Antenna grounds and re-wrapping antennas

[KliersLC]

Hi Folks,

I searched around a bit, and found a couple answers about grounding, but just wanted to make sure.

1. I am putting a 4' firestick on the front of my ARB. The mount will contact the bare metal on the bumper. Do I need to ground the mount or the antenna in any other fashion? I have seen it done a lot, but have also read that it makes no difference. Any advice you can give would be great.


2. The plastic coating on the outside of my antenna is degraded from the sun, has flaked off in several spots, and is generally fragile. I have white electrical tape that I can rewrap it with, but I don't know if that will hurt reception. Any Ideas?

Thanks!

Dan

 

[greentruck]

Dan,
Your bumper is most likely attached securely enough to the frame of your truck that it is well-grounded. I had a tire carrier on a truck once that had plastic in the hinges/swivels that was a little questionable in terms of whether it have good contact to the rest of the truck and I ran a ground wire to it, so it's cases like that where you could have an issue.

The shrink tubing flaking off is not a big issue. Taping it as a temporary fix is fine. A better long term solution is to get a length of shrink tubing long enough to cover the bad spot and shrink it on there with a heat gun. The main issue is to try to keep the winding from being moved around or damaged. Both the tape and shrink wrap will be transparent to radio signals.

 

[KliersLC]

Perfect.

Thanks for the info. Where does one come across this shrink wrap?

 

[rusty_tlc]

Perfect.

Thanks for the info. Where does one come across this shrink wrap?

Search on "heat shrink tubing" check Radio Shack or look for electronics supply in the yellow pages. You will need some just big enough to slip over the antenna, the initial fit can be fairly loose since it shrinks quit a bit.
After you get it in place use a blow dryer set to low to shrink it down.
You can get the tubing in different colors, black is the most common but red and white are also common.

 

[greentruck]

You should be able find shrink tubing at the local big box home despot. The usual issue is finding pieces that are long enough when dealing with an antenna. If all else fails, check with whoever supplies the electrical contractors in your area. They'll be able to source pieces long enough.

 

[KliersLC]

OK.

That sounds good. I was wondering about getting piece long enough. I have a bunch laying around for wiring, but have never seen it in pieces that long, and don't really want to buy a whole roll.

Thanks for the info guys!

Cheers!

Dan

 

[greentruck]

For a patch, all you need is a piece that is long enough to give you a good lap at either end of the damaged section. So whatever you have on hand will work if it happens to be long enough for that.

Also, you probably know this because you're looking right at it now, but for those following the thread later, it's best not to take off the old shrink. Clean the bugs off, etc, but leave the shrink in place. It is electrically transparent and you'll have a hard time keeping everything in place if you remove the old shrink. Just take the new shrink, whether a patch or a full reshrink, cover the old shrink, and heat away.

Also, at the top, most new antennas come with a plastic cap that you put back in place after you cut them once tuned. You may have lost it, but if not, replace it ti help keep the water out. If you don't have the cap and the antenna is tuned to your satisfaction, put a little bit of silicone in the open end of the shrink at the top to seal it.

 

[rusty_tlc]

.....
Also, at the top, most new antennas come with a plastic cap that you put back in place after you cut them once tuned. You may have lost it, but if not, replace it ti help keep the water out. If you don't have the cap and the antenna is tuned to your satisfaction, put a little bit of silicone in the open end of the shrink at the top to seal it.

You might want to make sure there isn't a trimmer cap recessed inside the antenna before you silicon it.

 

[KliersLC]

Good to know.

My shrink wrap is so brittle that more pieces flake off everytime I handle it. I was going to ask about the cap as mine is lost, so thanks for that as well. I haven't had a CB in awhile so I'll have to dust off the SWR meter I suppose....

Rusty, is the trimmer cap one of those that has an adjustable end so you don't have to cut it? If so, my antenna is not that high speed....

 

[greentruck]

KliersLC,
Yes, that's the fancy antenna that Rusty is talking about. If you have one of those, you can adjust it by turning the adjuster instead of cutting the wire off. That way you can avoid going too far when tuning the SWR and have the option of retuning it.

If you lose the cap on one of those, you can put a little dab of petroleum jelly on top of the screw, then apply the silicone to seal it on top of that.

As for the crumbling shrink all over, sounds like an old antenna. Never done one that bad. What I might do is start at one end, peeling the old carefully off a little at a time and wrapping it every few inches with a bit of electrical tape to hold the wire tight in place. That should clean things up while keeping things neat. Then shrink to seal.