"I Am Not George" wrote in message
m...
Alex wrote

*LOL* Why cant I just buy the 102" and stick it in my spring loaded
magnet mount that i have now. Hell, I'm already getting frustrated,
but gonna try it






maybe you should stay with what you got for a while. dude the 102 in.
whip is not going to make that huge a differemce there will still be
assoles weak stations bleed noise and static. the whip will not make
your cb sound like FM quality LOL.



I agree... A 9' whip is a good antenna. It will help you get your signal
out farther. But...

When I was adjusting the antenna on my truck, I had the SWR as good as I
could get it, right around 2. The reading was about 1.8 on the lower
channels, but I didn't want to cut any more off my antenna and risk over
adjusting. It's a ~64" whip, mounted to the toolbox in the bed of my truck
(reflections from the body of the truck are probably also partially to
blame).

I showed my father my readings, and asked him:

"If this were your radio, and there year was 1980, would you accept these
readings?"

I asked the question this way because he's got an electrial engineering
background, is a total perfectionist, and in 1980 would have put both of
those qualities to use on his radios.

His response was this...

"I used to invest lots of time and money into trying to achieve the mystical
1.1 SWR ratio. The truth of the matter is, even if your radio is adjusted
perfectly, most likely the other guy's won't be. Even if he can hear you,
you may not be able to hear him, which doesn't do you any good. Not to
mention that there are enough buildings and hills around to have a greater
affect on your signal range than having a perfect SWR reading."

A base station would be a different story, but basicly, what he told me was
that for a mobile setup, there are too many variables to hinder your
communications for a 9' whip to really be that benneficial.

-NW