SWR on new radio but already tuned antenna QT-60 PRO

[prcguy]

I guess they work for some people..... But I never got more than 3 miles range out of any Fire stick that I've tried..... And I think I could get 3 miles out of a Craftsman screwdriver... So that ain't saying much

In the 70s and 80s I installed probably a few hundred Firesticks and they worked well. On many occasions we would do range checks from the base station at our store on new installs as the customer drove home or wherever and would we log distances. Firesticks were always high on the list compared to other types of similar length. On a quiet day 25mi was not uncommon and about 30mi was the limit from the shop in Colorado Springs when people headed east on hwy 24 from roughly E. Platt Avenue and Academy Blvd. Back then the Firestick was by far the best seller and we sold nearly every major brand and model at the time.

 

[niceguy71]

In the 70s and 80s I installed probably a few hundred Firesticks and they worked well. On many occasions we would do range checks from the base station at our store on new installs as the customer drove home or wherever and would we log distances. Firesticks were always high on the list compared to other types of similar length. On a quiet day 25mi was not uncommon and about 30mi was the limit from the shop in Colorado Springs when people headed east on hwy 24 from roughly E. Platt Avenue and Academy Blvd. Back then the Firestick was by far the best seller and we sold nearly every major brand and model at the time.

well I guess I will stop knocking the FireStik .....but I have never seen one perform well personally.

..... I have had several friends/ co workers getting into CB this last year because they see me having fun with mine...
I stopped by the place I used to work and on the way home talked to one of the guys that still works there that I got into CB back in 2023, he had everyone else that worked there standing in the parking lot listening and we were all throwing barbs at each other and laughing I talked to him the whole 7 miles back to my house..... a few weeks later.... about 5 of the guys bought a CB System but couldn't get them to work..... so one by one they stop by my house to show me their NEW CB and see what they can get for range to my big base antenna.... they all seem to buy the 3 or 4 foot Firestick ... again .... from what I see they only get about 3 miles on the back of their Pick-up cab.... but I'm not going to fool with a Firestick EVER again... back in the 90's I spent years trying to get my FireStik and my friends and families FireSticks to work and never did....so now I let them borrow my Spare Tram 3500 and they always come back from the test range ride smiling and tell me they will be getting a Tram too.... I've taken a lot of the headache out of getting a working CB system for many.... always makes me feel good to see someone easily getting 6 to 8 miles after they have spent weeks trying to get the FireStik to give them more than a few miles...
case in point.... this thread
Zjdre came here because he could not get his 3 foot FirStik to work... he had high SWR's and I doubt it even worked..... I told him for $55.00 bucks he could try a Tram antenna and it might solve all his problems... he wrote back


QUOTE from Zjdre Jan 03 2025
I took your advice on the Tram 3500 and ordered it.

Jan 11 2025
That Tram 3500 came in yesterday. I hooked it up to my CB-500 and it is quite impressive compared to my 3' Firestik. it came in a 1.1 on SWR and I did not even have to trim it.

Jan 11 2025
Alright I decided to pull that QT60 out and hook it up to the Tram 3500 and now I am getting a good SWR on it. Guess that 3' Firestik was not playing well with QT60. still not hearing anything tonight but I only got everything buttoned up in the truck a little bit ago so perhaps the bands closed up this evening. Anyways I wanted to thank everyone for their knowledge and help in my time of a need.
END QUOTE

so I hope for $55.00 bucks he has his CB working... if he stays with the hobby he can always buy other antenna's and test them out... but having a good known working antenna to test other equipment out with is a great help as far as I'm concerned.

and who knows maybe another day he will get that FireStik to work.

 

[niceguy71]

In the 70s and 80s I installed probably a few hundred Firesticks and they worked well. On many occasions we would do range checks from the base station at our store on new installs as the customer drove home or wherever and would we log distances. Firesticks were always high on the list compared to other types of similar length. On a quiet day 25mi was not uncommon and about 30mi was the limit from the shop in Colorado Springs when people headed east on hwy 24 from roughly E. Platt Avenue and Academy Blvd. Back then the Firestick was by far the best seller and we sold nearly every major brand and model at the time.

