Hitting your antenna wont be too big of a problem, trees and brush and parking garages, and all that. The problem is when you run atight trail like me and r1hatman did, and bend your antenna almost 90 degrees at the base because a low hanging branch just pulls it. Fiberglass can only bend so much. The spring doesnt fix impact it only allows the antenna to be "knocked over" without causeing flex damage. which most def will mess with your SWR.

 

[4x4junkie]

I got a 1.9 tune with the 18'er. Swapped on the 9' coax and the tune was closer to 2.5 (didn't spend the time tuning it, just saw that ch1 was 2 and ch40 was ~3). That tells me that coax length matters. 18' it is.

It's not the length itself that changes the SWR, it's the losses within the cable being greater due to it's longer length (if you were to take a couple hundred feet of that coax and hook it to your radio with absolutely nothing at all connected to the end, I bet your SWR would still read under 3).
I bet if you took a reading right at the antenna itself on your setup, it'll still be close to 3:1.

Though I suspect for your intended use on the trail, how it is now should work fine enough. At least you're out of the danger zone at your radio.


FWIW, I have a 5' fiberglass antenna on the roof of mine with a spring. I've struck low-hanging tree branches doing 50 MPH I can't tell you how many times with it, it's been fine. With the wire being solidly encased within the fiberglass, there's no way for it to move or flex around enough in there to damage it.

 

[Bray D]

Good call Junkie. Didn't think of it like that.

It'd be interesting to check the output power at the antenna with an 18' coax vs 9' - and compare that with the SWR change between the two cables.

Anyways my setup is done for now. Coax came into my cab through the rear driver's side floorboard, runs under my carpet behind both seats, comes in front of my pass. seat, across the trans tunnel to the driver's side door, along the door line, behind my pedals, and to my radio.

Took all 18' of coax to run that route, no loops. Checked the standing wave for the last time, attached coax to radio, and called it done.

 

[Bray D]

Worked awesome wheelin last weekend. Drug it though some brush and the spring did its job. Cap never came off. All around good stuff.

Trail communication is awesome. It makes trail rides go much smoother, and safer. General conversation/witty banter is always good fun as well.

 

[JohnnyU]

Trail communication is awesome. It makes trail rides go much smoother, and safer. General conversation/witty banter is always good fun as well.

Yes it is. I need to tune both of my radios though. The ease and frequency of communication was very nice. As was the witty banter.

 

[feellnfroggy]

Somewhere I missed where you decided to go with the spring, thats awesome, I would have hated to see a good antenna go to waste, especially since most of us are on a budget. Now I know and was told htat the cobra 19 pos's can be peaked, but aint worth it at all. Can they be tuned in anyway without digin in? Its only got squelch and volume.

 

[Bray D]

I don't know. I junked my old Cobra 19. I've got a Uniden pro520xl now.

I haven't done anything internally to the radio, just tuned the antenna.

 

[feellnfroggy]

Thats good news, mine is headed to CL for 10 bux soon as I find a good one. Theres a cobra calssic 29 for 75, but Ijust dont have it right now. 3 in my area for 80.