First CB setup; Can't Fix SWR; Help?

[SpugEddy]

"Sideband ID Numbers"??? That's the first I have ever heard of that.

It's the new norm, at least, around here. Everybody uses a number
on sideband to identify themselves. Just jump on 38 LSB the next time
conditions are in, and you'll hear it for yourself. Everybody talking
over each other trying to make the furthest contact possible. All of
them using (mostly) 3 digit numbers.
Almost every time skip is in, I hear "Unit 291 Operator Bill in the
Empire State"

 

[davidrfeeney]

Thank you kindly!

Yeah, the RADIOWAVZ Double Bazooka was the first antenna I bought based on reading some articles on the Internet. I kind of want to make it work because I bought it, but I am open to trying another setup if I can't get good performance out of it. Today, I plan to mount the RADIOWAVZ Double Bazooka outside, through a 3rd floor window, in a vertical orientation. Highest point I can get to on my house without walking on my roof. I will update you!

"A simple vertical antenna with an adequate ground plane (or radials) will probably outperform anything else you have, and as noted if you can get it high and outside, much better still."

I am getting the drift that a dipole antenna is kind of complicated, especially mounting in a vertical orientation.

Can you suggest a brand of vertical antenna with ground plane or radials that I might purchase as an alternative to the Double Bazooka?

David
Bucks County, PA 19047

 

[davidrfeeney]

A old link to look at
https://forums.radioreference.com/cb-radio-forum/223794-how-do-you-use-ssb-cb.html
For the mag mount find the largest close to car size metal object to stick it on . It needs a ground plane to work . Try new things this is what makes radio fun.

Thanks! Now that I have the SWR on the Double Bazooka down to 1.5, I took the magmount out of the equation.

The magmount was bought for use on my mobile setup in my car (Midland 75-822 with a Wilson 1000 antenna). I haven't even started that project yet!

David
Bucks County, PA 19047

 

[BloodandRoses]

Just get the a99 without the ground plane kit..

 

[davidrfeeney]

Just get the a99 without the ground plane kit..

I am looking at these two alternate antennas if I can't get signal out with the DOUBLE BAZOOKA dipole mounted outside and vertical...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001JT550G/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I1Z4HJKN3VKVW&colid=AB43JC6GTV48&psc=0

or

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AR0AFCG/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I1XIVBMSMP49B9&colid=AB43JC6GTV48&psc=0

 

[jonwienke]

The second link is for a 144MHz antenna, which will NOT work for 27MHz.

 

[davidrfeeney]

The second link is for a 144MHz antenna, which will NOT work for 27MHz.

Thank you kindly, much appreciated!

 

[AC9BX]

As mentioned "conventional solutions will work much better".
The main goal behind the 'double bazooka' and its ancestors is for very wide bandwidth. (back when MIT designed it for military radar use, not far from 27MHz, it was made with solid large diameter elements) 27MHz CB is narrow, only 450kHz wide, a 1.6% bandwidth. ALL *miracle* antennas that attempt to defy the laws of physics have loss, some more than others. Sometimes that loss is acceptable. If you need the bandwidth and can't get there by other means you'll have to accept the loss. There's no advantage to use this for CB, only disadvantage.

Folding the ends of the antenna back on itself suggests it is the wrong length for your frequency. If the antenna is too long or short your SWR will be high.

Simple wire will be better. Make it yourself. Just get some wire, speaker wire, left over house wire, last several feet on the spool at the hardware store, whatever. All you need is 14 gauge or thereabout. The difference in performance and bandwidth versus wire size is so small it's not worth considering. Use the formula 468/27 (frequency in MHz) for feet, which gives you 17.3 feet. Make that just a bit longer to give yourself slack. Cut in half. There it is, connect the ends to the coax (this can be the tricky part). You trim each half equally, just fold it back and over, test SWR, trim again, until you find the best. You can get dipole center connector units inexpensively at a ham radio supplier or even make your own.

Looking at your picture you have created a random antenna.

I won't go into detail but you will need a common mode choke. Simply make several loops of the coax, only as small as the coax allows easily. This will be rather good at choking off unwanted radiation on the outside of the coax shield, which is certainly happening. Winding it too tightly will distort the cable out of round, that's bad.

Without more sophisticated instruments and an ideal environment proper measurements cannot be made. So SWR is going to be the best you can shoot for. SWR is the power being reflected back to the radio from any impedance mismatch in your system. Radios don't like that. So try to have SWR less than 2 to keep the radio happy.

