New to the hobby

[RamblinRedneck]

Hello everyone. To start, I should tell you how this started. Last Tuesday I was helping a local widow clean out her husbands old shops, which I might add were a hoarders paradise. He was a trucker until the late 80s. I found a bucket that, among other things, had 2 CB radios in it. One is a Cobra 29LTD, and the other a Realistic TRC-428. They both powered up when I hooked them to a battery. So that got me thinking, my brother had bought this mans old truck a few years back, so sure enough I found a 4' antenna and the mirror mount in the truck. I dug up some RG-58 coax I had from a scanner antenna, and with some ancient connectors, I actually got these things to receive and transmit. Next I mounted that antenna on the top of a 15' pole I found. Thats kind of where I am at.

Now I know this setup is not ideal, but it was free lol. And yesterday I did briefly make a contact to Canada on channel 26. That lasted about 30 seconds. I do have plans to upgrade some things later when funds allow, but that may be a while off. I have this idea of using the Cobra in a pickup and making a base station out of the Realistic. Does that sound crazy? I am on a non-existent budget, and have a tendency to want to do crazy things anyway.

Do any of you shoot skip with a 4 watt rig? Anyone in southeast Texas? Maybe we will chat sometime. I call myself the Ramblin Redneck. Hope to hear you there, and I hope to be in the hobby for many years.

 

[W8RMH]

That mobile antenna needs a ground plane, which would have been provided by the truck's body. Up on a pole alone it will not perform very well.

 

[RamblinRedneck]

Oh it does not perform that well lol. What about these people I see online running 102" and 18' antennas atop poles? How do they make it work with no ground plane? As I said, I am new to this, so I am trying to absorb some information before I do anything crazy. My understanding is more of a basic principal than actual practice.

 

[RamblinRedneck]

Ok I found a swr meter, and lets just say the results were as terrible as expected. I know I need a different antenna setup, but there are a lot of different opinions, and different options for people who want different things. That said, my mind is leaning toward some sort of a dipole setup. Does anyone have experience? Ever tried making one yourself? Is the performance comparable to other style antennas? I would like some information from those of you with experience before I commit to anything.

 

[RamblinRedneck]

Hmm, I am starting to think that no one really reads these.

 

[robertmac]

Well, sun spot cycle 24 will be sinking lower and lower so the prospects of shooting skip will get less over the next couple of years and stay down in the dumps for about 4-5 years if using a 4 watt rig. There are a lot of threads on here already that discuss this. If you don't get much response, maybe it's because people are getting tired of answering the same questions.

 

[teufler]

well being new, this is a page that has several discussions on design.
DIPOLE AND INVERTED V VEE DESIGN AND CALCULATOR
dilpoles are easy and cheap to build. Some have been built with lamp cord split down the middle.Shakespere made a antenna, called a Big Stick that had no radials, just a big stick in the air.
I think it was a diploe thatwas vertically polorized rather than horizontal. As for 4 watts on skip, yes it can be done, several times , working skip in australia or japan from ther midwest. usually about sundown you will have skip conditions that are north and south, called grayline conditions. Lately band openings have happened on low band up in the 45 mhz segment while others have reportewd band openings in the 146.00 mhz range. In the days before satillete and cable tv, there were experiences of tv coming in from stations 100 miles or more, clear as a bell. Glad to hear some of the radios still work.

 

[chekoz77]

You can build a ground plane for your current antenna which would simply consist of a few radials coming from base of antenna. Depending on what you have laying around the cost can be anywhere from free to 10 bucks.

 

[RamblinRedneck]

Thanks for the link, I am leaning toward a dipole in an inverted V. I could build one myself, and may yet, but the ones I see for sale look so much more "professional". The functionality would be about the same, but I have concerns over weatherproofing. I do like to tinker though, so who knows. Eventually I would like to set up a large antenna. It seems the Antron 99 has a lot of fans. My budget can not handle that right now, so I just want something to play with.

 

[teufler]

a cheap antenna, would be go to a hartdware store and get a pvc t connector. Drill a whole on each side so that the sides wires can loop through. Twist and solder. The feed wire boes up through the middle, and out a whole in the top of the t to allow the coax postive and sheild to be soldered to the wires on each side. positive to one sidew and sheild to the other side. make a hangmans noose that yopu can loop asround the t for support. strech the legs out and loop in some insulaters. you can get those while you gewt you t connector. You will end up tuning the wire antenna, depending on an inverted v desigm or a more horizontal design. The ends that go in insulators just twist and tie off for swr adjustment. Whn you find a good point, soldier the ends and you have a workable antenna. Now a better dewsign would be use a balumn as the center section, wire adjustment remains the same. the length of wire is calculated by the link I showed you. Yourf desire to build an antenna is admirable.

 

[mancow]

11 meter skip has been off the charts for weeks. Today was no exception. Once you get something put up it should work very well.

 

[RamblinRedneck]

Thanks for all the information. I have noticed that the few hours I have had it on, I can hear people from all over the US and parts of Canada. So far no Mexico. I could have some fun with this if I only had the budget lol.

 

[tripplenickel]

Welcome to the forum, you will pick up some good information here. Just GO SLOW, what you started with was FREE, and it's working for you.
Teufler mentioned............Shakespere made a antenna, called a Big Stick that had no radials, just a big stick in the air.

I am currently running one now as well as back in the late 60's. Back then I was also running HyGain 3 element. As for a Base antenna, I wouldn't use nothing else, JMHO.save you money for a good antenna and NEW coax, it's money well spent.
555

 

[RamblinRedneck]

But where is the fun in that? Lol. Some of us have a compulsion to build things our way whether it will work or not.

 

[k8krh]

I would build an invertedvee, probably take 20 minutes, when your budget increases get a A99 antron, there only around $58 , from COOPERS. Do not skimp on the coax, get good quality, not RAT SHACK junk.
See you on the airwaves.
DOCTOR/795