CB antenna mount options

VoodooMann · **Posted:** Sat Jun 06, 2009 10:47 pm

I'm looking to mount a 4' Firestik on my roof basket, however, that will obviously not fit in my garage.

Does anyone know of some kind of quick folding/hinged antenna mount or anything that would allow me to lay it flat when I don't need it?

I understand I could just use a quick disconnect, but then someone could steal it (especially near where I live), plus then I'd have to carry it around in my Jeep when It isn't on the roof.

tommudd · **Posted:** Sat Jun 06, 2009 11:11 pm

most any CB shop or truck stop has them, just has a sleeve that you push down on and fold the antenna over, just don't do like me and back in the garage and forget it!

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Sat Jun 06, 2009 11:29 pm

http://www.walcottcb.com/antenna-fold-o ... 28_354_446

walcott has them

so does right channel radios

probably about 15 bucks shipped

can probably get them for that or cheeper at a cb shop at a truck stop or something

VoodooMann · **Posted:** Sun Jun 07, 2009 11:59 am

have either of you had problems with length off the roof and tree branches and stuff damaging your antennas?

I'm kind of worried that 4' might be a little overkill, especially since I plan on running my CB with snowshoes (if ya know what I'm sayin') eventually.

What length do you guys run? and other than your garage, any issues with tree snags etc.?

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Sun Jun 07, 2009 2:28 pm

i run a 4' wilson flex-4 on my roof, it smacks stuff every now and then but so far no problems

VoodooMann · **Posted:** Sun Jun 07, 2009 2:41 pm

I figured It would be Ok, but That's why I'm getting the fold away mount JIC so I can put It down If I'm going somewhere I think It will be a Problem.

Also, How much Coax did you run, On my old explorer I ran 18' as was recommended by the CB guy at Trails West. Apparently you're supposed to run the rest around under your truck somewhere safe, but not put it in a tight neat coil?

probably to help with a lack of good large pieces of steel for a ground plane, which brings me to my next question.

What did you use for your grounding plane? the frame? Roof rack?

If it is the roof rack I'm not sure how well mine will work for that seeing as mine is aluminum...

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Sun Jun 07, 2009 2:51 pm

18' and it didn't take any effort at all to run every bit of it

mine is on the forward center of my roof on a homemade crossrail with a groundplane attachment

weston02kj · **Posted:** Sun Jun 14, 2009 6:26 pm

hey i mounted my antenna straight through one of my mopar crossrails. just drilled a hole and fitted a little antenna mount. where do i need to ground it? when its all plugged in my cb isnt displaying any power levels. and could i have messed it up by plugging the antenna to it without a ground?

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Sun Jun 14, 2009 6:42 pm

do you have the nylon shoulder washer on the right side? it should be between the antenna and the mount, if you don't your antenna is grounded out

locations to ground the mount vary from running a wire to the weather stripping above the pass. rear door and replacing the orig. screw with a aluminum or stainless one (stock screws don't conduct) or can run a wire across the crossrail to the pass side, tuck it into the weather stripping and run it to the front of the vehicle, snake it under the hood and ground it to the firewall

if you've got a piece of wire, you can test to see if it's a grounding problem by touching one end of the wire to the antenna mount, and the other end of the wire to the brass looking door jamb

and unless you were hammering on your mic for a good bit trying to see if it was working you've done no damage

just a coax plugged into the the radio with the radio on or a misconfigured antenna mount will not damage your radio if you don't transmit and on a stock radio short transmissions to check SWR shouldn't damage it either - not that it's a good thing to do but chances are you just have a configuration issue that's easily resolved

JL Rockies · **Posted:** Sun Jun 14, 2009 9:23 pm

I have a 4' Firestick on my DS fender. It's mounted with a stainless fender bracket for a Dodge Ram. I ran a bolt through the bracket and through an existing hole in the fender so no drilling was required. I then ran the antenna wire through the firewall.

The whole thing is pretty sexy.

weston02kj · **Posted:** Sun Jun 14, 2009 9:24 pm

From top to bottom it goes: antenna, lock washer, female end, nylon washer sits in the drilled hole, then coax male end. So i should attach a wire from my cross-rail to one of the side bar bolts? or from antenna or something to side bar bolt? I could get a picture up on here tomorrow of a detailed setup if that would make it more specific as to what i need to do.

weston02kj · **Posted:** Sun Jun 14, 2009 9:36 pm

its the best i could get right now because its dark.

