spdyracer

just got my cb and hooking it all up. i have my antenna mounted to my rear bumper which is powder coated. do i need to scrape off the powder where the antenna mounts so it has contact to bare metal for a ground?

88 Ex Jay

Your ground should come out of the CB radio along with your positive wire and possibly an acc wire, ground it near your CB. The antenna just needs to be mounted, no ground. So no, but you do need an antenna wire to connect the CB and antenna.

OEJ

your ground plane is not where it should be if you are mounting your ant. on the bumber. hence your signal strength will be week.

you should be about 18" from the top of roof. so from the bottom of the ant coil up should measure 18" on up the ant mast. google cb ground plane. it will explain better than i can.

my ant mount to the top of my tailights. i'm having extension risers made that will be 24". then my coils,then my antennas. you want to avoid reflection off of the C-pillars of the jeep.hope this helps.

spdyracer

Thanks for the help. I do have my cb grounded I was just trying to figure out if the antenna needed to be grounded also. I have a jcr bumper with tire carrier the antenna mounts on top of the carrier in the center. About 3/4 of the antenna is above the roof. I'm going to try setting the swr again tonight I read up more about it last night and found out I was doing several things wrong like standing next to the antenna while adjusting it and having my wife tell me the reading. Also was parked right next my house and also had one of the doors open on the Cherokee. Thanks again for the help!

ericfx1984

yes the antenna should be grounded... but hey what do I know...

ericfx1984

Buddy you need the antenna to be grounded, other wise you have an end fed antenna, ie no ground place. it would be like having half an antenna, the body of the vehicle is part of the antenna system. I mean I can unhook 3 plug wires on my Jeep and it will run... just not right

88 Ex Jay

I guess that makes mine end fed, cuz I don't need an antenna ground!!!

ericfx1984

It makes you the guy that opened his mouth without actual knowledge

there are more issues than that, you are missing half you antenna system, but the funny part is you are likely grounded and don't even
realize it...

just because something operates does not mean it is doing so correctly or effectively

so... ummm... what are your qualifications to make this judgment?

88 Ex Jay

WOW !!!, That's all I gotta say, last post, not gunna you.

OEJ

BIG HUGGS FOR ERIC.
sorry bro it just seemed like you needed a hug. so much hostility??......

most newer ant have built in grounds.the wilsons,firesticks and the custom wound coil spring ant do too. but all of them have to be tuned.

ericfx1984

I know this, they are called artificial grounds, it's normally a coil of insulated wire...

a firestik does not have a built in ground, it's a stick of fiberglass with wire wrapped around it (helically wound antenna)

I have built antennas for everything from 1.8Mhz to 440Mhz and everything in between (yes even CB 27Mhz)

at 1.8Mhz the antenna is around 135ft long, mounted on the ground and supported by a tree, the braid side of the coax is dumped to 3 ground rods and an equal length wire that is laid on the ground (eventually mother nature pulls it into the ground)

I would welcome the hugs in all honesty, it's been a rough 3 months

ericfx1984

take the A-99 base antenna, it is a no ground setup, however if you ground it and add radials guess what, it works better, a lot better, and the receive is 'cleaner'... same with the Imax 2000

the principals that apply to base antennas also apply to mobile

my point is, that I carry an FCC Amateur General license, I know a thing or 2 about the subject, and I have the proof hanging on the wall.

I am not saying that no ground will not work, I am just saying that it will ot work as well as it could

and just because they sell a no ground setup does not mean that it's a good idea... there are plenty of things that get sould that are not at all good ideas.

spdyracer

I got a chance to mess with it today and found my problems. I had the stud on the bottom of the mount and the spring and Firestik on top. I put the stud with the nylon washer on top and took some powder off the bottom of the mount to make a ground. Now I'm getting readings between 1.3 and 1.5. Thanks again for the help to a cb newbie

stormitecture

i am a ham too, so don't take this too personally...but a ham ticket don't mean jack. You either know about antennas or you don't. Any of these fools (fun sarcasm) can look antenna information up on the web. Granted hams have a much more honest and factual basis for electronic knowledge, the license itself isn't much of anything.

ericfx1984

your right, a lot of guys do just get the ticket and memorize the answers with no ability to to apply it... my most entertaining contact had to be 40m missouri, to Spain on 35ft of steel baling wire and 100 watts phone... he sounded so surprised when I told him I was talking on baling wire