CB antenna, Artificial ground plane?

[Karma Supra]

Hi Folks,

I have noticed since I refitted my CB antenna I have pretty much zero reception.

I'm not sure if it is the cable I used, or the place that I mounted it (rear spare, lower rung) or that fact that no one is using CBs locally



Anyway, I remember a post on here saying that CBs needs a proper ground plane, which is why spare mounted ones aren't as good... I was wondering if anyone has used one of these before, and if it makes a difference...

http://www.4x4cb.com/public/item.cfm?itemID=972

I never really use it, but if it is there I like it to work!

[Rustinho]

I've got one but haven't got around to wiring up the CB unit to the electrickery yet.

When it arrived in the post there was a note with it asking if I could take a photo of it for their website cos they don't sell very many of them.

[Karma Supra]

Let us know how you get on!

Funny you should say that, nosing through CB supplier sites I saw a photo of my truck!

[Rustinho]

Let us know how you get on!

Funny you should say that, nosing through CB supplier sites I saw a photo of my truck!

They've actually offered me some vouchers if I take a photo for them to use!

[lawsy]

i was doing exactly the same when i first put my cb in, did you grind away the paint first so it gets better earth?

anyway, i got in touch with the suppliers and he asked, did you read the instructions.. turns out that the UK setting is slightly different, so a quick reset of the cb and thn set it up following the instructions to UK i now get 4-5 miles which is more than enough

mines a tti cb

[Karma Supra]

Hi Lawsy, I'll be honest I didn't think there was much in the way of setup invovled.. It was fitted by a previous owner I just re fitted it to tidy things up a bit.

It's a Midland 98+ I didn't think there was much to it... I'll get googling!

[Vultch]

Could you have damaged the antenna cable when you were tidying it up, as lawsy says it needs a good earth as well, has reception changed i.e worse

[Apache]

Link doesn't work for me.

From what I've read / seen, they aren't really approximating a ground plane at all. They just (sometimes!) improve the matching to the O/P of the Tx, which is skewed off if you don't have a decent real ground plane.

There's no real substitute for a proper ground plane. The radiation pattern of a whip / monopole is partly determined by the ground plane, and it won't be correct without one. An inductive load (the artificial GP) won't do anything for that.

[slobodan]

Link doesn't work for me.

From what I've read / seen, they aren't really approximating a ground plane at all. They just (sometimes!) improve the matching to the O/P of the Tx, which is skewed off if you don't have a decent real ground plane.

There's no real substitute for a proper ground plane. The radiation pattern of a whip / monopole is partly determined by the ground plane, and it won't be correct without one. An inductive load (the artificial GP) won't do anything for that.

I am trying to translate this, I first need to know what language are you talking?

[Karma Supra]

I think it is to do with the output power of transmission, but not 100%!

I did however get the gist, and that is that it is probably not that great... so thanks Andy!

I think I'l go on with checking contiunuity of the cable and that it is well earthed, and take it from there.

I suspect that the Ebay cable I got wasn't up to much cop. The original one that the previous owner disintegrated at the plugs, can anyone reccomend a decent supplier cable type to go for? I don't want to spend much, as said above I have enver really used it, but it would be nice to have working.

I have seen some that have their own earth connectors, (I assume to the outer shield bit of the coax) are they likely to improve things?