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Sun Jun 14, 2009 9:45 pm

sounds like ya got it on there right

i'd take it apart, double check your nylon washer to make sure the shoulder is down into the hole good - shoulder of the nylon always faces the mount be it a washer or a firering coax that has a shoulder on it

something real quick, people often mistake of antenna grounding as being done to ground the antenna itself, but it's actually the opposite, you're actually grounding the shield of the coax to the antenna mount by the coax coupler touching the mount from the underside

if your mount is painted, when you take it off to inspect the nylon, scrape the paint off the underside of the mount where the coax coupler goes into the hole - that could also cause the problem

if your cross bar is aluminum you can do the following

- choose a spot, scrape the paint off in a small spot, and use a self tapping screw to attach a short (short as possible) length of wire with one of those electrical connectors that has a hole in it and screw that to the cross bar, do the same to the antenna mount

- find a spot close to the sidebar and ground the crossrail to the siderail bolt

technically, you can just run a length of wire from the mount to the firewall and tuck the wire into the weather stripping, but anything other than short lengths of wire, no matter what gauge it is, can and will radiate similar to an antenna, and will cause more RFI noise but it will get it grounded!

other things to check first, make sure your coax isn't broken, and make sure it's plugged in good, and make sure your cb isn't in PA mode

if you've got a multi meter continuity is easy to check and if you want i can walk you through it or post the continuity tests for you to try out

weston02kj · **Posted:** Sun Jun 14, 2009 10:16 pm

So there will be two wires one from mount to cross-rail and cross rail to side bar bolt? And they are aluminum. im sorry if im being stupid and just not understanding such a simple process lol

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Sun Jun 14, 2009 10:31 pm

you can run 2 separate grounds, or 1 long one

the side rails are grounded via the roof / body so if you ensure the antenna mount is grounded to the cross rail, and the cross rail is grounded to the side rail you should have ground continuity

if you don't get RX after grounding the mount to the cross rail and perhaps the cross rail to the side rail, i'd definately suggest testing the antenna system with a multimeter for continuity - i've grounded mine to the side rail before and it had a decent, but not quite perfect ground path

weston02kj · **Posted:** Tue Jun 16, 2009 4:44 pm

turns out the mopar cross rails aren't conductive either. so i just wrapped a wire around the coax shield then connected it to a new side bar bolt and its getting full strength. Thanks for the help.

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 16, 2009 4:59 pm

good deal!

weston02kj · **Posted:** Mon Jun 22, 2009 6:55 pm

Hey when i have my cb on its really "scratchy" and i can barely here some rednecks. but they cant hear me. is it suppossed to be all fuzzy and static-like? or is something wrong with my coax? or antenna?

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:00 pm

sorry i got a good laugh out of that "barely hear some rednecks" part

there will always be 'white noise' on a radio, you have to turn the RF Gain back a bit until the white noise is fairly tolerable and then turn your squelch towards the right until the audio goes silent at that setting (varies depending on how far you end up turning both squelch and RF gain) your radio will allow through only signals strong enough to clear whatever sensitivity levels you've got tuned via those two knobs

RF Gain is like a light dimmer switch, the farther towards the left the weaker the light you see (hear) will be, the squelch is like wearing sun glasses, the darker the glasses (farther to the right) your squelch knob is, the more light it takes for you to be able to see(hear)

antenna placement, background RFI (interference from power lines, stop lights, fuel pump etc plays a big role in how strong that static is

if your radio has a meter on the face of it, and youre hearing a lot of static but the needle is for the most part at the far left, you probably don't have a real problem and just need to adjust your knobs for comfort

if your needle is about 1/3rd up the meter and all you're hearing is static on all channels and you're pretty sure you aren't near a big RFI source you 'may' have a minor problem

also, cb's operate (distance wise) on atmospheric conditions, there will be times (most noticeably at night) when your cb doesn't seem to get out very far at all, this is because the atmosphere isn't radiated by the sun or other source such as a thunderstorm

there will be other times when the atmosphere has unusually high amounts of radiation and you may find yourself talkin to someone several hundred miles away, during this time short range communications are almost impossible because the farther signal will actually be stronger than your local signals due to the atmospheric skip

but that in itself is kind of a fun thing

i missed if you've had a chance to tune your antenna yet with either the SWR meter on your radio (if you have one) or with a jumpered SWR meter or had a guy at a cb shop at a truck stop tune the antenna for you

until the antenna is tuned you'll have slight reception problems, but your transmission will be horrid

weston02kj · **Posted:** Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:34 am

How on earth do you know so much? haha and as of now i have a cheap radioshack no name antenna that i don't beleive is tunable. but i plan on getting one of those ones i see on trucks that flex a whole lot. Any chance you know what those are called?

CB antenna mount options

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