back in the late 80's early 90's I tried about 25 different Antenna's and could not get more than a couple miles on any of them.... I was getting frustrated and had no one that knew anything about CB to ask ( thank God for this Radio Reference) so out of desperation I went to a Radio Shop about 10 miles away and told him all the grief I've had.
I told him I even bought the BEST CB out there ...the President Grant Export... I had to pay double for it as it was pretty impossible to get anything not legal with the FCC back then... he looked in the Blazer and was impressed with the radio.
he smiled and said I'll install this Larsen on your roof and you will be VERY, VERY happy..... I said.....you're going to cut a hole in my brand spanking new Blazer's roof??????.... he argued with me for a while and did his best to make me see..... but I wasn't having it.... I was just too worried about water getting in.
so he took a deep breath and gave up and sold me a K-40 magnet mount and he installed it on my roof drilled a hole in the fiberglass top to run the coax ...he cut 3/16" off the whip... bottomed it out and lifted it a 1/4 of an inch and said it will have a perfect SWR now.... and IT DID! so I guess he had installed quite a few.... the whole time he was installing it he kept saying how the Larsen would get double the range and hear much further too..... but I kept saying lets just try this...... he talked to me on my way home from his base station and I could easily talk to him the whole 10 miles.... it was an unbelievable feeling to finally get a working CB... it was probably one of my happiest moments in life.

so it made me smile to hear you say you talked to your customers on the way home after they had you do an install.
thanks for the memories.

 

[robertwbob]

back in the late 80's early 90's I tried about 25 different Antenna's and could not get more than a couple miles on any of them.... I was getting frustrated and had no one that knew anything about CB to ask ( thank God for this Radio Reference) so out of desperation I went to a Radio Shop about 10 miles away and told him all the grief I've had.
I told him I even bought the BEST CB out there ...the President Grant Export... I had to pay double for it as it was pretty impossible to get anything not legal with the FCC back then... he looked in the Blazer and was impressed with the radio.
he smiled and said I'll install this Larsen on your roof and you will be VERY, VERY happy..... I said.....you're going to cut a hole in my brand spanking new Blazer's roof??????.... he argued with me for a while and did his best to make me see..... but I wasn't having it.... I was just too worried about water getting in.
so he took a deep breath and gave up and sold me a K-40 magnet mount and he installed it on my roof drilled a hole in the fiberglass top to run the coax ...he cut 3/16" off the whip... bottomed it out and lifted it a 1/4 of an inch and said it will have a perfect SWR now.... and IT DID! so I guess he had installed quite a few.... the whole time he was installing it he kept saying how the Larsen would get double the range and hear much further too..... but I kept saying lets just try this...... he talked to me on my way home from his base station and I could easily talk to him the whole 10 miles.... it was an unbelievable feeling to finally get a working CB... it was probably one of my happiest moments in life.

so it made me smile to hear you say you talked to your customers on the way home after they had you do an install.
thanks for the memories.

keep in mind q.c. at firestick might hafe went down the sewer,lots of name brand stuff anymore chose the low road.

myself ive got along with hustler,antenna specilist was great too. my first antenna was a grey maggie base load and a pair of those short hustler antennas for gutter mount. still got both.
on my car the hustlers were great foreward and back,sideways 3rd less . back then we got 15 miles easily.
i made a mount for the grey maggie on my first truck a 65 white 4000. it had a steel headache rack n i put it there .got out damm good using my ef johnson 123a with switch in back that gave 20 watts. but in the early 70s that would get out far

 

[Zjdre]

well you can't keep us in suspense????
I know the Tram 3500 got the SWR where it should be... but come back and tell us what you think of the set up now???
the Tram 3500 for the $55.00 bucks was a cheap way to make sure everything is working, and it will do ok for range and I think it will even do really good for sideband....
but it would be nice to hear if you're getting contacts on 37 and 38 LSB and how the AM is working???? pretty hard to make AM contacts on 19 anymore... people just don't give radio checks or they have the squelch up so high that you have to be on top of them for them to hear you..... but I'd sleep better if come back and tell me the Tram 3500 wasn't a complete waste of money
and if you tell me the Tram 3500 was a complete waste of money ... you will make SlowMovers day!

Well to be honest I just haven't had the chance to really use it yet. I still got to to get wiring done. I tested the radio SWR with the Radio plugged into 12 volt cig plug. I am getting a little radio noise or something in the truck coming back through the speaker from time to time I can report that when the bands are open and I have the chance to listen I am hearing sometimes people from across the pond so that seems pretty impressive to me and I have not talked on the radio yet. I guess I got a little bit of stage fright haha.

 

[Zjdre]

well I guess I will stop knocking the FireStik .....but I have never seen one perform well personally.