Never use cheap coax. Low loss cable can make a world of difference.

All of this will misbehave indoors. For local communication you need to get the antenna vertical. A straight dipole has an impedance of about 75 Ohms. Your 50 Ohm radio and 50 Ohm coax will always see a mismatch, you'll never get to a real SWR of 1:1.

Check this out: https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-005865 They come in different lengths, great to feed through a wall or window sill.

 

[davidrfeeney]

Thanks for the advice, I bookmarked that windowsill connector.

New CBer here. Bucks County PA 19047 outside Philadelphia, PA. Set up a UNIDEN 980SSB as a base station in my home with a RADIOWAVZ DOUBLE BAZOOKA dipole antenna.

I just TESTED a PVC PIPE MOUNT that I built yesterday for the RADIOWAVZ DOUBLE BAZOOKA dipole antenna (see photos).

The RADIOWAVZ DOUBLE BAZOOKA is attached to my PVC PIPE MOUNT running indoors from my 3rd floor, and is positioned (almost) vertically.

SUCCESS! GOT THE SWR DOWN TO 1.3 AND CONFIRMED RX AND TX! HOT DIGGITY DAMN, IT WORKS!

My UNIDEN 980SSB is back on the air! https://i.imgur.com/x8NbrGI.jpg

The RADIOWAVZ DOUBLE BAZOOKA antenna is in its new PVC PIPE MOUNT I made today!

https://i.imgur.com/YX1AAm2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/cnLUB5f.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/rPIOKnv.jpg

This weekend, I plan to position the RADIOWAVZ DOUBLE BAZOOKA in PVC PIPE MOUNT outdoors, through my 3rd floor window, in a VERTICAL orientation. If the window mounting works like I think it will, I should be able to ROTATE the entire antenna from VERTICAL to HORIZONTAL from inside the window.

 

[prcguy]

The vertical position will make a lot more contacts but look at your last picture that shows the entire antenna in the stairwell. Whats that I see right next to the upper part of the antenna? Its light switches with all the associated wiring or conduit running inside the wall right next to the antenna. That can destroy the performance of the antenna right out the gate.

For the last time get that antenna outdoors and away from everything, otherwise your only going to see a fraction of what it can do.
prcguy

Thanks for the advice, I bookmarked that windowsill connector.

New CBer here. Bucks County PA 19047 outside Philadelphia, PA. Set up a UNIDEN 980SSB as a base station in my home with a RADIOWAVZ DOUBLE BAZOOKA dipole antenna.

I just TESTED a PVC PIPE MOUNT that I built yesterday for the RADIOWAVZ DOUBLE BAZOOKA dipole antenna (see photos).

The RADIOWAVZ DOUBLE BAZOOKA is attached to my PVC PIPE MOUNT running indoors from my 3rd floor, and is positioned (almost) vertically.

SUCCESS! GOT THE SWR DOWN TO 1.3 AND CONFIRMED RX AND TX! HOT DIGGITY DAMN, IT WORKS!

My UNIDEN 980SSB is back on the air! https://i.imgur.com/x8NbrGI.jpg

The RADIOWAVZ DOUBLE BAZOOKA antenna is in its new PVC PIPE MOUNT I made today!

https://i.imgur.com/YX1AAm2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/cnLUB5f.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/rPIOKnv.jpg

This weekend, I plan to position the RADIOWAVZ DOUBLE BAZOOKA in PVC PIPE MOUNT outdoors, through my 3rd floor window, in a VERTICAL orientation. If the window mounting works like I think it will, I should be able to ROTATE the entire antenna from VERTICAL to HORIZONTAL from inside the window.

 

[davidrfeeney]

For the last time get that antenna outdoors and away from everything, otherwise your only going to see a fraction of what it can do.
prcguy

Thanks for the advice. Did you read the last sentence of my post?

"This weekend, I plan to position the RADIOWAVZ DOUBLE BAZOOKA in PVC PIPE MOUNT outdoors, through my 3rd floor window, in a VERTICAL orientation."

 

[mmckenna]

I plan to position the RADIOWAVZ DOUBLE BAZOOKA in PVC PIPE MOUNT outdoors, through my 3rd floor window, in a VERTICAL orientation."

Make sure it's either well away from the house, or above the roof line.
You'll likely see a noticeable improvement. Should be interesting to hear about your experience after you move it outside.

