New CB radio options. Can’t choose.

[mmckenna]

Even though there to be steel below it, would the aluminum screw with that?

Nope. Aluminum is a better conductor than steel (less resistance) and it'll work just fine. I have installed a lot of permanent mount antennas on aluminum body Ford pickups. Ambulance bodies and some fire engines have had aluminum bodies for a long time.

 

[n7lrg]

I have 2 McKinleys. One as a base, one in the truck. Really like the fwd facing speaker. The chassis is DIN so you can mount in a vehicle dash. They are more rugged the the current Unidens. I prefer knobs over buttons.

http://www.bellscb.com

 

[slowmover]

The truck is just a regular tractor daycab but I pull a frame-less 30 foot end-dump trailer.

I think I might’ve heard of those skip shooter antennas but it hasn’t been much. Are they the type that you can just use a regular antenna mount and attach it to the top of your mirror support and actually get an accurate SWR reading with them? I went on Skip shooters website and sent them an email asking if these were antennas that had to have a ground plane or not and what the optimal way was to hook one up but I haven’t heard back from them yet.

Being that I don’t have a sleeper or anything really tall, I’d be just fine with either a 3 foot or a 4 foot fiberglass antenna because as I was saying along time ago with this discussion, from the ground to the top of my stacks is probably only barely 12 feet but from the ground to the top of my cab and the top of my trailer is only barely 10 feet so, an antenna mounted to the top part of my mirror support puts over 75% of it above the highest point on my truck except for the stacks.

The ideal mobile CB antenna is 9’. One quarter wave. Less than 5’ isn’t worth buying.

The higher the better. I run big truck mobile as close to 14’ as I can get (not over).

Getting over the truck/trailer height is great, but I’d still want a minimum 5’ antenna as a general rule.

If you can mount WILSON 2000 or 5000 that’s the overall best choice.

 

[corneileous]

The ideal mobile CB antenna is 9’. One quarter wave. Less than 5’ isn’t worth buying.

The higher the better. I run big truck mobile as close to 14’ as I can get (not over).

Getting over the truck/trailer height is great, but I’d still want a minimum 5’ antenna as a general rule.

I guess I can understand that height but I still have to be careful due to tree limbs and such. That’s why I run 3-foot antenna instead of a 4-foot.

If you can mount WILSON 2000 or 5000 that’s the overall best choice.

Oh I can, I just never thought I needed something like that because after the experience with the K40 I had at one time on these old daycab Pete’s that didn’t seem to perform as well as a regular fiberglass one.

But with all the talk about certain antennas needing to have a ground plane and some that don’t, even though those Wilson antennas are very popular in the trucking industry, do those need a ground plane or not?

But just for grins and giggles, I decided to call up and talk to somebody at Walcott CB there in Iowa and they told me to pretty much stay away from the Wilson antennas because I guess they’re not made anymore how they used to be so I don’t know if I wanna try one of those or not.

 

[cralt]

But just for grins and giggles, I decided to call up and talk to somebody at Walcott CB there in Iowa and they told me to pretty much stay away from the Wilson antennas because I guess they’re not made anymore how they used to be so I don’t know if I wanna try one of those or not.

Yea they where taken over by RoadPro brands.

May not be the coolest thing in the world but I have never had a problem with quality on plain the old Firestik brand antennas. And last I checked they where still made in the USA. Firestik Antenna Company Home Page
The firefly is the thinner real flexible antenna. FireFly "FL Series" Antennas

 

[Rick36695]

CB in the United States was restricted to AM or SSB only; FM has been allowed in many other countries for years, but the FCC recently approved it for use in the US in addition to AM and SSB

The FCC approved FM for CB use July 15th 2021

 

[corneileous]

I decided to take some time and recheck the SWR on my radio. As mentioned, I have an Astatic meter, model # PDC1. I started out with a reading of 2.3 on channel 1 and a reading of 1.5 on channel 40. The best I could come up with after tinkering with it was 1.9 on channel 1 and 2.0 on channel 40. And whether or not when checking SWR if you’re supposed to flip the switch from forward to reflected while keying the mic, this was done via releasing the mic button while switching from FWD to REF and rekeying to take the reading.

Hopefully this is the right way but I start on 1, put the meter on FWD and key up. Then I turn the needle with the calibrate knob to the appropriate SET place on the scale then let go of the mic button- switch to REF, key up and record the reading. Do all of that on channel 40 and if SWR is higher on 1 then antenna is too short- SWR higher on 40, antenna too long.

Also when I checked my power output, it was right at 4 watts. I thought the guy who peaked and tuned it got it up to 6 but maybe I misunderstood him.

Edited to add-
Oh, and before I did all that, I made sure my extra coax was wound in a figure 8 loop about I dunno, 12, 13 inches. Found a CB website that said to do that but to my surprise, I don’t think I have exactly an 18-foot coax. It’s probably a 12-foot or whatever the next size is between a 12 and an 18.

