CB antenna on ARB front bumper OK?

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Miescha

Miescha

Joined
Jan 12, 2006
Threads
124
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1,109
Location
St. Louis, MO
I'm a bit surprised I couldn't find this with a basic search - seems an obvious question.

I have a cobra 75wsxt (all-in-the-handset deal with weatherband) after a few recommendations here on mud. I also have a cheapo radio shack mag mount cb/weatherband antenna. So far, it works better than expected on the trail and I seem to get about 15 miles of range on the interstate (based on trucker announcements of speed traps).


I'd like to get a better antenna with a spring mount or whip. I was thinking a permanent mount on the upper PS mounting tab of my ARB front bumper seems logical. Any thoughts on this? Is it a bad location for any reason?

Any suggestions on a mount and antenna that would work well for this location?

If (when) I move to ham later, could I mount that antenna on the other ARB upper DS mount without problems?

thanks all!
 
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I've run a cb whip off one of the top mounts on the ARB bar for a few years now. Works just fine. I used a 4' Wilson Flex antenna mounted straight to the bar, no spring. No problem.
 
I run 102 inch steel whips with springs on all of my rigs that have CBs. Five of them currently. I put these whips on the bumpers or some piece extended from the bumper on all of them.

Works great.


Mark...
 
My CB antenna is mounted, with a spring and quick disconnect, to my TJM bumper. I've had zero problems with it:
DSC02948.jpg
 
I am not a fan of antennae on the bumper from a radio performance standpoint. But they do work.

As far as placing the 2m antenna on the bumper, you will have horrible problems with the SWR (aka tuning) One antenna affects the resonance of the other--then factor in them moving around and possibly touching. Leave the CB on the bumper and put the 2m on a magmount on the rear portion of the roof
 
I mounted mine on the passenger side to double as a visual locator for my diff.
 
Thanks for the information and pics - you guys are great as always.

It sounds like it will work for the CB mount, and I'll just need to find a local radio shop that can tune it for me once I have it mounted up.

I've seen a few people that have theirs on a folding mount, so the antenna can lay over when not in use - any ideas or thoughts on this? Would it be better/easier to just unscrew the antenna from the mount when not in use (also deter theft) or does this affect the tuning everytime I remove and replace the antenna?

Sorry for my lack of knowledge in this area.
 
U can remove/replace the antenna with out any problems. It will not detune the antenna.

...
 
I tuned my CB (3foot firestick) last week. it was a Pain to get to tune on the ARB bumper. My friend who knows 2000% more about this stuff that I do, told me that a 2m would not work well at all on the bumper. I therefore have a lip mount that goes on the pass side rear hatch. I have tuned it yet, but ill post up if it doesn't.
 
A 3ft fiberglass CB antenna is usually hard to tune regardless of where you install it. Sometimes it's nearly impossible to make it work across the entire CB band.

There are some 2m antennas that do not require a ground plane, which should work ok for mounting on the ARB.
 
if you are after range i would suggest mounting on the roof or roof gutter as then the roof will act as a groundplane. Currently in process of selecting components and a friend who is a cb nut reckons that's the best signal-wise. Careful no passers by get whipped by those aerials mounted on the bumpers! ;)
any advice appreciated..
fred
 
Miescha said:
Thanks for the information and pics - you guys are great as always.

It sounds like it will work for the CB mount, and I'll just need to find a local radio shop that can tune it for me once I have it mounted up.

I've seen a few people that have theirs on a folding mount, so the antenna can lay over when not in use - any ideas or thoughts on this? Would it be better/easier to just unscrew the antenna from the mount when not in use (also deter theft) or does this affect the tuning everytime I remove and replace the antenna?

Sorry for my lack of knowledge in this area.
Click to expand...

The folding mount won't affect the tuning as long as it was tuned while the mount was installed. I office in Crestwood on Mondays if you want to swing by I'll tune it for you with my SMR meter. It only takes a few minutes provided the rest of the install is within spec.
 
MoJ: Thanks for the generous offer. I'll definately take you up on it once I get a 'permanent' antenna. As I couldn't find any great radio shops in the area, I'll be ordering on-line. I'll PM you once it arrives and I have it on the truck.
 
Alright, one last post on this and then I'm placing my order. After all the discussion, I plan to stick with the ARB mount at least for now (I may move it to the rear bumper on top the tire carrier in the future - but there would still be an issue with lack of ground plane).

I'm leaning toward a Firestick Firefly that requires no ground plane (according to Firestick) and comes with a flex mount and the cable necessary for the NGP setup.

I realize I am probably over-thinking this considering it is just a CB radio, but hey - its mud (where everything is over-thought).

So, any thoughts?
 
Electrically, the bumper is a bad place. It will work of course, but you will give up a lot of performance, which on CB, is barely adequate.

How about a mag mount? The Wilson mag mount for CB is actually a good antenna, and if you stick it right in the middle of the roof, you will get surprisingly good performance. The "Lil Will" is short too and does a really good job for $30. If you want the best, the Wilson 5000 is a really good antenna, but the whip is longer. I never could make Firestick antennas work well, and have mostly used Wilson's over the years.

I ran one year with the CB magmount on top of a high lift base, with the highlift mounted upside down and bolted to the rear bumper, and it actually worked pretty well.

What ever you do, do not invest much energy or money in this. The minute you start operating on Ham radio, the CB will be almost forgotten as a toy.
 
Drew: Sadly, I already knew this was the answer when I first started looking at mounting on the ARB. When I purchased the Cobra 75wsxt I also bought a cheapie mag mount antenna from Radio Shack (no time to look elsewhere). I placed the mag mount in the front center of my Yukon XL roof (behind the sunroof glass, but in front of the cargo carrier that was in place). Performance in this location, on this vehicle was poor.

However, I used the same CB and antenna on the cruiser, placing the mag mount on the rear center of the roof (ran the coax through the rear hatch and had just enough room to place it about 12" forward of the hatch opening) - and reception was amazing. Based on trucker announcements of speed traps between St. Louis and Madison, WI it seems the range was over 15 miles (nice flat Illinois terrain).

But I'd really like to find a more permanent setup, and I figure the 2m/70cm antenna in the future will likely be mounted at the roof center or roof rear (or Slee/Hannah Bumper Tire Carrier top mount), so I'd rather leave that area open.
 
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I avoid the bumper purely because I don't like being distracted by it when I am wheeling. So I use one of these (see attached). There are holes already in the hood channel for mounting and it's out of my line of vision. Firestik #SS-174
ss-174.webp
 
I use the same one as above, on the pass fender, fairly close to the radio AM/FM antenna. The SWR is fantastic and the range is outstanding. I used to have it on the bumper at one time.
 
So I mounted a 3ft Firestick on my ARB and the AWR was around 4 using a calibrated NanoVNA. I though that a ground strap may help, but that brought it to an SWR around 7.... I am going to run a CB with a footwarmer (way offload only), so I really need to bring that down. Any suggestions other than removing the ground strap?
 
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