On Sun, 14 May 2006 21:31:38 -0400, "TheHairyBeast" Emort007ATdway.com wrote:

What's the smallest amps in terms of wattage that will have a effective
increase in range? I currently have a range of 7 to 12 miles from my Base to
a mobile. I need to get that to about 15 to 22 miles. Both the mobile and
the base will get amps.

Currently I have a Uniden Washington (with Peak/tune/extra channels) and a
A99 on the roof (about 33 feet up)

The Mobile is a stock Cobra 29 with a 102 steel whip.

I thought about getting side band for the mobile, but it seems like a
hassle to tune a signal while driving down the road. I has a Grant LT in my
old truck, and I don't think I ever used the sideband while in motion.

So what do I need? a mini 40watt wasp?
or one of those 100 watt palomars?
or something near or over 200watt.

I'm not looking for over kill, or to spend more then I need, I just want to
be able to talk from work to the house.


100 watts should so it. The mini 40 watts might do it. The 100 Palomars works
well for a cheap amp.

Vinnie S.

I use a palomar MOD V in my mobile which will dead key around 17 watts and
swing to about 120 watts(at max power) with a Midland 13-882C driving it. I
did put a mod kit in it to dead key about 2 watts swinging to 11 watts. My
antenna is a 4 1/2 ft. skipshooter mounted on top of an aluminum camper
shell. I've used this system since 97 with good results.
Scorpio

"TheHairyBeast" Emort007ATdway.com wrote in message
...
Hmm...

I use a 102, But I mounted it to a bolt through the rear metal bumper. I
did add a Heavy ground wire to both the case of the CB and to the Bumper
connecting both to the frame.

I tested my SWR at the time, and its really low 1.2.1 on ch1 and about
1.4.1 on ch 40 I do not have a spring on it. I used to, but I couldn't get
the swr down below 1.5.1 on high side of the channel list (34-40) so I
removed it.
I will have to measure the length of the coax.

As for the base, its 1.2.1 all around unless its the uppers added by the
channel kit (I never go there anyway... Its dead around here) And its run
from the Base to the mast with the Really thick low loss coax.


From what I've read, It looks like I'll have to get the Base unit "tuned
down" to match it to a amp.
As for the mobile, I'm looking at a high drive unit, so that I can keep
it
stock, but the price of those little RM amps is so good, I may have it
tuned
down as well.


Thanks for the help!


"GHB" wrote in message
. com...
The 102" whip is not tunable except by adding or taking away the spring
from
the ball mount. As I said the 102 never was a perfect match anyway with
about 36 ohms of radiation resistance instead of the desired 50 ohms for
a
near perfect match. Since the 102 is not a perfect match the coax
length
does matter but if it did match close to perfectly then coax length
would
not matter. As for the "counterpoise", that is just another name for
the
ground plane. Yes the counterpoise/ground plane is important but any
metal
car or truck body has enough metal to form a good ground plane. The
vehicle
body is half of the antenna and the 102" plus 6" ball and spring is the
other half of your center fed, half-wave dipole antenna system. As far
as
SWR depending on the "counterpoise", the antenna must be mounted, as I
said,
with plenty of metal all around it or to put it another way in the
middle
of
your vehicle roof to give it a good ground plane/counterpoise. If
people
enjoy getting their 102 to "flatline" by using 18 feet of coax and
having
good performance that's fine but their antenna is not going to work any
better than if they had the proper half-wave length of coax and the
small
amount of reflected RF should not hurt their system.

Scorpio
"Nannar Sin" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 15 May 2006 14:47:42 GMT, "GHB"
wrote:

Make sure your mobile has low SWR before installing an amp. You
should
be
using an exact half-wave length of coax in your mobile which,
depending
on
what coax, will be around 12 to 13 feet but not 18 feet as so many
people
say.

Oh boy is this an old argument.. I dont even want to get started.
Search google this has been talked about forever in here. Some of the
most successful key down guys have used 18 feet and are successful
talking skip and shootouts. Truth is the swr of your antenna will
depend on your counterpoise. Oh well if your antenna is tuned properly
the amount of coax may not matter.

A real old timer!

"Fred" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 14 May 2006 21:31:38 -0400, "TheHairyBeast"
Emort007ATdway.com wrote:

What's the smallest amps in terms of wattage that will have a effective
increase in range? I currently have a range of 7 to 12 miles from my Base
to
a mobile. I need to get that to about 15 to 22 miles. Both the mobile and
the base will get amps.

Currently I have a Uniden Washington (with Peak/tune/extra channels) and
a
A99 on the roof (about 33 feet up)

The Mobile is a stock Cobra 29 with a 102 steel whip.

I thought about getting side band for the mobile, but it seems like a
hassle to tune a signal while driving down the road. I has a Grant LT in
my
old truck, and I don't think I ever used the sideband while in motion.

So what do I need? a mini 40watt wasp?
or one of those 100 watt palomars?
or something near or over 200watt.

I'm not looking for over kill, or to spend more then I need, I just want
to
be able to talk from work to the house.

For decent range in the mobile you should have at least 600 to 800
watts, but then I am a signal junkie.


Go through McDonalds drive thru and whistle in the mic when you get near the
window.LOL