Cb radio (1 Viewer)

[froghopper]

Hi folks. I fancy refitting a cb radio in my motorhome. Help needed. Please. It is an old renault with an ally body. What sort and where would you put the airiel. To get best cover. Thanks

 

[Hayleylulu]

Iv got a CB in my fiat ducato I use a mag mount works for me

 

[G8WVW]

Hi Froghopper,

Mobile aerials for CB's are always a compromise as ideally they need to be 8ft long mounted into a metal panels of your vehicle, standing vertical with no bodywork standing adjacent to it... on what vehicle can you reasonably achieve that? On the back of a huge American pick-up truck maybe; certainly not a coach-built motorhome. Any compromise on the above will affect the aerial efficiency thereby reducing the range achievable so the objective is to accept any CB aerial is a compromise and try to minimise too much on a deviation from this 'ideal' antenna.

About the worst place you could mount it would be on the back bumper as almost the whole aerial length would be against the bodywork 'shielding' the signal on one side but also destroying the aerials 'tuning'. The roof is impractical due to the height so that only really leaves the front wings. The aerial length is important too as it is going to be impractical to mount the 'ideal' 8ft aerial into your wing so 5ft is not going to be fantastic but work and 3ft, pretty well down the scale of almost useless.

So I would suggest you first need to decide where is a practical location on your van and what length you can reasonable get away with. Armed with this you can go shopping then worry about all the techie stuff CB'ers like to ramble on about like SWR

Good luck :0)

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[Jaws]

Most has already been said but a couple of suggestions for the antenna...

For ease of tuning, something with a coil on the bottom would be best, and most nowadays are pretty efficient..

You can get something called a boot lip mount (usually supplied complete with cable and plug ) that you can just clamp to the edge of your bonnet....
As already said, not ideal but a good real world compromise.

Do make sure the wee grub screws that hold the mount in place bites right through the paint and makes a good connection to the metal of the bonnet.

Once all fitted and working you can 'seal' the area back up with a dab of paint (remember, this is going to be INSIDE the bonnet so will not show at all :thumb: )

 

[rainbow chasers]

You will need to have a ground plane. You can acheive this by running cable to the chassis or cab area from the aerial base. You have a choice of bases to use, if mag mount you will need to screw and seal a piece of stainless steel to the roof, with a gp cable. If using a bullbar mount or bonnet on the rear ladder or roof bar, this will be fine, again with cable running to a ground point. Ground point will not be required for bonnet mount - but will mean you will need to be pointing in the direction of the signal as the body will block it from behind.

You can also get quick relase connections should you want an aerial you can swap/take down when not required.

 

[froghopper]

Cb mount

A very big thank you for all the advice. Think I will go for a bonnet clamp. Again thanks. Froghopper

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