TXWELD92
Member
Hey guys! So, I'm super new to amatuer radio but excited about my new hobby. I've setup a base station here at my house, hoping to be able to listen to/talk to traffic on the highway, which is 3-4 miles as the crow flies from where I live. Given the general flat landscape (Fort Worth area) and that I live in a rural area, this doesnt seem like it should be all that hard, which makes my current issues a little frustrating.
My setup is as follows:
Cobra 29 LTD (Chrome, if it matters)
102" Stainless Steel Whip antenna
~6' tall antenna mount which bolts to my porch beam about 6' off the ground. The first 2-3 feet of the antenna are above the crest of my houses's roof, and my house is in between the antenna and the highway. I grounded this thing by wrapping a copper wire around the base of the antenna (literally the antenna, not the ball mount, not the spring, the bottom of the antenna, where it screws into the spring).
All I can hear is some extremely faint voices on channel 19! I can tell they're there, but I cant even come close to understanding them. I also had an old ~3' car mount antenna which I tried before I got the 102, and this is more than I could pick up with that.
Where the coax cable meets the antenna, I stripped away the insulation and the center cable is crimp-connection attached to the antenna itself. The outer copper jacket is grounded to the same wire as the antenna grounding I described earlier, and thats wired to a 2' steel pole that goes into the ground by my house.
What am I doing wrong here? What should I try?
Thanks in advance guys. P/S I unhooked the ground and there was no noticable difference in performance, but the red antenna warning light on the radio is not illuminated unless I key the mic.
My setup is as follows:
Cobra 29 LTD (Chrome, if it matters)
102" Stainless Steel Whip antenna
~6' tall antenna mount which bolts to my porch beam about 6' off the ground. The first 2-3 feet of the antenna are above the crest of my houses's roof, and my house is in between the antenna and the highway. I grounded this thing by wrapping a copper wire around the base of the antenna (literally the antenna, not the ball mount, not the spring, the bottom of the antenna, where it screws into the spring).
All I can hear is some extremely faint voices on channel 19! I can tell they're there, but I cant even come close to understanding them. I also had an old ~3' car mount antenna which I tried before I got the 102, and this is more than I could pick up with that.
Where the coax cable meets the antenna, I stripped away the insulation and the center cable is crimp-connection attached to the antenna itself. The outer copper jacket is grounded to the same wire as the antenna grounding I described earlier, and thats wired to a 2' steel pole that goes into the ground by my house.
What am I doing wrong here? What should I try?
Thanks in advance guys. P/S I unhooked the ground and there was no noticable difference in performance, but the red antenna warning light on the radio is not illuminated unless I key the mic.