On Tue, 05 Oct 2004 07:23:40 -0400, Alex
wrote in :

On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 22:13:05 -0700, Frank Gilliland
wrote:


The most important part of any radio system is NOT the radio -- it's
the antenna. It's the antenna that converts signals to and from the
ether. If your antenna sucks, so will your communication REGARDLESS of
what kind of radio you have. That being said.....

The best mobile CB antenna you can buy is the 102" whip (it's also one
of the cheapest antennas). Shorter antennas are a compromise between
length vs. performance. The longer the better.

Do you have a link to a trusted website that sells this 102" whip.


I think Radio Shaft still sells them. Just about any truck stop will
have them.


And if you want your antenna to do the job it's capable of doing you
have to mount it properly. Generally, the higher you mount it on your
vehicle the better, but it's much more important that your mount is
well grounded. Mag-mounts are mediocre at best. No-Ground-Plane (NGP)
antennas are worse, and thru-glass antennas are junk.

I would also like to know where to purchase a Ground Plane.


You should have read a post I wrote a week ago.... The ground plane
for a mobile antenna is the vehicle and the ground below the vehicle.
Regardless of what antenna you use, you already have a ground plane.
What you -need- is an "RF ground" for your antenna mount. The center
conductor of the coax goes to the antenna, and the sheild goes to that
RF ground. It can be the car body, chassis, bumper, roll-bar, or even
a bracket bolted onto any of those parts. But it must be a GOOD
connection -- a magnet does -not- make a good ground connection.


likely that you have something wrong with your antenna and/or coax.
The antenna could be poorly mounted, the coax could be old (don't use
foam coax!), the connectors could be bad, etc, etc. My first guess is
that mag-mount antenna you are using is junk.

Probably so, I purchased it for 20 bucks at a pilot truckstop. the guy
said it was a good antenna. It's 36" base loaded coil antenna I'm not
having much trouble at all receiving. I receive all kinds of stuff,
but not always able to talk back to the people I hear. Its the
transmitting, maybe I am just want more than any cb antenna can offer.
How far ( guesstimate ) if everything was just right would this 102"
be able to transmit. Please don't tell me the Wilson 1000 isn't good.
I've heard to many good things about it from about 30 different
people, owners of the antenna.


Good is relative. The Wilson will work to a given extent. You could do
worse, but you could also do better. A cheap 5' fiberglass whip from
RS will work just as well as a Wilson 1000, as well as some of the
other brand-name, premium-priced antennas on the market. There is
nothing magic about antennas, and just because it bears a popular
brand name doesn't make it perform any better. On the contrary, I have
built a few antennas from scratch and all of them work BETTER than
their manufactured equivalents.

Like I said before, hit the library and read up on the basics. It will
answer most of your questions both now and in the future.