..... I have had several friends/ co workers getting into CB this last year because they see me having fun with mine...
I stopped by the place I used to work and on the way home talked to one of the guys that still works there that I got into CB back in 2023, he had everyone else that worked there standing in the parking lot listening and we were all throwing barbs at each other and laughing I talked to him the whole 7 miles back to my house..... a few weeks later.... about 5 of the guys bought a CB System but couldn't get them to work..... so one by one they stop by my house to show me their NEW CB and see what they can get for range to my big base antenna.... they all seem to buy the 3 or 4 foot Firestick ... again .... from what I see they only get about 3 miles on the back of their Pick-up cab.... but I'm not going to fool with a Firestick EVER again... back in the 90's I spent years trying to get my FireStik and my friends and families FireSticks to work and never did....so now I let them borrow my Spare Tram 3500 and they always come back from the test range ride smiling and tell me they will be getting a Tram too.... I've taken a lot of the headache out of getting a working CB system for many.... always makes me feel good to see someone easily getting 6 to 8 miles after they have spent weeks trying to get the FireStik to give them more than a few miles...
case in point.... this thread
Zjdre came here because he could not get his 3 foot FirStik to work... he had high SWR's and I doubt it even worked..... I told him for $55.00 bucks he could try a Tram antenna and it might solve all his problems... he wrote back


QUOTE from Zjdre Jan 03 2025
I took your advice on the Tram 3500 and ordered it.

Jan 11 2025
That Tram 3500 came in yesterday. I hooked it up to my CB-500 and it is quite impressive compared to my 3' Firestik. it came in a 1.1 on SWR and I did not even have to trim it.

Jan 11 2025
Alright I decided to pull that QT60 out and hook it up to the Tram 3500 and now I am getting a good SWR on it. Guess that 3' Firestik was not playing well with QT60. still not hearing anything tonight but I only got everything buttoned up in the truck a little bit ago so perhaps the bands closed up this evening. Anyways I wanted to thank everyone for their knowledge and help in my time of a need.
END QUOTE

so I hope for $55.00 bucks he has his CB working... if he stays with the hobby he can always buy other antenna's and test them out... but having a good known working antenna to test other equipment out with is a great help as far as I'm concerned.

I have been very satisfied with the Tram. I mean for the money and all I had to do was slap it on the roof it is kind of hard to not to like.

and who knows maybe another day he will get that FireStik to work.

I think I might mount that Firestik on a toolbox mount for my gas company truck. I Have a Wilson lil wil on the roof now but i keep bending the antennas on low hanging trees. Every time they get bent it throws SWR off.

 

[Davidbt]

I had to drive into a parking garage yesterday, and stopped just before the entrance and pulled my Tram off and laid it on the tennaou cover. Just slapped it back on when I left. It's turning out to be a great antenna.

 

[Zjdre]

I had to drive into a parking garage yesterday, and stopped just before the entrance and pulled my Tram off and laid it on the tennaou cover. Just slapped it back on when I left. It's turning out to be a great antenna.

That is a wise move. I would be taking down my antenna 25 to 50 times a day if I worried about every tree for the area I live in.

 

[niceguy71]

Well to be honest I just haven't had the chance to really use it yet. I still got to to get wiring done. I tested the radio SWR with the Radio plugged into 12 volt cig plug. I am getting a little radio noise or something in the truck coming back through the speaker from time to time I can report that when the bands are open and I have the chance to listen I am hearing sometimes people from across the pond so that seems pretty impressive to me and I have not talked on the radio yet. I guess I got a little bit of stage fright haha.

take your time and install it right.... I'm sure the great people here have told you to ground the CB as close to the CB as possible.... I like to drill a hole in the floorboard next to the radio and sand the paint off and connect the ground there using a ring terminal and I drop a 5/16" bolt through the floor and put a nut and star washer under the floor... I actually ran a 1 1/4 inch bonding strap to that spot and then the frame..... then painted over it.... and I'm sure they have said to wire the positive to the battery positive terminal with a 10 amp fuse close to the Battery and run the wire as far away from all the other wiring as possible... I also like to put a relay in that I wire to my stereo.... so I never forget to shut off the CB and have the battery die.... when I shut off my key... and open any door.. the stereo and CB shut off.
when you get it all buttoned up please let us know how it goes.
I am VERY camera shy myself and have to force myself to talk on the CB also... but I still have that radio bug in me that wants to play with radios... so I force myself to talk and it gets easier every time....
this is my mobile install.... not sure you can get any help from it ...but your welcome to look... I did a LOT of RF bonding and I personally feel it made a HUGE difference....... if you watch my video's I did one in TERRIBLE conditions and got 16 miles ... I did another video where I went out 20 full miles just to see if it would contact my base and it did!!!! pretty damn good for a 10 watt radio on AM... I couldn't have a conversation at 20 miles.. but I was just impressed to be able to hear my mobile 20 miles out!
my install and range test

16 miles on the worst day for conditions EVER.... every channel had skip and local... I had to keep asking the local to give me a break to do my tests as I could not go back home and change the base station channel

and my 20 mile range test
- YouTube