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Lack of a ground plain

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04Z1V6

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May 3, 2008
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Castle Rock, Co.
I will be installing a cb on my Gold Wing GL1800 and everyone knows that any motorcycle has very little ground plain. Is there a good way to help with this problem at all? I have been on every motorcycle board and this becomes a popcorn eating thread every time. Please I am looking for known good information. I am using a firestik antenna. We are told by firestik not to cut the antenna cable so it is rolled up in the top of the trunk and the cb is in the bottom were it is made to go.
 

prcguy

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Jun 30, 2006
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So Cal - Richardson, TX - Tewksbury, MA
A capacitor around 50pf across the coax at the feed point will help with the match on a shortened CB whip when there is not enough ground plane. For a stock CB a 50v rated ceramic disc capacitor would be fine. If you want to get fancy a 500v rated dipped silver mica should handle up to 1kw. You might want to try a 25, 50, 75 and 100pf cap and see which one matches best with the stock antenna, then trim the antenna for the best match.
prcguy

I will be installing a cb on my Gold Wing GL1800 and everyone knows that any motorcycle has very little ground plain. Is there a good way to help with this problem at all? I have been on every motorcycle board and this becomes a popcorn eating thread every time. Please I am looking for known good information. I am using a firestik antenna. We are told by firestik not to cut the antenna cable so it is rolled up in the top of the trunk and the cb is in the bottom were it is made to go.
 

jackj

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Jul 19, 2007
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1,548
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NW Ohio
prcguy has some good suggestions. But I think I'd cut the coax to fit and use an antenna matcher between the radio and the antenna coax. Tune for the lowest SWR and that should also help increase the radiated power. It won't do anything for the angle of radiation but then the capacitor won't either.
 
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