Trucker Forum - Trucking & Driving Forums - Class A Drivers

Quote:

Originally Posted by GMAN (Post 194548)

I have 2 on one truck and 1 on another. Frankly, I can't tell any difference. I know of some drivers who swear that they get better reception, etc., with 2. I have even talked with some who have told me that they think it looks better to have 2 on a truck. It looks more balanced. I would just save my money. 8)

Here is the scoop with cb antennas or for that matter most vertical antennas. Running a single antenna will give you a complete 360 transmit and receive radius. If you run 2 antennas you will pick up some gain towards the front and rear of the truck BUT you will lose some side to side performance. So running 2 antennas everything to the left or the right of you while driving will be weaker but everything in front of you and behind you will be stronger this goes for the transmit signal as well.

Now what ever antenna you use make sure its as long as possible that you can get away with no coil is best (102 inch whip) the reason for this is that the coils you see on antennas in simple terms is a matching coil the bigger the coil (amount of turns) the less efficient the antenna is also the lower on the antenna the coil is located the less efficient the antenna is. Try to stay with all metal antennas because the fiberglass ones the copper wire inside will break if it gets hit enough times where a metal one keeps going. Don't be impressed with the huge coils power handling and all that do you really plan on running 10.000 watts?

To wrap this up and to make it as simple and easy as possible get a single antenna if you have none yet get one as long as possible and if it has a coil get one that has the coil the middle of the antenna or higher the higher the better. With a fiberglass antenna follow the same rules also if you run 2 antennas follow these rules as well. I have 25 plus years as a broadcast engineer have designed antennas for major company's and also am a ham radio operator I hope this info helps you out and one more thing make sure you use good coax and have a match of at least 1;5to1 or lower at these high frequency's the attenuation loss is high.