Will a 4' by 4' aluminum sheet serve as a ground plane?

[BonziBuddy]

Scored this piece of aluminum for free from my firehouse. Will it serve as a ground plane for a mobile CB Wilson 500 antenna?

I'm going to bring it up into my attic and set it up just like this. Will it work at all?

Right now it's set up on my deck... haven't heard anything yet.

 

[k9rzz]

Sweet. I would add four 9 foot radials, one off each corner, then it should work great.

 

[RadioDaze]

Right now it's set up on my deck... haven't heard anything yet.

Actually, that's about the best one could hope for, when it comes to CB. Sound's like it's perfect.

 

[n5ims]

A good groundplane should be 1/4 wave minimum in all directions. For CB, this would be about 108" so you should have a piece that's around 216" x 216". While yours isn't this large, it should still do pretty well, assuming that your SWR isn't too high. Let us know how your testing goes.

 

[N_Jay]

But why?

You will do just as well with a pie tin and 3 to 6 pieces of wire