 

[corneileous]

I just also got off the phone with somebody at fire stick and they really recommended that even though being with the type of truck I drive with no sleeper and no 13‘6“ tall trailer behind me, he said pretty much any length of coax will work with the antenna that I have but he recommended the same antenna that was 4 foot only because just to get the top coil of the antenna further away from the metal that’s on the truck so one of these days, I may try that and retune the SWR because he did say that my current SWR readings at basically 2 was kind of high and he said I could probably lower that just by going with the longer antenna. For whatever it’s worth, really the only reason why I’m using a 3 foot antenna is just for clearance but when I suggested using one of those little break-over adapters that they sell at truckstops that essentially lets you break over your antenna for clearance that keeps you from having to remove it, he said that would be fine, I would just have to re-tune the SWR for that, if I put one of those on.

But all in all, he said that for what I would probably lose if I went with a true no ground plane antenna that I would be better off with just essentially having the same antenna that I have over here on top of my mirror mount as long as it’s grounded since drilling a hole in this cab and mounting an antenna up there is kind of out of the question.

 

[KD8DVR]

FM is coming to CB. Look for a radio that supports that mode. I've got my eye on a Anytone AT-6666.

I believe the Lincoln covers the 12 and 10 meter ham bands only; that power level wouldn't pass type acceptance for CB in the US, and frequency coverage doesn't appear to include 26-27 MHz (the CB band).



From what I've been told by happy President users, the President line of radios receive a far better alignment at the factory (as well as being so well designed) that post-manufacture "peaking" and "tuning" isn't necessary. Apparently most manufacturers give their radios a quickie tuneup at the factory to make sure they're within frequency tolerance and then ship em' out, while President actually takes the time to do a proper alignment (make sure they actually put out the legal power limit, spot-on frequency, modulation levels optimized without being too hot, etc).

I've been seriously considering getting a McKinley for my truck to replace the old GE 40-channel AM model that's wandering around the garage somewhere, but now that the FCC has approved FM on the CB bands I may hold off for the AM/SSB+FM version.

I use an Andy II in my car. Excellent radio. I'll, of course, upgrade when President releases an FM-capable model.....but who knows when that'll be.

 

[mmckenna]

The FCC approved FM for CB use July 15th 2021

Not quite yet. It'll be late October before it actually becomes part of Part 95. There's a 30 day wait after it's posted, I think that lands us on/around October 28th for it to be official.

Would be a good idea to start watching the OET page to see who shows up for FCC type certifications. Before any of the current FM capable radios can be sold/used in the USA, they'll need to get approved. Since Cobra was the company filing for the reconsideration, I'd expect them to show up first, but I'm sure President will be right behind them.

 

[corneileous]

Update….. I know some of you guys said Wilson isn’t who they once were since Road Pro bought them out but I decided to get another antenna; I got pretty much the 3-foot Wilson version of the FireStik I currently have and I bought a new 18-foot coax from Wilson.

They didn’t have a 4-foot anything with an adjustable tip so I went with the Wilson antenna only because it uses a set screw to secure the steel whip at the top whereas the FS uses a round-headed threaded screw with a lock nut and being that the little vinyl cap at the top is so doggone hard to remove, I thought the Wilson would be better at keeping the adjustable tip tight where I set it when I have to get rough with the antenna trying to get that cap off. I went with the Wilson coax because it was made to where you could remove the big, metal connector which made the install of the coax a lot better because this time, I was able to punch a hole in the wing-window gasket and run the coax through that rather than pinching the cable between the gasket and the window like I always have which, yeah, I know is a no-no but desperate times call for desperate measures….lol.

After the install, I did have to raise the top about a half inch or so but I was however able to achieve a much better SWR this time, though. I’m currently at 1.75[between 1.7 and 1.8] on channel 1 and 1.5 on channel 40 with an SWR lower than 1 on channel 19. Need I mess with it anymore at this point or leave it be?

 

[ronnielewis18]

Why choose President - Group President Electronics USA

Why choose President

president-electronics.us

Love the McKinley 40/ ssb

 

[ronnielewis18]

Can’t turn it off, huh? That’s kind of a bummer but at least I was able to turn that off on my cobra but that pretty much was just only because they made it to where you can turn it off.


That’s a pretty neat feature that would sure be nice to have bein’ that a lot of times I run my radio with the squelch turned up kind of high because depending on where I’m at, sometimes I have to keep turning the squelch up higher just to stop with all the static sometimes and then when somebody hollers at me over the radio, I won’t be able to hear it for very long as I’ve turned my squelch up too high…lol.





