mounting cb antenna

[swamp rat]

Does anyone use a Francis 5. 5' antenna? I have had excelllent luck with them on the big trucks, and fair results on my Ram (hence the T2K Wilson w/18" shaft). The Francis 5. 5' may look awkward but it might be a good choice for those of you with an overcab camper since a good bit of the antenna will easily rise above the top portion of a camper. The 8' Francis bed mounted directly behind the cab or on the bed rail should work with a 5'er for the same reason. Xmit range when properly setup is pretty good on the Ram, just hard to hear outside of 5-10 miles sometimes. (Forgive me but if I can't hear and talk 10 miles+ forward and rearward it ain't working right in my book). IMHO the Wilson hears as well as it Xmits, sometimes hears too well even w/o the RX-boost turned on.





Only drawback to the Francis is I have to experiment a lot with coax lengths to fine tune the SWR between different styles, and makes of rigs! What works on a cabover doesn't necessarily work on a Frt Shaker conventional. What works on a Frt. Shaker doesn't necessarily work on a Volvo or Pete. Its good to keep several lengths handy just for tweaking. Usually either 12 or 18 foot lengths of RG-8X work well when the other lengths or size coax won't. Once you get it dialed in, it KICKS!





Oh did I mention I rarely run 19? I exclusively run on various "Company Channels" for various trucking companies, that alone will get you an extra 3-4 miles range due to the much lower noise level. In Tennessee,

Ch 4 =American Freightways,

Ch. 30 , lowside & Dbl low side 30= FedEx depending on the time of day/night,

Ch. 10= UPS,

Lowside of 19=Consolidated Freightways ,

Yellow=lowside of 21 IIRC, so on and so forth, One of the best things about "Company Channels" is you rarely run into the Potty mouth troublemakers that have infested 19.

 

[JSchooley]

I've used this on a couple of trucks where I only use the CB while towing.



Route the cable under the carpet and through the floor board. Pack the exit with plenty of RTV or other sealer. Bring the cable up between the cab and bed and into a mag mount on the roof.



When you don't need the antenna, or need to park in a low clearance garage (and can remember), take the antenna from the roof and stick it inside the bed. Make sure you take up the slack in the coax so it doesn't drag or flap around.

 

[swamp rat]

Dangling Coax

John, have you tried using some adhesive type cable clips to keep the excess slack from dragging the ground? They are pretty small, yet effective. Eventually they would need to be replaced but at $1. 25 for a pack of six or so, thats no big expense and not much trouble either. You can even locate on on the back of the cab just below the front edge of the bed to make them less obtrusive.