strange cb ground plane idea/question

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Sun Jun 07, 2009 11:00 pm

So got to wondering about something, guy i talk to on sunday afternoons on my radio has radial groundplanes made out of copperweld wire

i've got a 6 spoke radial groundplane under my antenna on my roof that i'd say has improved my rx (if not tx) about 20-30 percent during non-skip and 200% during skip

what ya think would happen if i rigged up some 4-5 foot #12 copperweld wire and clamped them to 4 of the groundplane radials and strung them out?

TruLiberty · **Posted:** Tue Jun 09, 2009 8:57 pm

1.21 jiggawatts and you'll be able to time travel. I'm pretty sure that's how Doc Brown did it.

In all honesty i have no idea what any thing you just said means, lol im a CB noob

tomsjeep · **Posted:** Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:17 pm

So did you try this?
I thought the ground plane extensions were supposed to angle down.
At least that's what all the antenna things I read indicate.
(I have a nice Uniden PC68 Elite on it's way, so I'll be flailing around with antenna choices and installation soon enough too).

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:57 pm

yep i did and it worked pretty well, seemed to work just as well with just 2 but i had to pull them around a bit to adjust for direction depending on who i was talking to long range

TnRebel · **Posted:** Sat Aug 22, 2009 8:30 pm

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 25, 2009 1:33 am

next time i hook'er up i'll take pics, last time i was at the beach and it was dark

tomsjeep · **Posted:** Thu Oct 01, 2009 1:12 pm

Just last week, I saw a 3-pronged stud that goes at the antenna base available at a truck stop CB shop. Looks like a possible for anyone wanting to do this kind of mod... not me, I'm still whining about drilling holes in my Jeep.

LibertyFever · **Posted:** Sat Mar 06, 2010 10:25 am

Please forgive me, I know this is an old post but it's an interesting idea.

I'm an electronic technologist by trade however I don't work in the communications industry so maybe I'm not an expert on these matter but I'll gladly through in my "two cents worth of advice, take it for what it's worth". Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

What type of antenna are you working with "JeepinJarhead03"? There are a few basic type, base loaded, center loaded, full length 102" fiberglass whips and twin sticks. The typical single stick antenna utilizes the vehicle's body & frame as a base plane. If you don't mount your antenna in the middle of your roof or trunk you won't get the best performance.

I like the idea of adding those small prongs to the base of an antenna, it just may improve the performance of your antenna if it isn't mounted in an ideal location. Can you point us to a website that sells them? I've Googled but can't find anything.

Here's a Wikipedia page on CB radios; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens%27_band_radio#CB_antennas

and another page of interest; http://home.att.net/~wizardoz/cbmw/antenna_fabri.html#mobile

W9JAB · **Joined:** Sun Jul 12, 2009 11:50 am **Posts:** 54

Essentially, the ground plane acts as the "missing half" of a dipole two element, half wave long, center fed antenna. It can be thought of as the "return current" path for the radiating antenna.
There are a variety of ground planes, including drooping ground planes, and flat circular ground plane antennas.
Aground plane may consist of a natural surface, such as the earth or an artificial surface of opportunity (such as the roof of a motor vehicle).
As radials get fewer and shorter, the ground plane becomes lossier.
The efficiency of a ground plane can be measured in ohms as the loss component (i.e., fewer ohms are better) of an antenna's total input impedance.
In VHF (30 to 300 MHz or wavelengths 10 to 1 meter) used in mobile communications, the metal of a car body begins to act as an efficient quarter-wavelength groundplane.
:JEEPIN:

strange cb ground plane idea/question

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