Do you know by any chance if it’s a regular four pin? I’m not sure how good the microphones are with either the Uniden or that McKinley but I kinda do like my road king 56 mic even it is one of the newer, less-quality ones. I got rid of the lousy straight cord that it had that was wrapped up in that chrome wire loom after it started cutting out on me when I keyed up but the new coiled cord works much better after I found out I had to completely change where the wires were attached on the plug of that new cord… Lol.

The McKinley Mic is light weight but well made, its a great Mic along with a great radio right out of the box!

 

[corneileous]

The McKinley Mic is light weight but well made, its a great Mic along with a great radio right out of the box!

That’s good. I may be actually be upgrading quicker than I think because, I don’t know what it is with my cobra but even before it was peaked and tuned, there’s something about channel 4 when I key up on that channel because every once in a while, the radio will act like it force-reboots itself or something. It doesn't show an antenna warning but all the words will disappear from the screen and then reappear.

 

[mmckenna]

After the install, I did have to raise the top about a half inch or so but I was however able to achieve a much better SWR this time, though. I’m currently at 1.75[between 1.7 and 1.8] on channel 1 and 1.5 on channel 40 with an SWR lower than 1 on channel 19. Need I mess with it anymore at this point or leave it be?

With those numbers, it's looking like it's a bit long. You can try shortening the whip a bit and see if it drops.

-Usually it's a good idea to work in 1/8" increments and see if it's moving in the right direction. But since you are not actually cutting the whip, you could probably do 1/4" at a time and see what happens.

-If you added the fold over adapter at the base, it may make the antenna too long, and there may not be enough adjustment in the whip to adjust SWR low enough. Try removing that adapter if you added it.

-In reality, any SWR below 2:1 is considered adequate. If you can easily lower it, that's a good idea, but don't get hung up on it too much. It doesn't really do much other than add to the bragging rights.

 

[mmckenna]

Once you get it close, switch to channel 19 and run the SWR test again. Most users want lowest SWR on channel 19 since it's the center frequency of the CB band (yes, even if channel 20 is the center channel, the frequency layout puts the center on 19).

Ideal tuning would give you lowest SWR on 19, and pretty dang close numbers on 1 and 40. That would mean your antenna was tuned as good as it's going to get.

 

[corneileous]

With those numbers, it's looking like it's a bit long. You can try shortening the whip a bit and see if it drops.

-Usually it's a good idea to work in 1/8" increments and see if it's moving in the right direction. But since you are not actually cutting the whip, you could probably do 1/4" at a time and see what happens.

-If you added the fold over adapter at the base, it may make the antenna too long, and there may not be enough adjustment in the whip to adjust SWR low enough. Try removing that adapter if you added it.

-In reality, any SWR below 2:1 is considered adequate. If you can easily lower it, that's a good idea, but don't get hung up on it too much. It doesn't really do much other than add to the bragging rights.

I might later on fool with the SWR’s a little more. Come to think of it, I probably only raised the tip 3/8ths of an inch, not closer to half but yeah, I never did get the fold-over base because they didn’t have one. I figured since I couldn’t find a four-foot antenna like I was looking for, I just figured I didn’t need it.

But im curious- the reason I’m asking is because the packaging did a crap job explaining it but what is the short little ground wire that’s at the base of my new antenna for? It was zip-tied out of the way at the factory but I think it might be for going to one of the bolts on the antenna bracket but I can’t imagine why being that when the antenna cable is unhooked from the base, the top part that the antenna screws into shouldn’t be grounded like the bracket is which, I made sure was grounded. I just took a test light and hooked the ground to a bolt on the bracket and stuck the lead into a map light socket and it lit up.

I also ended up changing the base out because when I checked to make sure the upper part of the base wasn’t grounded, I didn’t notice the coax was still plugged in so I went ahead and replaced it with a new one that I had but I did verify the new one is not grounded but, was probably a good thing I did because it looked like the little plastic strip on the inside wasn’t there so I just went ahead and replaced it.

 

[mmckenna]

I might later on fool with the SWR’s a little more. Come to think of it, I probably only raised the tip 3/8ths of an inch, not closer to half but yeah, I never did get the fold-over base because they didn’t have one. I figured since I couldn’t find a four-foot antenna like I was looking for, I just figured I didn’t need it.

From what you say your usage case is, I'm pretty confident that the 3 foot antenna is a good compromise between performance and clearance. There will always be performance changes you can make, but at some point you'll find a happy medium.

But im curious- the reason I’m asking is because the packaging did a crap job explaining it but what is the short little ground wire that’s at the base of my new antenna for? It was zip-tied out of the way at the factory but I think it might be for going to one of the bolts on the antenna bracket but I can’t imagine why being that when the antenna cable is unhooked from the base, the top part that the antenna screws into shouldn’t be grounded like the bracket is which, I made sure was grounded. I just took a test light and hooked the ground to a bolt on the bracket and stuck the lead into a map light socket and it lit up.

