CB's for off road use?

[Zoomad75]

Does anybody else use them for off roading? I've got a setup that I'm working to install and came up with a slick idea for mounting an antenna from a bracket that goes through the quarter to tailgate gap.

While its not as optimum of a mounting point for the antenna as it would be on the roof for range, it should be ok for trail rides with 1-2 mile distances. With my antenna I should have over half of it above the roof so not all the signal is absorbed/blocked by the roof.

My 75 k5 has the full fiberglass top so magnet mounting to the roof isn't an option. My bracket idea should work on first gen K5's too.

Anybody here fool with CB's enough to see a problem with my intended mounting?

I'll take a pic of my fabricated bracket tomorrow and post it up.

[DirtyLarry]

No dude, CB’s went away with the dodo bird, the Firebird, the Rubber Duck, Jerry Reed, as well as Beta tapes and VHS. That is why Darek and I we gave you the CB for free sucker.

Although, I do like the nice CB antenna mount you made in the garage on Saturday. Too bad you will be the only one in our group with a CB to talk to yourself while we are on the trail.

Just razzing you…..I am sure you will find some die hard types that are into CB’s, ham radios, Atari’s, macramé’s, plaid upholstery, and Sidewinder winches. Oh, wait….I just bought a sidewinder. The 70’s will be calling and wanting my winch back……and your CB.

[vtblazer]

I just use a hand held unit, short range but it works within out groups.
Have any pics of your mount?

D/L, ancient sure but some ORV parks still want the trucks to have em while running in their parks.

[Zoomad75]

[QUOTE=DirtyLarry;2039916]No dude, CB’s went away with the dodo bird, the Firebird, the Rubber Duck, Jerry Reed, as well as Beta tapes and VHS. That is why Darek and I we gave you the CB for free sucker.

Although, I do like the nice CB antenna mount you made in the garage on Saturday. Too bad you will be the only one in our group with a CB to talk to yourself while we are on the trail. QUOTE]

Ok smart guy, you got to admit what we have been using for radios off road hasn't been all that helpful. The clarity sucks. Plus the range is really limited.

I know one of your hang ups is the space a regular CB radio takes up. You need one of the hand held cobra units. add an antenna off of your roof rack to get the signal out.

Here's a couple of pics of the bracket I made up.

[DirtyLarry]

Ok smart guy, you got to admit what we have been using for radios off road hasn't been all that helpful. The clarity sucks. Plus the range is really limited.

I know one of your hang ups is the space a regular CB radio takes up. You need one of the hand held cobra units. add an antenna off of your roof rack to get the signal out.

Here's a couple of pics of the bracket I made up.

Ok….maybe your right, but I still had to poke fun at you though. The whole CB idea reminds me of the scary raspy voiced “Shady Lady” that used to talk her arse off on the CB when I was a little kid riding around in dad’s wrecker. She was all kinds of scary.

[Chris27]

You can't go to Jeep Jamboree without one. But then you also need a Jeep. Or at least a Jeep body on a Chevy chassis.

[johnnywagon]

I helped winch out an International Scout last weekend. He and his other Scout buddy had CB's. It seemed pretty convenient that they could talk to each other from inside thier rigs while we both winched him out.

[Blue_71]

i have a place for one in my k20-- although it did somehow make its way into the 69 during the last 2 years that the k20 has been in pieces

[jacobs]

Get a ham license and use a 2 meter radio. Once you use one you'll wonder why you ever even considered using "chicken band". A Ham license is very easy to get and the test is EASY! With repeaters as widespread as they are, you can typically talk to others hundreds of miles away with clarity. For tests and testing locations, contact http://www.arrl.org/

P.S. Colorado is an excellant location for 2 meter repeaters. Many repeaters are located high on mountain tops and are linked together. You'll find you can talk all over the state with few dead spots.

[TP from Cntl PA]

We have CB's in our pickups and cab tractors............I personally wouldn't own a vehicle that I use often without putting one in. It is nice when you can talk to 5 people at once, unlike a cell phone.

Alot of guys ask me if we get nonsense from others on the same channel...........Honestly, we're about a mile away from a interstate highway at its closest, and often we're the only ones on a channel. I work for a guy with a small truck fleet, and drivers now often prefer cell phones over CB's, only having CB's for loading out grain at elevators as cell calls would be a headache for the elevator.

[Southedisto]

I use mine as a temp, Cobra 25 with a cig plug in, external speaker, magnetic K30. If I get somewhere that there is limited clearance, I put the ant in the bed or it falls into the bed. I slide the cb under the drivers seat, mic up to center console, external speaker in cup holder or wedged next to center console. This set up has worked for me for quite a few years.

[69TowRig]

All of the guys I wheel with run them. Those that don't have to follow inbetween, because they are out of the communication loop. One or two guys have started getting into HAM radios, I haven't yet.

It's handy for just about everything, I can't see wheelin' without a radio.

[Zoomad75]

Yeah, I could fire up the CB in our nomad and listen to the lot lizards talking at the truck stop at I-70 and ward rd when I was a kid.

