Davidbt
Member
I think there is access under the cab that leads under the rear seat. I'm still researching it on the 5th gen ram form.
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niceguy71
Active Member
I'm not a fan of putting the coax between the cab and the bed... if the excess coax moves... no big deal if it goes in the bed.... but if it goes under the truck and drags on the tar ... or touches the drive shaft or exhaust..... the way I showed you.. it will never fall to the ground... and you can take the antenna off the roof and run it through the car wash as the antenna and ALL the coax will be in the bed lower than any of the car wash brushes.
niceguy71
Active Member
tomorrow find a tall hill you can park your dodge on.... or try it from the driveway... and put it on 37 or 38 lower side band let the radio warm up for 10 minutes... turn the watts about 3/4 of the way up ( I hardly ever go past the halfway mark ) ...make up a three digit number and like 835 and say anyone have a copy on 835 in Arizona??? bet you'll talk to a lot of people tomorrow
use any numbers you want but NOT 309 ... that's Jenny's number and she gets really mad if you use her number.
use any numbers you want but NOT 309 ... that's Jenny's number and she gets really mad if you use her number.
Davidbt
Member
Thanks. I sat in the driveway earlier today and tried. I'll have to pay attention to warming the radio up though. If you hear 717 Sierra Vista, that will be me.
Davidbt
Member
I could drive a little up our local mountain and try sometime. I live in South East Arizona and our mountains are spread out. The Native Apache called them Sky Islands.
slowmover
Active Member
A pleasure to read this.
niceguy71
Active Member
by the way, the antenna looks good there! and I think it will still work out fairly well.
Davidbt
Member
I drove up the mountain to today. I was probably at about 5,600ft elevation. Our little town is right at 4,600ft. I heard a lot of people from around the states. No one answered my calls out there. My town is very quite on gmrs also. There's some business, schools using murs. I tried using scan on am, but there's just too much interference right now.
niceguy71
Active Member
I honestly don't get that????
you're on 37 and 38 LSB???? you have your watts turned up about halfway up????
my old President Grant from 1989 is pretty much stock I had it peaked and tuned and they clipped the Clarifier in 89 ... it does 27 watts on SIDE BAND... much less than your QT80... much much less!!! so my radio doesn't hold a candle to that QT80
I know everyday is different on conditions and I wasn't out today to see how they were... but most times if I get in my F150 I just leave it on 19 listening.... if I go out of town ( meaning I'll be in the F-150 for 10 plus minutes ,,, maybe once every few weeks)
I usually turn it on 37/38 LSB and see how far I can get ( just for fun) .... it seems to be the usual places.... always Florida, Texas,..... i always hear 777 in Colorado he must live on the radio...., Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee ... someone always in Colorado Springs.... I usually get two or three people in California once in a while I get Oregon and Washington State... Ohio is pretty common too.... ....and sometimes Arizona????
so if you were out between 10AM and 4PM YOUR TIME you certainly should have made some contacts...
I can make several in less than 10 minutes ... my base station does the whole country and many many other countries... the UK, Scotland, Ireland, France, South Africa, Jamacia, and many others
my F150 has a regular cab... so my cab roof is very small... your roof is much bigger and the place you have your Tram 3500 looks like it would be in the middle of the roof if it was my roof ( meaning my antenna is 18 inches from the front windshield and about 18 inches from the third brake light.) looks like where your antenna is.
so you should be making tons of contacts..... with that said I know it's like fishing when you're using a mobile... somedays they jump in the boat and other days you get nothing??? but I'm still shocked you didn't get anyone.... try a few more times .... if you don't get anyone I will share the RF Bonding on my F150... could that make that much of a difference????.... and as for elevation... I'm 8 miles from the ocean so I guess I'm at sea levelI
I heard someone trying to call someone in Massachusetts... so I waited to hear them... I never did so I tried... I think I heard Arizona in there?
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Davidbt
Member
I'm 16 miles from the Mexican border. About as far south as you can get, other than maybe the Southern tip of Texas? I heard someone from the Sedona area. Like I mentioned, I'm going to using 717 Sierra Vista
niceguy71
Active Member
I'll be out in my garage on my base tomorrow at 10:00 AM my time ...7AM your time and will give you a call on whatever channel is less busy
Davidbt
Member
Ha!! I'm just gittin out of bed at 10AM your time 🤣 tomorrow is happy hour Friday and the it's our turn to host, so I'll be helping my wife clean the house and then we will be off grocery shopping, thanks 😊
Davidbt
Member
Update, I moved the ground wire into the cab of my truck. I drove to a open area of town and checked the swr's. 1.2 on channel 1 and 1.0 or less on channel 40, the needle hardly moved on 40. I was finally able to make a contact to someone in Missouri on lsb 38. I had the rear of my truck pointed towards the east, which might make a difference since my magnetic antenna sets towards the back of the cab. Hopefully I'm all set for awhile.
niceguy71
Active Member
hope my suggestions helped... the ground wire is important, and the direction helps a bit.... your antenna location is pretty decent... it will always be a little directional not being in the center of the roof... but not terrible.... I think you MIGHT be able to run a triple mag mount someday that will stratal the ribs... but what kind of antenna to put on the triple mag mount that would work great I have no idea??? I think you could put the Sirio Performer 5000 on a triple mag mount... but it's an awfully tall antenna .. I think you can stick with the Tram 3500.... as it probably won't make that big of a difference .... you might get 10 miles in one direction and 6 miles in all the other directions.... so just consider keeping the antenna on the back and figure you get 6 miles in all directions ( distance's used are just for example)
REALLY happy you FINALLY got someone on LSB.... bet that put a smile on your face!
