What is everyone running for antenna's?Seems most run fiberglass.Already bought radio and coax looking for suggestion's.Is one better than another ?

 

Any antenna will do. The key to having a good radio is having a good antenna with low SWR! A fiberglass antenna will do the job alright, I don't see why people want to talk more than 10 miles anyway. Getting out 5-10 miles is pretty normal for a stock radio, I know my radio gets out a little over 10 miles and it's stock.

 

Ok so all the fiberglass are pretty much the same then.What about the wilson trucker 2000 it is a bit more pricey but is it worth the expense?I also see a lot of these.Iv'e already decided to run 2 bought wilson co-phase coax and a cobra 29.

 

Why run two? If you run two you got to set the SWR for both antenna's if it's too high. Also you run into the problem with them being directional and what I mean by that is the signal bouncing off each other. Ruins reception and also how far you get out. Your better off running a single antenna. Nothing wrong with the Wilson T2000 at all, good antenna! Like I said alow swr of 1-1.5 or 2 with any antenna is the key to having a good radio.

 

Ahhh, the ever challenging antenna question!

For most uses, a good fiberglass antenna will do just fine, providing, they are top loaded. A Wilson trucker is a mid-coil, and depending on the mounting location can be a good or bad antenna. Most are mounted so low, that a majority of the signal is reflected into the cab!

A bottom loaded antenna of any kind, unless the coil is mounted above the roofline, will loose 30 - 70% of its efficiency!

Running duals is fine, as long as you take the time to properly tune each antenna, they are at least 8 ft apart, and you use a properly co-phased coax 18-ft long!

As far as directional, properly co-phased antenna's are directional in a sense, as the primary lobes are front to back! How often do we need full power with someone sitting on the side of us?

A personally run a pair of 3 foot firestick II's, 18 ft co-phased coax and they are 8' 2" apart mounted on the mirrors. 80% of the antenna is above the roofline, and being the firesticks are top loaded, the coil is completely exposed in all directions.

With either my Cobra 25 or my Midland 77-250, both being peaked and tuned with none of the extra garbage, transmit average range is 7 -10 miles, sometimes more, depending on terrain and atmospheric conditions Caught myself chatting with a driver in Houston last week, and I was in San Antonio - 180 miles ( a little skip was working that day).

Good luck on your set-up!

 

Ok thanx for the help guys.I guess I'll have to see how far apart they are first.Maybe I can use just one hooked up and leave the other as a dummy if I can't get them spaced far enough apart or will they still be a signal bouncing issue?thanx again.

 

I Run Wilson 2000 and have one set up as a dummy, I just like the look of 2 antennas better than one. I have never had a problem.

I am certainly no expert but as I understand it if you have 2 they must be exactly 8 feet apart or multiples, 8 or 16 or 32. Something about the waveform of CB and blah blah blah. I doubt 8'2" is a problem at all but I certainly don't know enough to figure all that out so I only run 1.

 

8 feet or more, no loss of gain or signal, with co-phased cable - mine are 8'6" on the mirrors of my FLD. Less than 8' feet and they can not co-phase. they will work, but the coax set-up is different. A real pain in the arse! Also, the pattern gets much narrower front to rear, which is not diserable.

The 18' coax length is important in co-phasing, even if you have to wad or serpentine the coax into a cubby hole. Not coiled! Single antenna's, the 18 foot length is not so critical.

 

Like Countryhorseman said NEVER coil up the extra coax cable. I forgot why not to but I know you should never do it! Someone care to enlighten my memory on that? :lol: The reason for the 18' on the coax cable is the wave length of the radio signal.

 

coiling creates a choke! And on balanced systems is not required.