i have experience with converters. i even built one with eight crystal
sockets to cover several bands! just calculate the crystal needed to
cover whatever you want to hear. my advise is to keep your portable and
put your time into rigging an outside antenna for your car, perhaps a
modified cb antenna. the converters work but are a pain to calculate
what frequency you are on. the portable radio will beat it on
convenience and performance, no matter how cheap it is.

(Jim) wrote in message ...
i have experience with converters. i even built one with eight crystal
sockets to cover several bands! just calculate the crystal needed to
cover whatever you want to hear. my advise is to keep your portable and
put your time into rigging an outside antenna for your car, perhaps a
modified cb antenna. the converters work but are a pain to calculate
what frequency you are on. the portable radio will beat it on
convenience and performance, no matter how cheap it is.

Thanks!

Thats probably the least expensive and most practical solution.

( I don't know anything about crystals !)

This car is mostly fiberglass or plastic....
I tried clipping a wire from the antenna (not the external antenna
input) to an old magnetic cb antenna we had laying around in the
garage with my steel car.
It worked great till I brought the radio inside the car =-(
Once that antenna gets inside the car out goes the reception.

Would the fact that I didn't use the external antenna input have made
a difference?
This car doesn't have any good place good to attach a magnetic cb
antenna either.
Ya think a wire to the regular car radio antenna going to the
external input would work ?

"ex_cathedra" wrote
| I tried clipping a wire from the antenna (not the external antenna
| input) to an old magnetic cb antenna we had laying around in the
| garage with my steel car.
| It worked great till I brought the radio inside the car =-(
| Once that antenna gets inside the car out goes the reception.

The best bet of all is to buy a trunk - lip - mount CB antenna,
should be around 20 bucks or so. The antenna will mount to
your front (hood) door edge, on either the right or left. So,
instead of being "trunk mounted," it's "hood mounted.

Run the cable through a grommet in your firewall. You will
have to experiment with locating the wire. If it's close to a
computer chip, it will get noisy (likewise the alternator, coil,
distributor, or spark plugs).

Now, if you don't mind "ugly," you can simply trail the cable
along your front door pillar, and lead in through a window
(rolled up, of course). You might want to pick up a cheap
preamplifier kit from Ramsey Electronics if you're good with
a soldering iron. Short out the coil inside the base of the CB
antenna so it will not resonate on the CB band only.

There you go, for a total cost of thirty or forty bucks, you have
an outstanding, all - purpose antenna that works well for HF
reception.

73,

Steve Lawrence
KAØPMD
Burnsville, Minnesota

(NOTE: My email address has only one "dot."
You'll have to edit out the one between the "7"
and the "3" in my email address if you wish to
reply via email)


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The best bet of all is to buy a trunk - lip - mount CB antenna,
should be around 20 bucks or so. The antenna will mount to
your front (hood) door edge, on either the right or left. So,
instead of being "trunk mounted," it's "hood mounted.

Do not use a CB antenna that has any kind of loading coil, either in the
middle or base. It will limit the frequency range of the antenna for
shortwave reception. A long whip is best, such as a 1/4 wavelength CB
antenna with no coil. Radio Shack sells them.


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