Could be worse. I could dig up the PA speaker and musical horn in my dad's garage. The horn played 50 or so tunes including the general lee tune and "see the usa in your chevrolet". Dad got annoyed with me playing the dixie tune all the time so he took it out of the car. what can I say, I was a kid and the dukes of hazzard was cool back then.

Good gravy, CB's, sidewinder winches and PA's playing dixie...I feel our old fart status is creeping up on us.

[gmcman7202]

i got a cb for the pa setup.
i tend to yell at stupid people a lot, so the pa comes in handy.
i need a new cb though, and antenna setup. the mag mount sucks, and the cb is a old KRIS 23 channel unit with a big knob to change the channel.

i just need to figgure out what i want to get and where to get it.

[Zoomad75]

CB's not being as popular as they once were, your best bet is to hit up your closest truck stop. I needed new antenna cable and didn't feel like ordering from an online source. Happened to stop in for gas at a truck stop and remembered they had a whole wall of CB stuff. Decent parts too. Wilson antenna's, Midland, Cobra and Uniden radios. The best variety of CB crap I've seen since Radio Shack was big into CB's a long time ago. Got my cable for $12 there.

[customcamper72]

the group of guys i go wheelin with all use C.B.'s . they are handy,
especially on trail rides.

[Zoomad75]

Alrighty, the antenna mount is complete. Holes drilled, painted and all mounted up. All I need to do now is wire up the CB and mount it inside my console and run the antenna cable. Here are the pics!

[Zoomad75]

Here's a couple more with the antenna I'm using. The mount has zero flex with the antenna swinging front to back. The mount does move ever so slightly with the antenna swinging side to side, but you got to have the antenna swinging hard to even see the bracket move 1mm.

[vtblazer]

What provision's do you need to make to run the cable to the antenna?

Looks good/clean and functional.

[Zoomad75]

I'm going to work on the cable routing. I've got a couple of ideas, but I don't want to drill any holes to run the cable through the body. The gap from the gate to the quarter is pretty large so I might use it to my advantage here. I've just got to run it in such a way that it can't get pinched.

Thats the one major compremise I had to make. I wanted the antenna up high, but might have to get creative on the cable routing. If I mounted it lower, my cable routing wouldn't have been a problem but I would have had lower reception due to more of the antenna being blocked by the body.

I'm sure I'll MacGyver something together...

[bigtruck81]

might look into military surplus stuff. M1009s had good antenna mounts IIRC.

[Kurt L]

i wouldn't own a vechile if it didn't have a CB in it. but then again i drive truck so it's always handy to have one.your mount idea is a good one.the only thing i would change is go to a steel whip[102''],better flex with a steel whip and it won't break if you go into tree's.if you keep what you got [fiberglass] take the and set your SWR'S so you can talk father and hear better.plus with a steel whip you can tie it down when not in use fiberglass you can't do that to.if you are going to run your coax get at least 18ft so your SWR'S will be rite bout rite.if their not then pull that little cap off the top and pull out the wire there and clip it till they are rite.this will require a SWR meter.if they are higher on 40 then they are channel one clip the wire in your antenna.if they are higher on one then on channel 40 the antenna needs to be longer.but by your pics the way you have the mount and all i'd say the SWR'S should be bout rite, but check anyway.

[CrashEd]

Me being a trucker most of my life i have always run a CB. Its like everything else if you want to talk and hear good you have to spend the money.I have $500 in just my radio and a good set of ears i can talk and hear for 40 miles. That is if someone has a good radio on the other end to talk back with.And thats just the radio no kicker. You just cant do that with a $59 radio even with the same power rating.
And its well worth it to find out road condtions ahead and if theres a smoky in the pickle park or if the chicken coup is open.

Ed

[Zoomad75]

Good point. It would be nice to get the signal out 40 miles, but my intended use is mainly off road. I ran the coax through the tailight opening (minor trimming needed to the lens). I had to drill a hole into the tub from inside the taillight opening to get the coax inside. Figured out that I'm a couple of feet short on the length of coax. Bought 12ft, thinking I didn't want to have to loop extra. Next length in pre-packaged coax kits is 18ft. That should give me enough length to route it nice.

Still I tried out tuning it with my SWR meter. Heres what I got:

Channel SWR
1 1.4
19 1.9
40 2.9

Everything I've read said higher SWR at 40 than at 1 is either an antenna that is electrically LONG, or poor ground plane. Before I start snipping the copper on my antenna, I added a temporary ground to the antenna mount. Readings didn't change. I even took the SWR meter off and used the SWR meter that built into my Cobra radio. Readings were a little hard to pinpoint as the meter is smaller on my radio than my inline SWR meter. Still, they came in about the same.

So, I'm thinking that my antenna is LONG and I'm going to have to shorten it. Does it look like I'm going in the right direction?

[CrashEd]

Wait tell you get the 18 foot coax it will change with the longer length and be closer.
Don't coil the extra up in a tight coil make long coils to take up the slack And i alway check channel 1 and 20 try to get them as even as you can some were around one . I have always had best luck with 18 foot coax even if the radio was 3 feet from the antenna i think its standard that thay calibrate the antennas at that length.

Ed