Hi everyone, I have a question about CB Radios. I just bought one at a truck stop and bought an antenna cable as well, I get home and realize the coax cable I bought has TWO leads ONE into the radio and two for antennas. My question is: can i run just one cable and just tuck the other one in my dash? cut it off? and if I only have the one will that affect the signal quality?

If you plan on running only one antenna.
I would suggest getting another cable.
The length and routing of the cable will effect the tunning of the antenna and radio.
so the dead line ( no antenna) would cause problems with reception.

Semi Trucks use that cable so they can mount a antenna on each outside Mirror.

Get the single cable like Ernie suggested.. it will make things easier in the short and long run.

That is for a dual setup and has a different resistance 75 vs 50 ohm. definitely need a new cable for a single antenna set up.

Thanks for the input. I went and got a single cable. Here's another thing: I don't want to drill a giant 3/4 inch hole in my roof for a 1/4 inch cable because the connector is huge. So I cut the connector off and bought another connector so when I route it through the roof I only have to make a little hole. Make sense? or will shortening by a half inch or so be harmful?

You sould be fine after tuning the radio to the antenna.
make sure that all the connections are solid and insulated.
But,
Where do you plan on putting the antenna??
If you are going for the roof rack it will be to high for most trails and get torn off.
most guys mount it on their bumpers or in the gap in the rear hatch to keep it low and strong, then you would not need to drill the roof at all.
a couple examples.

Hmmm, I think I may like that better. Though I did just go outside and found that under my front roof lights (stock pro4x lights on the air dam) I found a large hole that could be utilized. I really don't have time to run wires and stuff right now because I'm working so much, but that will give me some time to think about placement some more.

I am considering mounting it on my roof basket and maybe making a fold down mechanism. So that raises another question, if I were on the trails how would the antenna being folded down affect the range?

It will work but would it would cut down the range quite a bit.
although we don't run that far apart out on the trails.
do you plan on using it all the time out on the road or just for runs?
everytime the antenna is moved it will affect the tuning of it.
laying it down will put 1/2 the raidio waves bouncing randomly off the body if the X instead of going out into the air.

I would like to use it out on the road sometime, especially if I'm going to go on longish trips out of state. Well, if it is going to affect things every time I move it or something maybe I'm better off mounting near the tail light like the pictures show. My only reason for mounting it on the roof would be for better range on the road.

Seems like I may just have to make a little compromise. I may just fabricate something out of aluminum and mount it out back and not worry about it.

sorry to be a pest with all the questions but what about grounding? I've heard some people talk about this (a while back before I even cared about this stuff). Should I run a wire from my mount to ground if the mount isn't attached to something that is ground? sorry if that sounds confusing.

If you get the Firestik SS204A Adjustable, SS Vertical Door Jamb Mount. You can mount in the gap of the hatch near the tail light. A lot of people have done this and it cuts down on the trees whacking your antenna. Just make it so the antenna ends about a foot above your roof rack. I'm using a little wil mag mount and it was getting tossed around this weekend in the woods. Need to change my set up. The antenna works great and receives from a long way off. I just don't want the roof getting scarred from the mount moving around.

As long as your SWR is acceptable, don't run a wire from the mount to the vehicle.

When people talk about a ground plane or no-ground plane antenna, they are not talking about an electrical ground. What they are referring to is whether or not there is a horizontal surface (e.g., the ground) from which the radio wave radiation can be reflected. This is different from an electrical ground.

The key is your SWR reading on the antenna. If you have good SWR, don't worry about an electrical ground. In fact, that can make it worse. I know, I tried. With an SWR of 1.3 and no electrical grounding, I tried adding the electrical ground, That pushed my SWR up to the top of meter where, if is used it that way, I would most likely have burnt out the transmitter.

k_enn

Good points! Another thing to consider is the type of antenna you buy. There is a coil of wire in the antenna that is wound in a tighter pattern than the spiral that's in ther rest of the body of the antenna. This is the load coil. You'll notice on solid mast antennas that the mast (the solid part at the bottom) is available in different lengths. The plastic coated bulge that is between the solid part and the whip is the coil. Flexible antennas are the same, you just have to look for the coil.
For range, the coil should be above any parts of the vehicle it's mouted to. Different antennas put the coil at different heights. A "center load" antenna means the coil is about half way up the length of the antenna. "Base load" at the bottom and so forth.

So, I just ordered a ShrockWorks rear bumper/tire carrier. When I mount the antenna to the tab on it how do I route the antenna cable? I was thinking that I would run it out of the cabin under the dash and out the firewall, from there I would run it along the frame and through the hole in the shrock bumper where the license plate wire would go through.

Is that a good idea? or is it a no no to have the cable running outside?

Thanks!

At some point, the cable has to come outside of the truck to pair up with the antenna. I don't have my antenna mounted to a bumper; it's up on the factory rack. Check out my thread here for details on how I routed the cable: Navigation and Communication. Since that install, I've removed the fold-over adapter, as it was starting to rust and get wobbly.

I wouldn't suggest doing it like I did (third pic down). I believe curts (the black x) had the adapter plate going into the space between the truck and trunk. I drilled mine into the body because I had everything wired up and didn't feel like going to get a different plate