President MLA-145 magnetic base antenna - worth it?

[GoQwert]

Hey,
looking into buying President CB radio, and they give additional 3 years warranty with their antenna purchase.

I'm looking at President MLA-145 antenna
5/8 wave
1,1/1 adjustable
500 Watt P.E.P
1400 kHz (140 cx)
1580 mm - 1.58 m - big one..hmm
Magnetic
AC4 Stainless steel

So the question is: does it worth it?

 

[niceguy71]

I love everything President makes..... my first President from 1989 is now in my F150 and working fantastic.... never had a repair and it's flawless.... .... I always wondered if any of their antenna's were really good too????? looking forward to the answers on this post

 

[GoQwert]

I love everything President makes..... my first President from 1989 is now in my F150 and working fantastic.... never had a repair and it's flawless.... .... I always wondered if any of their antenna's were really good too????? looking forward to the answers on this post

Well, I've just ordered it, together with George FCC...
..strange, but somehow there is almost no owners review about this specific MLA-145 antenna with magnetic base. Some review about their biggest one, but I'm not finding it practical anything bigger than 1.5 m on a daily drive vehicle, especially with the mix driving city-gravel roads..
..same, driving F-150, but will not install it on the roof, but on the back of my bed hard-cover, behind the cabin window.
..
will update the post, but probably will take me at lest 2-3 weeks, as I'm not home yet.

 

[niceguy71]

Well, I've just ordered it, together with George FCC...
..strange, but somehow there is almost no owners review about this specific MLA-145 antenna with magnetic base. Some review about their biggest one, but I'm not finding it practical anything bigger than 1.5 m on a daily drive vehicle, especially with the mix driving city-gravel roads..
..same, driving F-150, but will not install it on the roof, but on the back of my bed hard-cover, behind the cabin window.
..
will update the post, but probably will take me at lest 2-3 weeks, as I'm not home yet.

will it stick to the bed cover? I thought they were aluminum? also I don't think a bed cover will have much RF bonding that will allow it to work correctly.. I believe the bed rails have a plastic cover over them and then the bed cover... not going to reflect a lot of RF signal that way. but you can't have it near the back window, it will greatly affect your performance the base needs to be above any surrounding surface. and I see you have a F150 and I'm sure you already know... if it's 2014 and up, you have the Aluminum body so you can't even try it on the roof.. if you can get it on the roof ( they sell third brake light adapters) I think it would work great... I have not had any problems with my 5 foot tall Tram 3500 on the top of my 6 foot F150 roof.... I believe the antenna being 11 feet to the tip of the antenna has greatly helped my performance. it hits the occasional tree branch and bounces off on dirt roads... I went under a low bridge the other day... the speed limit was 30MPH the bridge was 9 feet 6 inchs so I knew my antenna would hit it.. I just went a little slower and it was fine. my antenna bends quite easily not sure how the president one will bend but when I go off road if I have to go under low branches I just go slow and it bends under them with out any trouble. in the picture you can see it easily clearing my garage door on a daily basis, the door is 7 feet tall and the truck is 6 feet tall.... so if you can get it on the roof I don't think you'll have any trouble.

 

[GoQwert]

will it stick to the bed cover? I thought they were aluminum? also I don't think a bed cover will have much RF bonding that will allow it to work correctly.. I believe the bed rails have a plastic cover over them and then the bed cover... not going to reflect a lot of RF signal that way. but you can't have it near the back window, it will greatly affect your performance the base needs to be above any surrounding surface. and I see you have a F150 and I'm sure you already know... if it's 2014 and up, you have the Aluminum body so you can't even try it on the roof.. if you can get it on the roof ( they sell third brake light adapters) I think it would work great...

ok...let's talk really slow from this point ))
Here what I have:
F-150 full aluminum body;
bed aluminum hard-cover.

I've used an old brush-cutter blade, cut it and used a dual-side strip in order to stick it on the hard-cover behind the cabin, on the side of passenger side, and the Cobra bagnet gase antenna (about 1m long) is placed on this blade.. a small part of it only is above the cabin.
My actual CB radio is Cobra 18 WX ST II
And for the past 3 years that I have this new pickup truck, I've always had a problem with the radio.
Reception was always good, but no one could hear me on the transmission.(I did tested with the same antenna on the roof, but it was the same. Tested with another mini Cobra CB, but same. My previous Off-road SUV all was good.
..so.., I already ordered a bigger antenna, that will go higher above the cabin, but still will be located on top of the aluminum hard cover behind the rear cabin window.
The question is: will it work?
...I see a lot of new body aluminum Ford trucks, with antennas on the back of the cabin, so it does work? or am I wrong?

 

[GoQwert]

Bellow are the photos of my actual cobra antenna on the bed, behind the cabin

 

[merlin]

The antenna is worth it, your issue is sticking the magnet mount to some steel plate mounted to the bed.
Also, not all beds are grounded so grounding straps frame to bed are in order.
The cab may not be well grounded either meaning ground strapping there also.
You might keep the antenna as far from the cab as is practical, metal near the coil will detune it.
Tuneup should be straight forward, just do it away from metal buildings, wires and such.

 

[niceguy71]

ok...let's talk really slow from this point ))
Here what I have:
F-150 full aluminum body;
bed aluminum hard-cover.

I've used an old brush-cutter blade, cut it and used a dual-side strip in order to stick it on the hard-cover behind the cabin, on the side of passenger side, and the Cobra bagnet gase antenna (about 1m long) is placed on this blade.. a small part of it only is above the cabin.
My actual CB radio is Cobra 18 WX ST II
And for the past 3 years that I have this new pickup truck, I've always had a problem with the radio.
Reception was always good, but no one could hear me on the transmission.(I did tested with the same antenna on the roof, but it was the same. Tested with another mini Cobra CB, but same. My previous Off-road SUV all was good.
..so.., I already ordered a bigger antenna, that will go higher above the cabin, but still will be located on top of the aluminum hard cover behind the rear cabin window.
The question is: will it work?
...I see a lot of new body aluminum Ford trucks, with antennas on the back of the cabin, so it does work? or am I wrong?

that's probably not going to work to well for you...... the bed cover folds in three sections I believe? and I would assume each section is not grounded to the other sections... so you mainly have the one bed cover section behind the cab..... 2 feet front to back and 5 feet wide??? that is probably all the metal it will reflect off..... I can see in your picture the bed cover actually lays on top of the plastic bed rail protector... I don't know much about this stuff and am learning myself... but I believe you have to have all the metal RF bonded .... meaning the aluminum bed cover has to be connected to the bed and the cab.... I would also RF Bond the cab and the bed to the frame as if you look under you will see the bed sitting on big rubber body mounts and the bolts don't seem to conduct RF signal very good... I actually put a multi meter on OhMs from the frame to the bolt and had incredible high resistance and no continuity from the frame to the bed. ........... the bed cover looks like it may be coated in a rubber/plastic material.... I believe the antenna when you key the mic wants to go to ground so the RF signal goes down and should hit metal and then bounce up and off the ground plane under the antenna... I wonder if the aluminum that's coated with that stuff is not reflecting..... and the only part that will be reflecting the signal will be the one section of bed cover behind the cab ... and I believe to have a proper ground plane it needs to be grounded to the truck.....

you said ...I see a lot of new body aluminum Ford trucks, with antennas on the back of the cabin, so it does work? or am I wrong?...
....... people do bolt them to tool boxes and such in the back... not sure if they work though
I see lots of guys doing it wrong and telling everyone else to do what they did.. and they all get a mile or two range and scratch their heads.... doesn't mean it's correct.