Depends on the antenna design. If it is a true 5/8th's wave, there will be an impedance matching transformer in the base. One side of that would need to be grounded.
But I've found that taking the info from CB antenna manufacturers with a grain of salt is a good idea. They usually want you to believe that their specific brand has some magic voodoo technology that makes theirs work better than the other guys. Truth is, antennas are governed by the laws of physics, and no manufacturer has figured out how to cheat those laws yet. But they really want you to think they did.

Try grounding that lead to the mirror bracket and see if it helps.

Making sure the bracket was properly grounded is a good step. Just be aware, if it is a 5/8th's wave antenna, you'll see a connection from ground to the top of the whip with that short wire grounded. That's normal.

I also ended up changing the base out because when I checked to make sure the upper part of the base wasn’t grounded, I didn’t notice the coax was still plugged in so I went ahead and replaced it with a new one that I had but I did verify the new one is not grounded but, was probably a good thing I did because it looked like the little plastic strip on the inside wasn’t there so I just went ahead and replaced it.

Well, now you have a spare base. Spare parts are always a good thing.

 

[cralt]

After the install, I did have to raise the top about a half inch or so but I was however able to achieve a much better SWR this time, though. I’m currently at 1.75[between 1.7 and 1.8] on channel 1 and 1.5 on channel 40 with an SWR lower than 1 on channel 19. Need I mess with it anymore at this point or leave it be?

On a 3' antenna I think its good. On short antennas like that as long as I am under 2 and see a dip in the center then im happy.
If you took a reading on each channel and plotted it out then it should look like this.

Your antenna should be 9' for 27mhz but is squished down to 3'. It will be really hard to get a flat SWR curve with that. You can move the dip up and down the band by turning that little screw on the top but it will be really hard to flatten the line with a 3' antenna. The more compromised (shorter) the antenna the sharper the dip will be.

short little ground wire that’s at the base of my new antenna for?

That little wire is supposed to go to ground. Its long enough and has an eye on it that is supposed to go under one of the nuts on a typical truck mirror antenna mount. If its the Wilson Silver Load I had one of those years ago and one like it made by Francis. With the salt crap they put on roads here it didn't take long for that little wire to rot off of each after only a year.

I think the Firestik guy is right about getting the antenna up in to more free airspace. Firefly's are 23 bux on amazon. I think a 4' firefly will tune better and TALK better. Keep the 3' Wilson as a spare in case the 4' gets damaged from wacking things. Longer and higher is always better with CB antennas.

If there was 1 antenna system that worked for everyone in every usecase then there wouldn't be so many options. Sometimes you have to just go out and experiment with different stuff and see what works for you on your truck. I have 3 different vehicles with radios in them and they each have what I found to work on that specific ride. 1 has a firestik, 1 a Larson, and the other a Hustler.

 

[corneileous]

On a 3' antenna I think its good. On short antennas like that as long as I am under 2 and see a dip in the center then im happy.
If you took a reading on each channel and plotted it out then it should look like this.
View attachment 110369
Your antenna should be 9' for 27mhz but is squished down to 3'. It will be really hard to get a flat SWR curve with that. You can move the dip up and down the band by turning that little screw on the top but it will be really hard to flatten the line with a 3' antenna. The more compromised (shorter) the antenna the sharper the dip will be.

Hmm. Interesting.

That little wire is supposed to go to ground. Its long enough and has an eye on it that is supposed to go under one of the nuts on a typical truck mirror antenna mount. If its the Wilson Silver Load I had one of those years ago and one like it made by Francis. With the salt crap they put on roads here it didn't take long for that little wire to rot off of each after only a year.

It’s a Wilson Silver Load but the instructions on the back of the package don’t mention using that little wire until it starts talking about using two of those antennas in a co-phase system. Something about, when both antennas can’t achieve an SWR lower than 2, you hook one or both ground wires to the bracket. Like I said, it doesn’t mention using it for a single antenna but why would you, even in a co-phase? Like @mmckenna said, all the manufacturers seem to claim they have some magic technology to one-up their competitors but how would essentially grounding the antenna to the chassis improve anything when your antenna is only supposed to be grounded obviously through the coax. Maybe that’s a bad choice of words to use but when the coax is disconnected, the antenna isn’t supposed to be grounded to the chassis.

[quoteI think the Firestik guy is right about getting the antenna up in to more free airspace. Firefly's are 23 bux on amazon. I think a 4' firefly will tune better and TALK better. Keep the 3' Wilson as a spare in case the 4' gets damaged from wacking things. Longer and higher is always better with CB antennas.
[/QUOTE]

I have no doubt that he is but I think while I’m still running this Cobra, I might just stick to the Wilson I bought today and if I get another radio, I’ll most likely look into that 4’ FS.

By the way, when I called up Walcott CB today, the guy recommended the President Richard radio. That a good one?