Coax cable?

[JeePak]

so what do you think about this? its a rear taillight mount with 18' ft of cable

Firestik MK204R - Door Jamb Mini Kit - Electronics Superstore www.WalcottCB.com

i was also thinking of getting their spring and quick disconnect

[88fadedglory]

Originally Posted by JeePak

so what do you think about this? its a rear taillight mount with 18' ft of cable

Firestik MK204R - Door Jamb Mini Kit - Electronics Superstore www.WalcottCB.com

i was also thinking of getting their spring and quick disconnect

The spring will protect the antenna from about everything but a rollover and you'll need to fine tune the atenna again if you install it at a later date.

Make sure you have good clean grounds and electrical connections and you should be fine. With the antenna on the right rear, your strongest signal will be over the lefdt front of the XJ.

Try to get the loaded section, the thick, tightly wound part near the top, above the body and if possible mount the whole unit as high as possible.

[JeePak]

Yea i got the 5' firestik antenna with tuneable tip and with 6 extra inches of spring and quick disco it will will be well enough over the roof lol. and by the whole unit do you mean the actual radio? or the basically mounting the antenna on top of the roof? and ill be ordering the mount, cable, spring and quick disco all together so i only have to tune it once.

[2000XJ]

Originally Posted by JeePak

Yea i got the 5' firestik antenna with tuneable tip and with 6 extra inches of spring and quick disco it will will be well enough over the roof lol. and by the whole unit do you mean the actual radio? or the basically mounting the antenna on top of the roof? and ill be ordering the mount, cable, spring and quick disco all together so i only have to tune it once.

You'll be golden, that setup will work very well. Make sure you use an SWR meter to dial it in properly for optimal performance.

[88fadedglory]

Originally Posted by JeePak

Yea i got the 5' firestik antenna with tuneable tip and with 6 extra inches of spring and quick disco it will will be well enough over the roof lol. and by the whole unit do you mean the actual radio? or the basically mounting the antenna on top of the roof? and ill be ordering the mount, cable, spring and quick disco all together so i only have to tune it once.

Sorry, should have been more careful with my words.

Just the antenna and it's mountings, but if you can just get the load (the tightly wound section at the top) above the luggage rack, it will do well.

BTW, you can use duct tape to hold the coax in place. Being out of the sunlight in the door gap, it will last a long time. Just wipe the surface clean with rubbing alcohol.

One reason going as high as possible is that the body metal, which is also the other half of your antenna, makes it harder to get a good match to the radio (low SWR) if it is close to the antenna, but usually it can be done without too much trouble.

Ideally, if the antenna sticks straight up from the roof, then you can get your easiest match, but realistically, that's not always possible.

I'm going to mount a co-phased pair of short antennas mounted to the "C" pillars on my XJ but I'll either use the ball style mount so I can loosen and lower the antennas when I load the luggage rack or use springs so they can be bent out of the way for loading.

To give you an idea of the difference the antenna location makes in my installation, my directivity will be nearly equal front and rear.

[JeePak]

lol sweetness, well i already have the 5ft so im keeping that, so a little over 3ft will be over the roof.

so my original plan of my awesome mount with new head liner and custom other stuff is going to take ALOT of time i dont have now..go figure..so i was thinking about mounting my cb in the center air vent underneath the A/C switch stuff above the shifter and ill wire up two speakers for under the dash....opinions?

[tbone]

That's a lot of good info. The coax you should use is called mini 8, it's gray in color and any cb shop will have it. The length can be any length as long as the SWR's will adjust, if they want then you should run longer coax. Most cb shops recomend 18 ft. as a general rule because it gives you lots of room for adjustment. The antenna should be above the roof as it will transmit better, it need a good ground plain to work right. As for running a spring, I would never run them. In the 70's everyone used them and the problem is the wire in the center will rust and break. I can't tell you how many times we had problem's and it ended up being the spring and not the radio, just my opinion. Good luck on your set up.

[JeePak]

yup, the firestik door jamb mount comes with 18' of fireflex cable, and as for the spring...I already bought it lmao so ill use it until it breaks if it does.. but thanks everyone for all that info! ill definately do a write-up on the install which will probably be the 8th or 10th...hopefully... lol, i am still planning on making a custom headliner but i got no time, so the ac vent will have to do lol

[88fadedglory]

Originally Posted by tbone

That's a lot of good info. The coax you should use is called mini 8, it's gray in color and any cb shop will have it. The length can be any length as long as the SWR's will adjust, if they want then you should run longer coax. Most cb shops recomend 18 ft. as a general rule because it gives you lots of room for adjustment. The antenna should be above the roof as it will transmit better, it need a good ground plain to work right. As for running a spring, I would never run them. In the 70's everyone used them and the problem is the wire in the center will rust and break. I can't tell you how many times we had problem's and it ended up being the spring and not the radio, just my opinion. Good luck on your set up.

Personally, I never had any trouble with a spring, but there were a lot of cheap ones on the market back then that did give probs.

If the spring is from Firestik, Radio Shack, or from a name brand like Shakespeare, it'll be a good one from my experience.

[Fidishund]

Ok stupid question have not had a cb since i was a kid playing with pops radio in the car on road trips how do u tune a cd atenna and is it hard

[stamp]

you need an swr meter

[Fidishund]

Oh that helps so much what is that ?? Did you not read the part about not using a cb since i was a kid lol ..LMFAO woooahhh man like what is it for and do you have to or can i slap the old cb with my new attenna and do a radi ck and move on ??

[stamp]

LOL it measures the feedback you get through the antenna or something like that ....
idk ive always done a plug and play thing... i have an old cb that ive been afraid to hook up because its been amped up so if my swr is too high then it could fry it ...

least thats what i was told

if you go buy an antenna and you hook it up to your basic cb radio it should work ... you may not get your full 2 mile range but it SHOULD work

[Fidishund]

Got ya I KNOW WITH THE OLD BEET UP ATENNA I HAVE I HAVE OTTEN PEOPLE ON THE NJ TURNPIKE THATS LIKE 5-10 MILES FROM ME SO I AM GUESSING THE NEW 5 FOOT ONE I BOUGHT WILL BE OK FOR THE WOODS IT IS JUST TO CHAT FROM TRUCK TO TRUCK IF WE GET STUCK OR WHATEVER i'LL LOOK INTO THE ADJUSTING THING LATER WHEN I BUY A NEW CB

[stamp]

yeah you should be alright