CB Radio

Martin P

Martin P

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Ok so I bought a rig and and an antenna and thought all would be simple. Oh dear no. Seems that motorhomes are particularly difficult to fit rigs to as aluminium is no good for a ground plane, which means that fitting the antenna onto the bike rack is not such a good idea as I thought. Anybody got Cb fitted out there ?
 
Yes that's great but
Tried a length of 25mm battery cable to chassis from antenna mount, still high swr(3)
So what kit do I try next
Where is your antenna fitted
 
Mine is conventionally fitted to the roof, I have an Iveco so its all steel body so never had any problem.

Just make sure the earth strap is securely fitted and then trim the aerial with your SWR meter, if you are fitting yours to the roof as well try making a ground plane out of a thin piece of steel and attach the earth strap to that

Other than that, er pass
 
I think a large steel plate sika flexed to the roof is probably the only way but that's two cables to run through the roof which I was trying to avoid
 
sounds like a plan, am sure you will be able to hide the cable, could always use electrical trunking or tuck them away in cupboards or overhead lockers
 
You may find this article of some help: Grounds, RF & DC

If not, see if you can get yourself a Firestik type antenna from somewhere (eBay maybe) - it will work without a groundplane.

:have fun:
 
Try one of these Sirio TA 27 CB radio or 28MHz amateur band marine style antenna NEW | eBay

There are several different sorts on ebay do a search for marine cb antennas but they won't work like a aerial mounted on a metal car or van the ground plane helps receive and transmit

One other thing you need to check with van manufactures as to whether the RF generated is likely to affect vans electric system ecu etc. Several years ago where I worked we had a few Mercedes vans and transmitting with the radio put the automatic gearbox in reverse it took 2 gearboxes spread over the road before they realised what the cause was
 
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Motorhome cb update

Here is what seems to be the answer to motorhome antenna problems
From research on the web (where else?) this is what i did.
I bought a sheet of 1.2 mm steel 1metre x 2 Metre
cut it to fit around roof vent
used the offcut to make mount "bridge"
painted it
stuck it to roof with sikaflex


awaiting through roof cable gland box but seems to work very well indeed
View attachment 23877
 
Nice to know that you have sorted the problem, keep the shiny side up and pedal to the metal
10-10
 
And now am is legal so we have sideband as well

Actually the airwaves are really quiet, A few motorhomes are starting to get interested , there is a forum run by a cb supplier, (thunderpole) which has a section for us motorhomers . Won't appeal to everyone of course but to me it's just another aspect of living on the road which I love. Anyway it's really quiet so there for the taking,
And yes
Love the lingo
One nine anyone got your ears on c'mon
 
Surely you could discretely run a cable to the chassis and use chassis as ground plane ??!!
 
I tried that using 25 mm battery cable but it didn't work for me. Swr was way too high and very little range.
You can get something called an NGP antenna but I read mixed reports with poor power output being commonly reported. With only 4watts transmission power available I wanted the best results I could get
The roof plate is actually quite a simple answer, other methods are available!!!
 
try running a 2.5 mm "flexible" cable i.e. thin multi inner core , you really don't need battery cable it will increase the impedance
 
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