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Thread: Advice on antenna setup.

  1. #1
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    Advice on antenna setup.

    Hello,

    Need some advice on setting up my cb on new pickup. I currently have it set up on my F150 (galaxy 979 w/wilson 1000). Radio is tuned and works great! Upgrading my truck to an 2017 F350 CC long bed. The new pickup has a glass roof covering about the whole roof, so magnetic mount would not work. I basically have the antenna down to two possible ways to mount. My overall goal is as much range as possible, within reason, but dont want the antenna be 14ft in the air.

    I have a 979 with two firestiks on my International 9200i and it works great! I was leaning towards putting two 5ft firestiks mounted on the toolbox on the bed. The biggest problem is even mounted on the far sides on box, they will still be quite close together (about 6.5ft). Now, I do pull a camper a few times a year from PA down to FL. Current camper is 11ft high but will be upgrading to a 5th wheel in a couple years that will be close to 13'6.

    The other option I had was using a 102" whip mounted in the middle of the truck on the front of my bed by leaving a few inch gap between the toolbox and front of the bed. Now the F350 is a 4x4 and very high compared to my F150. I understand this way would most likely give me the best range but it will be VERY high above the truck. Maybe even cutting the antenna down a little bit giving me about 11ft-11.5ft overall high of antenna off the ground is an idea, pro or cons?

    Do you think the 2 5' firestiks on the toolbox or 102" whip mounted middle on truck on front of bed will work better for how my configuration? Another thing to consider is the cab and bed on the new F 350's are all aluminum, will this make a difference in either of the two ways I would like to mount the antenna?

    Thanks!

  2. #2
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    Good questions...Never mounted a antenna on a all aluminum vehicle, so can't say one way or another if you will run into tuning problems....I tend to think you wont, since allot of antenna's are made out of aluminum anyway.

    As for cutting down a 102" whip to shorten your over-all height, that won't work period unless you add a loading coil of some kind to make up for what you cut off...

    The 2 firestik's on each side of the toolbox will work, maybe hard to get tuned, and won't add any advantage running a co-phase set-up like that vs. just one antenna in the middle of the roof. (like you said, "too close together")

    Since this is a aluminum truck, magnet mounts are out of the picture, but if you can bring yourself to popping a hole in the roof, for a puck mount, that would be your best option and use a loaded coil antenna...

    Me personally, drilling a hole in the roof of a bran new $30K+ truck would not even be a consideration....


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  4. #3
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    Thanks for the advice! Now if I added a 102" whip, it would be mounted on the front lip of the bed in the middle of truck. Id say a good 5.5' would be above the roof line. Taking from your response, it seems the 102" whip would work best for my application. The 102" whip shouldnt be an issue with an 11ft trailer since the whip would be atleast 13-14ft tall over the ground?

    I do like the look of two firestiks but want the best range. With it being hard to tune, do you think it would be similar performance vs the single 102" whip?

    I am leaning toward the 102". I dont mind drilling the bed, drilling roof is out of the question since the entire roof is glass. I wish it was 30k, sticker price is 79k on the new f 350.

    Heres another thought....What if I did a single antenna like a wilson T5000 and mounted it where I would the 102" in the middle of the truck on the front lip of the bed. Now I think that antenna would only be above the roof line by just over 2.5 ft. It would definitely be well below the height of the camper.

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