 

[KC4RAF]

I see the makings of an experimenter ! And that adds to the enjoyment of the CB and the amateur radio operators.

 

[WA0CBW]

Folding each leg back on itself won't be doing your radiation patterns any favors either.
BB

 

[davidrfeeney]

I see the makings of an experimenter ! And that adds to the enjoyment of the CB and the amateur radio operators.

Thanks, kindly! Definitely an experimenter... no choice! LOL

 

[davidrfeeney]

Folding each leg back on itself won't be doing your radiation patterns any favors either.
BB

Thanks, kindly. I've been advised to trim the antenna, but I don't know how to do that, and I don't want to permanently alter it, or ruin it, if I can get it to work without cutting it.

 

[davidrfeeney]

BIG BUX: I THINK I KILLED MY EXTERNAL SWR METER!

New CBer here. Bucks County PA 19047 outside Philadelphia, PA. Set up a UNIDEN 980SSB as a base station in my home with a RADIOWAVZ DOUBLE BAZOOKA dipole antenna.

I mounted my RADIOWAVZ DOUBLE BAZOOKA dipole antenna OUTSIDE, in a VERTICAL position, in the PVC PIPE MOUNT that I made yesterday. The RADIOWAVZ DOUBLE BAZOOKA dipole antenna is running outside my 3rd floor window (highest point in my house).

I was testing the SWR using both the UNIDEN 980SSB internal SWR meter, and this external meter...

Driver's Product SWR Meter for CB Radio Antennas Heavy Duty Metal with SO-239 Input and Output With 3' Jumper Coax Cable https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06VW7N5Q5/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I can turn the RADIOWAVZ DOUBLE BAZOOKA dipole antenna from VERTICAL to HORIZONTAL through the window mount. In the VERTICAL position, the SWR readings from the INTERNAL and EXTERNAL SWR METERS did not match at all.

The UNIDEN INTERNAL SWR METER shows 1.0 to 1.5, every time.

The Driver's Product SWR Meter red needle was immediately and always all the way to the right, in the red, every time. I checked the connections and calibrated it correctly. Needle always all the way to right, in the red, no matter what. Meanwhile, the UNIDEN INTERN SWR always says 1.0 to 1.5.

I powered everything down, reconnected everything correctly, checked the antennna, etc. Then I did another SWR test.

Now, the UNIDEN INTERNAL SWR METER shows 1.0 to 1.5, every time.

Now, the The Driver's Product SWR Meter needle will not move at all. Disconnected, reconnected, needle will not move.

Did I kill my SWR meter?

Did I harm my UNIDEN 980SSB? It powers up, I hear some RX, everything works AOK. Haven't gotten any radio check replies though.

Thanks for your advice. And let me know if you can recommend a quality external SWR meter... looks like I need a new one.

BIG BUX
Bucks County, PA 19047

 

[mmckenna]

I see the makings of an experimenter ! And that adds to the enjoyment of the CB and the amateur radio operators.

Excellent point.

davidrfeeney has done some good experimenting here trying to find the solution. Asking for input here was a good move. That's a lot more than many will do. I agree, I suspect David is about to be bitten by that bug and will be back here in a few months talking about getting his amateur license.

Welcome to the club, David.

 

[davidrfeeney]

Excellent point.

davidrfeeney has done some good experimenting here trying to find the solution. Asking for input here was a good move. That's a lot more than many will do. I agree, I suspect David is about to be bitten by that bug and will be back here in a few months talking about getting his amateur license.

Welcome to the club, David.

Very cool, thanks kindly.

Does blowing up an external SWR meter qualify me? Cause that's what I think I did today (see above post). LOL

Yes, I am looking into amateur radio licensing... I thought experimenting with CB radio first would be a good (and cheaper) way to see if amateur radio is a good fit.

So far, I am having a great time, and there are a ton of helpful folks like this group, on Facebook, Reddit, etc.

 

[jonwienke]

I was testing the SWR using both the UNIDEN 980SSB internal SWR meter, and this external meter...

Driver's Product SWR Meter for CB Radio Antennas Heavy Duty Metal with SO-239 Input and Output With 3' Jumper Coax Cable https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06VW7N5Q5/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Getting a SWR meter that doesn't measure power is pretty much like kissing your sister.

A decent meter will measure both, and have multiple ranges so you can set the meter to not overload/fry it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00579E6RW/
This one is not as spiffy as a Bird, but works reasonably well, and handles far more power than a legal CB can put out--up to 200W.