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Moonraker CB antenne 5/8 (or 1/2 ?)

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K7MEM

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A mobile CB antenna is supposed to use the roof of the car like ground plane, isn't it ?

What happened if I mount it on a grounded (earth) pole with the braid of the coax connected to the pole ?

Is this something someone can use ?

That would probably work to some degree. But you might have a lot of trouble getting a good match (high SWR). The vertical portion of that antenna is only half of an antenna. The ground plane is the other half. The pole, by itself, even though it is grounded, does not provide a sufficient ground plane.

A better idea would be to use an array of wires, laid out on the ground around the feed point. Each radial should be approximately 1/4 wavelength (9') and extend away from the feed point. As it is ground mounted, the lengths do not have to be exact. As a minimum, you should use four wires. Generally, more is better.

I have a multi-band vertical antenna (5BTV) that is mounted at the top of a 18' section of 2" iron pipe. At the feed point, I attached four radials for each band (40, 20, 15, 10 Meters). Because the antenna is elevated, the radials are tuned for each band and angle down at 45 degrees. The antenna has good low angle of radiation and works great. I don't use it on 80 Meters, because a lightening strike made the 80 Meter resonator explode!

Martin - K7MEM
 

prcguy

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No, the antenna wants to see a large flat sheet of metal under it as a ground plane and simply grounding it with a wire is not the same. You can use a wire mesh or something we call chicken wire for making chicken coups works fine.

You could cover an area of your roof, at least 2m square with wire mesh but larger is better and place the antenna in the middle of the wire mesh with the coax braid going to the wire mesh. An ideal size for the ground plane would be about 6m square.
prcguy



A mobile CB antenna is supposed to use the roof of the car like ground plane, isn't it ?

What happend if I mount it on a grounded (earth) pole with the braid of the coax conected to the pole ?

Is this something someone can use ?

Thanks,
Daniel
 

danielvi

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Is the strenght of a signal in vecinity of antenna (20-40 meters) a proff that antenna is working fine ?

With other words is there a minimum distance from antenna where the signal should be 9 or 9+30, 9+40 ?

I'm talking about 27 MHz and a 5/8 antenna about 6 meters high and no obstacles arround 50m.

Daniel.
 

jonwienke

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No. There is no standard calibration for S-meters, and they are not accurately calibrated.
 

prcguy

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There is a standard and most are not accurately calibrated. The standard since about the late 1960s is 50uV or about -73dBm for "S9" with 6dB per S unit between S0 and S9. After S9 its in dB over S9.

Before the late 60s the old Collins standard was S9 = 100uV or -67dBm. I believe the newer standard was pushed on the scene by Japanese mfrs.
prcguy

No. There is no standard calibration for S-meters, and they are not accurately calibrated.
 
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