I don't know if this will startle the ribs in your roof... but turning it in funny directions I've seen them work well for roofs with ribs
Sirio Performer 5000 10M/CB Antenna With Triplex Mag Mount Kit - Various Colors | eBay
Taurus Heavy Duty Triplex 5" Magnet CB Antenna Mount - SO-239. This sturdy magnet mount is ideal for installing larger fiberglass or trucker-style antennas. With three 5" magnets, this mount can support antennas of 5' or longer while holding securely to the vehicle at highway speeds.
www.ebay.com
Davidbt
Member
Thanks Steve. You're suggestions definitely helped. I think I'll stick with the Tram. The antenna drags the overhang at the local Walgreens drive through now. I was very surprised that I got a contact, yes, big smile. A great gentleman up in Missouri, said I was sounding great. Now if I can find a local or hopefully on one of my trips to Tucson. I also moved the ground on my QT40 close to my radio in my jeep. Hopefully it will help that radio to perform better also. Thanks for sticking it out, I'm sure you had to be flustered a couple of times.
niceguy71
Active Member
glad to hear,
I'm still baffled...... sometimes if I drive my F-150 ( once every week or two ) I turn on 37 38LSB and always get dozens of contacts all across the country.... and in just 10 to 15 minutes??? ( I hardly ever go any place more than 20 minutes away) maybe it's my location and elevation?... I'm 6 to 8 miles from the ocean, so I would think I'm at sea level.... maybe the ocean helps me transmit and receive better???....... your radio has a LOT more power than my old president Grant, so you should be able to do the same with the same Tram 3500 that I have.... well hopefully you'll figure it out.....
I mostly leave my mobile on AM 19 with the squelch turned up high so it doesn't bother me...... I only get a couple people asking for a radio check once or twice a month.... sometimes I hear a couple truck drivers talking at a warehouse someplace... but I don't hear too much local on 19..... we have several local stations that are always jabbering away after the sun goes down ... but I leave it on 19 just to see what I hear, to see if I can help with info or directions ....... mostly it's radio checks.
for the first few months after my install, I didn't get anyone because.... EVERYDAY back then some jerk with a million watts was on his bench in the desert talking about window lickers..... and he would shut down channel 19 all day long ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY!!! so no one was even trying to use 19.... so I made a post asking how are truckers using 19 now??? because that jerk absolutely killed 19.... but now it's coming back. ( hopefully the FCC got that jerk )
in the 90's I had the SAME radio on my full sized Blazer and many more people then, were using CB even in the 90s...... I never got more than a couple miles worth of range... I have never had my old Grant worked on, so nothing has changed other than I got rid of the magnetic K-40 and now have a Tram-3500..... I also did all the RF bonding straps all over my F-150..... before that I only tried to use the CB once and I only got three miles to my neighbor's15 watt ham radio with lil Will antenna..... after the straps my trucks does fantastic.
so try some RF bonding someday and see if it does anything..... the smartest guy I know tells me the straps will do NOTHING ... they might make for a better ground meaning a quieter radio but that's about it...... Slow Mover and PCRGUY seem to think the RF Bonding straps help... and I also think they help.
I didn't have the straps on my old Blazer... but the old Blazer has about the same sized roof my F-150 does. that old blazer did terrible.... all my friends with mustangs and Camaros, had El-cheapo Radio Shack magnetic antenna's and they all got 5 plus miles..... but those cars were all welded together where pick-ups and my blazer had body mounts and a full frame.
anyway, glad you're starting to get contacts keep up the good work David.
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Davidbt
Member
I'm sure that the 80-100 watts that the radio puts out will be enough for me.
slowmover
Active Member
Antenna design, mount & location is the game once an NRC-equipped AM/SSB export is chosen.
Next level is a high fidelity external speaker.
Next then are RF/CMC chokes (filters) at both antenna feed-point & transceiver coax ends.
SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) is the problem faced by every mobile radio operator. The ones from the vehicle are a project, and “protection” from exterior sources is the other.
Don’t be surprised if you wind up re-doing every aspect over time. I know I have. Experience (ear training) leads to more subtle understandings.
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Davidbt
Member
I went out and sat in my truck last night at 9pm and scanned through the channels on am and lsb. Am was very quiet, and lsb had a little chatter, but I couldn't make a contact. Driving around town doing errands I see base antennas on houses. Some look like cb base antennas and some look like there a little more aggressive, possibly ham? Lately I have seen a few vehicles with cb or ham radio antennas around town. Friday while out shopping with my wife, we stopped at a second store and I waited for her in the parking lot, I tried to make a contact on lsb and scanned the am band and didn't come up with anything.
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