Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hpfcdc!hpfcdj!myers
From: myers@hpfcdj.HP.COM (Bob Myers)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: CB Radios
Message-ID: <11170008@hpfcdj.HP.COM>
Date: 9 May 89 18:34:06 GMT
References: <276@celit.UUCP>
Organization: Hewlett Packard -- Fort Collins, CO
Lines: 31

>I'm looking to put a CB in my Cherokee....

>Recommendations on antennas?  


Best: Get a center-loaded whip and mount it as close to the center of the roof
as possible.  (Actually, "best" would be a top-loaded whip in the same 
location, or, better yet, a FULL-LENGTH whip mounted here.  These are likely
impractical - the full-length whip for obvious reasons, and the top-loaded
whip because they're next to impossible to find!)

Next best: On a Cherokee, there is no next best! :-)  On a "conventional"
vehicle, the next-best location would be the trunk lip (though still on the
centerline of the vehicle), then last choice would be a bumper-mount.  If
you can't go with a top-mounted whip on your Cherokee, you're probably going
to wind up with a full-length whip mounted at either rear corner.  Not exactly
an optimum location.

Absolutely avoid:  Those "twin trucker-style" antenna pairs.  Mounting two
whips, with the proper phasing, a quarter-wave apart WILL result in a pattern
with lobes to the front and rear; exactly what you want for highway use.
Unfortunately, a quarter-wave at CB frequencies (27 MHz) is about nine feet,
which means this type of installation is really workable ONLY on a truck!
This type of installation on a car, pickup, or anything else of similar size
makes no sense at all, as the pattern comes out much worse than with a simple
centrally-located whip.


Bob Myers  KC0EW   HP Graphics Tech. Div.|  Opinions expressed here are not
                   Ft. Collins, Colorado |  those of my employer or any other
{the known universe}!hplabs!hpfcla!myers |  sentient life-form on this planet.