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KC9YYI Not long ago I stumbled across a web page (by John
Reisenauer. KL7JR) about using cb antennas on ham
bands.I
was very interested since I'm an over the road trucker and thought I'd
give it a try.
I followed
John's suggestions about antenna types and whip length. I started out with
a Wilson FGT-3 antenna (3 footer) and a 40 and 3/4 inch whip. After some
pruning I got the swr down to about 1:3:1 on 20 meters with the
antenna mounted between my Tractor and trailer and made a few
contacts with great signal
reports contacts.
The 3 foot
antenna was catching the tree limbs so replaced it with a Wilson FGT-2 and
a 35 inch whip and it tuned down to a flat 1:1:1 swr on 20
meters. A few weeks ago I was in Tacoma, WA and threw my call sign
out and a net control in Florida came back with, "That KC9 mobile go
ahead." "Your about the loudest one out there". When I gave him my
location he said, "Wow! I don't even have to turn my beams to hear
you". You know that made me feel good since I'm only running a 100
watt Kenwood TS-50.
Since I
replaced the 3 foot with the 2 foot antenna, I can very easily
work 17 and 15 meters also. Before you buy an expensive mobile
antenna, I encourage you to try these Wilson antennas. I
don't make a dime from Wilson. I mention them simply because
THEY WORK and also to help other hams with an inexpensive way to go
mobile. I bought 2 Wilson FGT-2 antennas off Ebay for $16
apiece.
As John,
KL7JR mentioned, start out with a metal clothes hanger for a whip and
prune it down to get a good swr then cut a stainless steel whip the same
length.
Wilson and
other CB antennas in use on the ham bands.
Now, lets
talk mobile antennas for a base antenna. WHAT did he
say..??? That's what I said. While in Walcott, IA a few weeks
ago I bought a $26 "Workman Electronics" 4 foot, 20 meter mobile
antenna. When I got home this week I played with it and it just wouldn't
tune down like the Wilson antennas so I took and idea I stole from KL7JR
and made a base antenna out of it and I'm using it right now on my rooftop
at home.
(In the test setup in above photo, I took the 4 foot Workman antenna with a 48 inch whip and screwed it into a 5 inch magnet mount and placed it on a large steel Pizza pan and tried to tune it with no luck. I remembered I had a ground plane kit for an Imax 2000 in my shed. As soon as I laid the radials out and let the threaded end touch the pizza pan... Bingo... Swr was 1:1:1 with R=55 and X=6. Beautiful numbers. I attached the radials to the Pizza pan with 12 gauge wire and the swr never changed. I sat the antenna on my roof and started using it with great results.)
CB antennas
are cheap and fun to play with and they aslo WORK on ham
bands......... Just see the article by John, KL7JR in the link at
the first of this article. He's already done all the leg work and has all
of the numbers. He's been doing it for years.
Note that a tuner may be required on many CB antennas that are used on ham bands. Good luck and happy DXing.... Buddy
KC9YYI.
You can email me for questions >> 1024truck (insert ATsymbol) gmail.com(no spaces) Editor's note... Although this article is not meant to be a "construction" article it should give you some ideas to "roll your own" from inexpensive CB antennas for use on the ham bands. If
you are experimenting with CB antennas on the ham bands and want to share
your fun with us and many thousands of other hams, just send an email to
me, n4ujw at hamuniverse.com, and we will do
our best to help share your fun with many others! It's really easy to have YOUR results on the web and you get the credit! N4UJW
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