CB Antenna to 2M Ham?

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n5ims

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It will most likely perform pretty poorly on receive and totally destroy the finals on transmit.
 

frankblues

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I modified a cobra el-cheapo magmount for 2m, had to get rid of almost all of the loading coil for it to work, and it really doesn't work very well. About 1.4-1.7 SWR across the band. It is being replaced with an actual 2m/70cm antenna at the earliest convenience. CB antenna as it is might tune for 10m since they are close, but again, probably won't work as well as an antenna made for that band.
 

btritch

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The problem here is a CB antenna is 11Meters, You're wanting to use it for 2Meters, That's a pretty good chunk of the band away, Now I have heard in the past, I have never tried it, Just heard that you can take an 11 Meter CB antenna and alter it for 10 Meter Ham since it's not that far away, I can't remember how but I've heard it can be done, But that is from 11Meter to 10 Meter, Not 11 Meter to 2 Meter... I agree with above posts, It'll mess everything up, Then you'll be in a bigger mess than you were to begin with, bad plan, Pretty good Idea though...
 

k8mcn

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The problem here is a CB antenna is 11Meters, You're wanting to use it for 2Meters, That's a pretty good chunk of the band away, Now I have heard in the past, I have never tried it, Just heard that you can take an 11 Meter CB antenna and alter it for 10 Meter Ham since it's not that far away, I can't remember how but I've heard it can be done, But that is from 11Meter to 10 Meter, Not 11 Meter to 2 Meter... I agree with above posts, It'll mess everything up, Then you'll be in a bigger mess than you were to begin with, bad plan, Pretty good Idea though...

Depending how much adjustment there is as you would have to lengthen the whip---11 meter 1/4 wave approx 102 inches but 10 meters is 103.5 give or take a little as to what part of each band your wanting to make resonant.
 

KC0QNB

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Again NO, don't bother buy the right antenna for the band you want to transmit on. period, hells bells just spend the money, buy the you cut everything up just to find it doesn't work and you used to have a cb antenna, you have spent hours of your time figure your time at what ever you make per hour at work, if you make 8 dollars an hour and spend 5 hours screwing around you have spent 40 dollars about the price of an antenna, now you have trashed a 30 dollar cb antenna that adds up to 70 bucks wasted, poof , gone forever, now you have to spend another 60 bucks to by the right antenna, mount and cable. 130 bucks invested when you really only needed to spend 50 or 60.
there are people that predictably spend a dollar to save a dime. I will quit now... for the moment.
Use your head for something other than a hat rack.
 

northzone

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Depending how much adjustment there is as you would have to lengthen the whip---11 meter 1/4 wave approx 102 inches but 10 meters is 103.5 give or take a little as to what part of each band your wanting to make resonant.

How come people post when they don't even know the very basics. 10 meters is a higher frequency than 11 meters. Higher frequency means shorter antenna. 10 meters is the full wavelength of the that band, most antennas are a 1/4 wavelength. For instance, 2 meters means 2 meter wavelength, a quarter wave antenna would be 1/2 of a meter (2 meters divided by 4) or about 18 inches.
 

k8mcn

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i hope it made you feel really BIG

How come people post when they don't even know the very basics. 10 meters is a higher frequency than 11 meters. Higher frequency means shorter antenna. 10 meters is the full wavelength of the that band, most antennas are a 1/4 wavelength. For instance, 2 meters means 2 meter wavelength, a quarter wave antenna would be 1/2 of a meter (2 meters divided by 4) or about 18 inches.

so now you can read minds, you know that i dont have any comprehension of the "basics"
i got it backwards,
a simple correction without the degradation would have been sufficient---i hope it made you feel really BIG and Super Duper...............10-4 good buddy???????
 

KC0QNB

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To the OP I forgot one thing you would need to buy an antenna analyzer to see what frequency your mickey moused antenna would resonate at, another 200 bucks. so now we are at $330, that is a real high priced antenna!
 

frankblues

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To the OP I forgot one thing you would need to buy an antenna analyzer to see what frequency your mickey moused antenna would resonate at, another 200 bucks. so now we are at $330, that is a real high priced antenna!

