Need Some Advice...

[tpking]

one of my friends used to be into cb's and such .. he has a 100f foot antenna in his backyard still.. its tall enough they made him putting a light on the top haha

 

[snake]

Whatz your callsign, Allan? I'm NO5BS. (vanity)

 

[Copytech]

I found my dad's old CB Radio laying around in the garage the other day. It is at least 5-10 years old. The only thing that is missing from it is an antenna. The model is a Royce CB 582. I saw that radioshack sells some CB antennas. Do you know of any type of brand that I should buy. Now it is old, so I don't want to spend over $30 for one. Any advice would be helpful...

Goto a truck stop and get an antenna.

 

[AllanD]

Whatz your callsign, Allan? I'm NO5BS. (vanity)

N2TBI A Call I drew from the pool and I'm too cheap to change
and when I got my general and subsequently my extra
I didn't like the calls that would've been issued from the pool.

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[4x4junkie]

Increasing from the 5watts to 50watts only increases the range of average communications on CB from it's normal 5-12 miles to about 18miles miles
Yeah you've talked to people further away on occasion...

I've managed to talk to people ~200miles away with only 5watts
On 145MHz... we were both on mountaintops with good (directional)
antennae, on an "average day" 45-50 miles is possible with 5watts (FM)
on 146Mhz.


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That's not necessarily true, it's totally dependent on the terrain around you which goes further with "x" amount of watts (without the help of any atmospheric propagation).

I've regularly gotten 50+ miles easy on CB (27 MHz) with a 5 watt radio using just a ¼ wave whip antenna. There's also been times I couldn't go 10 miles with 50 watts on VHF FM.

27 MHz tends to penetrate deeper into canyons and around mountains better than VHF, but is more prone to interference from sources like power lines and static, as well as solar & ionospheric noise at times.

VHF on the other hand is more immune to noise, but tends to be more line-of-sight. An exception to this would be where a hilltop repeater is involved.

 

[HANNOCKBOY316]

If it was me I would get either a 102" whip or a wilson brand antenna I found they work good.

 

[AllanD]

That's not necessarily true, it's totally dependent on the terrain around you which goes further with "x" amount of watts (without the help of any atmospheric propagation).

I've regularly gotten 50+ miles easy on CB (27 MHz) with a 5 watt radio using just a ¼ wave whip antenna. There's also been times I couldn't go 10 miles with 50 watts on VHF FM.

27 MHz tends to penetrate deeper into canyons and around mountains better than VHF, but is more prone to interference from sources like power lines and static, as well as solar & ionospheric noise at times.

VHF on the other hand is more immune to noise, but tends to be more line-of-sight. An exception to this would be where a hilltop repeater is involved.

AM Wastes most of it's power SSB OTOH...

And VHF though theoretically "blocked" by terrain reflects off things
Including atmospheric thermocline layers with suprising efficiency.

so it tends to go around corners better than you'd think was possible.

Even comparing 146mhz signals with 440mhz signals show some suprising
counter-intuative results....

My Amateur radio operation on HF is mainly 10meters
but I also gravitate to 17meters when 10meters isn't open.
(17meters is like 20meters without all the assholes.)

So I'm familiar with propagation of "11meters"

And THE issue is not the band itself but the AM modulation.

Trust me 144mhz AM sucks just as much as 27Mhz AM.
10meter FM (29MHz) is actually kinda cool...

AM allows you to hear everything on the band especially the noise
FM has a "Capture effect" where the strongest signal wins.

Unless you get two nearly matched signals (in terms of strength at the receiver) that results in a "doubling" where you get audio "hamburger"

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[4x4junkie]

lol, I agree AM not having the same capture effect has it's limitations, but I disagree that it's efficiency (or range) differs significantly from that of FM (under static-free conditions anyway).
"Capture effect" does let FM signals maintain a much better S/N ratio for a longer duration than AM as signals get weaker with distance, but continued signal reduction will cause both to become completely unintelligible right about at the same time (the FM noise floor comes up much quicker).
Most FM receivers do use a far superior noise-based squelch circuit however (simple static on the channel won't normally open it unlike the signal-level-based squelch AM needs)
Both AM & FM also transmit a continuous carrier whether you're talking or not (the total signal power on AM actually increases somewhat with modulation too). FM's much better voice clarity comes from the wider bandwidth that most receivers use for that mode (12-15kHz @ -6dB vs. about 6-8kHz @ -6dB for AM). You use that same bandwidth on AM and you'll get bright clean sound too (but more noise to go along with it if the signal isn't real strong).
SSB however... like you said, clear winner there. (if you don't mind the "robotic" sound you get when it's not tuned precisely dead-on, as often tends to be the case)


(wondering who all we've left scratching their heads with all this radio techno-babble lol)

 

[Will]

I'm scratching my head. I feel like a private waiting while a couple lieutenants decide which pillbox I should run at with my satchel charge.

 

[AllanD]

Will,

Talk about radios is something anyone can get involved with,
but when people who can BUILD radios get talking....

How about we start talking about feedpoint impediance

BUY an antenna? I often MAKE them...

Or we could rattle everyone's cage with a discussion of polarization....

Horizontal? Vertical? Cross polarized? Circular? if Circular left handed or right handed?
(I am not even remotely kidding)

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[MJ'sBlkBII]

Go to your local CB shop (if there is such a thing) and pick up a 102" whip and run with it. If they want more than $20-$25, laugh and walk out. Wilson is junk anymore as of the last couple years. They sold to Barion or what ever their name is. Road king did the same. K40's are a good choice and easy to get ahold of if you need to keep it shorter. Currently I am running a Browning and it has been very good but may be pricey. I would recomend 18' of mini-8 coax. Make sure you run your coax UNCOILED. If you coil the excess you will get an RF choke and scramble your output and input.

 

[Ozwynn]

go to a truck stop and get a tunable 60" K40 fiberglass whip. Lifetime guarantee against breakage and its less than $30. I think it is possibly the best truck antenna I have ever bought. use that with some mini 8 (RG58?) cable. I got my SWR tuned to 1.2:1 on channel 19 and I couldn't do that with airforce equipment under laboratory conditions.

just don't do something stupid like running dual sticks......... dual sticks are for radio geeks wannabees that have a small penis complex (or radio as the case may be).

 

[budro]

I use K40's but watch out for limbs and trees if you mount it on top of your cab. The little cone at the top of the load where the mast goes in is known to crack if you hit a limb too hard or at speed. This drastically increases your SWR reading.

 

[AllanD]

go to a truck stop and get a tunable 60" K40 fiberglass whip. Lifetime guarantee against breakage and its less than $30. I think it is possibly the best truck antenna I have ever bought. use that with some mini 8 (RG58?) cable. I got my SWR tuned to 1.2:1 on channel 19 and I couldn't do that with airforce equipment under laboratory conditions.

just don't do something stupid like running dual sticks......... dual sticks are for radio geeks wannabees that have a small penis complex (or radio as the case may be).

The "Mini 8 cable" is actually "RG-8x"
it is typically foam dielectric and uses the same end connectors as RG59 (CATV) coax.

I personally prefer using BNC or N connectors on the ends of the cables and an adapter to a PL259.

I have a NASA certification for my soldering work,
but I won't solder PL259's.

I agree with you on dual antennae, they have a purpose for correctly
set up directional arrays, the problem is on a moving vehicle they
are counter productive.

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[Ozwynn]

I use K40's but watch out for limbs and trees if you mount it on top of your cab. The little cone at the top of the load where the mast goes in is known to crack if you hit a limb too hard or at speed. This drastically increases your SWR reading.

yeah, thats why I stay away from antennas with loading coils.