Antenna location feedback request

murphy · **Posted:** Fri May 15, 2015 4:38 am

call and talk to firestik. they were very helpful to me. we did some troubleshooting on the phone and they gave me some things to try on my own. they were able to diagnose that my ngp cable was faulty and sent me a new one free. you might not need to scrap the whole setup. they can give you a direction to go in to salvage the parts that are good still. couldn't hurt to call.

MainerX · **Posted:** Fri May 15, 2015 10:59 am

GP antennas need a fairly flat piece of something conductive below them...like, a roof. Firestiks are monopole antennas, with the flat roof portion acting as the dipole.

And Phong, get your antenna tuned sooner than later. If the SWR is too high, you'll effectively send power back into your CB and destroy
it.

c3PO · **Joined:** Thu Feb 28, 2013 1:08 pm **Posts:** 388

MainerX wrote:

NGP antennas need a fairly flat piece of something conductive below them...like, a roof. Firestiks are monopole antennas, with the flat roof portion acting as the dipole.

And Phong, get your antenna tuned sooner than later. If the SWR is too high, you'll effectively send power back into your CB and destroy
it.

Ok thanks, I just one today.

JeffPro4x · **Posted:** Fri May 15, 2015 5:33 pm

MainerX wrote:

NGP antennas need a fairly flat piece of something conductive below them...like, a roof. Firestiks are monopole antennas, with the flat roof portion acting as the dipole.

And Phong, get your antenna tuned sooner than later. If the SWR is too high, you'll effectively send power back into your CB and destroy
it.

You mean ground plane not ngp, right?

MainerX · **Posted:** Sat May 16, 2015 4:37 am

JeffPro4x wrote:

You mean ground plane not ngp, right?

Ah, yes. Oops. Will edit my original post.

Rusty · **Posted:** Mon May 18, 2015 9:19 pm

My antenna is mounted on my tire carrier, with a mirror mount bought of amazon.

c3PO · **Joined:** Thu Feb 28, 2013 1:08 pm **Posts:** 388

MainerX wrote:

GP antennas need a fairly flat piece of something conductive below them...like, a roof. Firestiks are monopole antennas, with the flat roof portion acting as the dipole.

And Phong, get your antenna tuned sooner than later. If the SWR is too high, you'll effectively send power back into your CB and destroy
it.

I just tuned it.

Im getting 1.8 SWR with a magnet mount on my roof and a firestik II tunable antenna, with an additional ground.

Im going to add a spring and see where that gets me too.

Nobody will mic check me on 19......feels so lonely.....

Scott Farris · **Posted:** Wed May 20, 2015 3:11 pm

I've got a midland NGP antenna w/ magnetic mount stuck to my front bumper for testing. Tuned it over the weekend to less than 1.5 across the full 40 channels. Last night I tested it with Jeff's help. It was talking to his hand held out to 1/3 mile. Both driving toward and away. We didn't try to push distance in this test. I think I want to end up with a permanent mounted firestik but if this works it will be hard to get motivated to change.

Scott

Fiachra · **Posted:** Wed May 20, 2015 3:29 pm

Scott Farris wrote:

I've got a midland NGP antenna w/ magnetic mount stuck to my front bumper for testing. Tuned it over the weekend to less than 1.5 across the full 40 channels. Last night I tested it with Jeff's help. It was talking to his hand held out to 1/3 mile. Both driving toward and away. We didn't try to push distance in this test. I think I want to end up with a permanent mounted firestik but if this works it will be hard to get motivated to change.

Scott

Sounds like plenty!

MainerX · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2015 8:49 am

I was able to reach someone about 15 miles away with mine.

murphy · **Posted:** Fri May 22, 2015 4:25 am

i think i read somewhere the expected range is somewhere between 3 and 5 miles. from my house i regularly hear and occasionally talk to a guy in holyoke, roughly 10 miles away.

k_enn · **Posted:** Fri May 22, 2015 12:50 pm

c3PO wrote:

MainerX wrote:

GP antennas need a fairly flat piece of something conductive below them...like, a roof. Firestiks are monopole antennas, with the flat roof portion acting as the dipole.

And Phong, get your antenna tuned sooner than later. If the SWR is too high, you'll effectively send power back into your CB and destroy
it.

I just tuned it.

Im getting 1.8 SWR with a magnet mount on my roof and a firestik II tunable antenna, with an additional ground.

Im going to add a spring and see where that gets me too.

Nobody will mic check me on 19......feels so lonely.....

Keep in mind that ground wires and springs become part of the antenna, thereby affecting the swr of the system. Too much grounding wire will probably lead to a high swr.

JeffPro4x · **Posted:** Mon Jun 01, 2015 7:05 pm

murphy wrote:

call and talk to firestik. they were very helpful to me. we did some troubleshooting on the phone and they gave me some things to try on my own. they were able to diagnose that my ngp cable was faulty and sent me a new one free. you might not need to scrap the whole setup. they can give you a direction to go in to salvage the parts that are good still. couldn't hurt to call.

I talked to them and they suggested a NGP kit. So, I bought one. Got it tuned down to 1.7 on 40 and 1. 1.2 on 20.

Scott Farris · **Posted:** Mon Jun 01, 2015 7:17 pm

Much better, with a balanced tune!

Good job.

Scott

murphy · **Posted:** Wed Jun 03, 2015 4:46 am

those guys are great! i don't hesitate to recommend them, ever.

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