The cobra I mentioned before, I cut the loading coil the first time by guestimation, and then went back with an MFJ analyzer and cut a whole bunch more off. The antenna was originally $5, and I fully expected to get the performance out of it I paid for. An antenna analyzer is a great piece of test equipment for any shack, HAM or otherwise, and well worth the price.
 

KC0QNB

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Not really but you know different things trigger different responses, I just need to leave things alone until I relax more. You know common sense is not that common anymore, kind of reminded me of a kid I met several years ago had an am only cb and wanted to change it to do ssb as well, I told him why bother just go buy the right equipment, well as it turned out he tried it anyway by grabbing parts of ideas spent hundreds of dollars to end up with a no good am cb, when all he had to do was go spend $179 to get a cobra 148.
Or the farmer that didn't want to spend a couple hundred to replace his electric motor starter, so he rigged it so it the starter wouldn't kick out when the motor overloaded, and burned up the motor and trashed the pump panel, $7000 and change later he bought a new motor and pump panel, this kind of BS just doesn't make sense to me. Ok one more then I will quit,
Every spring after planting season all the implement dealers here offer a pre- season combine service special most of the farmers don't give it a thought, then when their combine breaks down during harvest because of a 100 dollar bearing locked up because the grease was gone, they spend thousands and thousands to get the machine back up and running when all they had to do was get the machine checked for a few hundred dollars. I guess it is human nature to try to find a cheaper way around, and end up spending more than they had to in the first place.
I yield back.
 

KC0QNB

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I wouldn't but that is just me I never buy anything I can't touch, and look at.
My maxrad 5/8 wave cost me about $60 of course it was a permanent mount therefor cheaper than a magnetic mount, I wouldn't spend much less than that for a vhf antenna system cable mount and antenna. Perhaps more if I saw a marked benefit.
You do what you want and spend your money the way you see fit, but no whinin or complainin when it fails, promise?
 

btritch

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Not really but you know different things trigger different responses, I just need to leave things alone until I relax more. You know common sense is not that common anymore, kind of reminded me of a kid I met several years ago had an am only cb and wanted to change it to do ssb as well, I told him why bother just go buy the right equipment, well as it turned out he tried it anyway by grabbing parts of ideas spent hundreds of dollars to end up with a no good am cb, when all he had to do was go spend $179 to get a cobra 148.
Or the farmer that didn't want to spend a couple hundred to replace his electric motor starter, so he rigged it so it the starter wouldn't kick out when the motor overloaded, and burned up the motor and trashed the pump panel, $7000 and change later he bought a new motor and pump panel, this kind of BS just doesn't make sense to me. Ok one more then I will quit,
Every spring after planting season all the implement dealers here offer a pre- season combine service special most of the farmers don't give it a thought, then when their combine breaks down during harvest because of a 100 dollar bearing locked up because the grease was gone, they spend thousands and thousands to get the machine back up and running when all they had to do was get the machine checked for a few hundred dollars. I guess it is human nature to try to find a cheaper way around, and end up spending more than they had to in the first place.
I yield back.

I wouldn't but that is just me I never buy anything I can't touch, and look at.
My maxrad 5/8 wave cost me about $60 of course it was a permanent mount therefor cheaper than a magnetic mount, I wouldn't spend much less than that for a vhf antenna system cable mount and antenna. Perhaps more if I saw a marked benefit.
You do what you want and spend your money the way you see fit, but no whinin or complainin when it fails, promise?

I agree with both of these...I was just curious, Never saw you go off like that, LOL, I guess we all do sometime or nother...
 

stevolene

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you can buy a mag mount 2 meter antenna for under 30 bucks or less from just about any reputable ham vendor, check out gigaparts, or ham radio outlet, r&l electronics, etc, a 1/4 wave mag mount is very inexpensive
 

Grog

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If you had an old 102" "stainless" steel whip (11/10 meter) you could always cut it down to a 1/4 wave on whatever VHF frequency you wanted to use it on.

Would it be a waste? Maybe

Would it be a really sturdy VHF 1/4 wave antenna? Hell Yes :D
 
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