The antenna is a 2 foot firestik I picked up from CB Exchange. I havent mounted the CB yet, hasnt come in yet. I drilled a hole through the mount of the spare tire carrier. And i ran the cable under the carpet trim on the passenger side. Opinions? Comments? Concerns?

Although not the ideal location, it may be the most practical. The main thing wrong with the location is its lack of a ground field. The ground field on a mobile antenna is typically the roof or some other large steel panel. What that does is help direct the signal. Example: If the base of the antenna is mounted near the right rear corner (where it is now, but near the level of the roof, you will get a very strong signal off of the left front of the roof and a very weak signal off the right rear corner, even though that is where the antenna is. Mounted on the side like it is, the body will deflect some of your signal.
Ideal location, as far as an antenna is concerned, is the center of the roof.
The mounting looks good. Make sure you get a good case ground on the C.B. when you install it.
If you didn't do it yet, get some silicone dialectric grease and pack it in the PL-259 connector to prevent corrosion.
Nice choice of cable, too. The RG-8 mini foam has much less loss and a higher velocity factor that common RG-58.

I talked to the older woman who was running cb exchange when I went in there, and she said for a small ground plane, such as a tire carrier, that is where a firestik will shine. I asked her everything I could think of, including about the cable. That is an in shop made cable, but i did desolder the end to get it through the hole. I will resolder it when i figure out where Im gonna mount the cb unit.

Also, sorry for the double post, she said the working part of the antenna on a firestik is the smooth part at the top of the antenna. She said as long as that is sticking up past the roofline it would work fine. Hence the reason for the shorter antenna with the spring. The longer antenna with a spring was just too long.

Do you have the clamp grounded?

quote:

Originally posted by hillbille:
Do you have the clamp grounded?

I thought about that, hillbille, but if he were to ground the clamp, he might as well run a ground shunt at the hinge as well.
Grounding either end of the cable shielding is sufficient. In his case, the transceiver end will most likely be easier. A simple case ground and he's got it.
The firestick is a coil-loaded element with an outstanding reputation for being one of the few of its type to work really well.
An added advantage to your 3/8-16 threaded mount is that you CAN switch to a 86" fiberglass (my personal favorite) or 102" stainless whip any time you feel like it. If you were to pick one up (they are cheap) you could stash it in the back of your rig. You could swap it out easily if you were somewhere that you needed a little more range. If you know someone who has a whip, compare it to the firestick by talking to someone with a signal strength meter who is a fair distance away. Talk to them with one, then switch it out. Don't tell them which is which. I did this years ago and was surprised at the difference. I used the whip every chance I got.
I'm rambling again, aren't I?

For the ground, it would not be hard to add a ground on the clamp or the hinge. Would that be better than just grounding the case? And for grounding the case, am I just going to run an extra grounding wire from the case to a ground point? I know I made it sound complicated for a simple task, but Id rather do something cheap that will give me better results than not be satisfied with my set up.

I hate to bust anyone's balls but I searched- link below- supposedly courtesy of FIREstick.

I would ground directly to the clamp. Test the tire carrier mounting. You might have a good ground at that point, or at a point on the body inside( where the coax is routed).

link
"...If you have a GP antenna mounted and you're are experiencing high SWR you need to be certain that your antenna mount has a good chassis ground. DO NOT test for mount grounding with the coax connected to the radio. Low resistance grounding must be in existence between the mount and the vehicle chassis directly, not through the radio..."

Thanks billie, that was a good read. I guess Ill go pick up some grounding strps and hook up my mount to ground. Can I just run them to behind the carrier mounting plate and put the bolt through the eye of the grounding strap? See last pic for bolts Im refering to.

Quote from Firestik's "Things Every CB'er Should Know"

16. The doors, mirrors, spare tire racks, luggage racks, etc. on many vehicles are insulated from a good ground with nylon or rubber bushings. This also stands true for fiberglass vehicles. Make sure that your antenna mount is grounded, even if it entails running a ground wire to the vehicle chassis. Bad hard ground at the mount generally equates to less than optimum performance. Exception: No ground plane antenna kits do not require a grounded mount.

http://www.firestik.com/Tech_Docs/63Things.htm

All sounds like you read what you can on this subject, but just hook the cb up and with someone else test the rang and see what works the best. the range on a shorter antenna is not as much as a taller one, but as Reserector said "An added advantage to your 3/8-16 threaded mount is that you CAN switch to a 86" fiberglass (my personal favorite) or 102" stainless whip any time you feel like it." As for adding a ground, it is a good idea, even on the no ground antennas. Also until you can test the SWR put the ajustable tip to half way. this will be close to the proper setting til you can set it right. Also if the range is too uneven when testing in the field you could pick up a VALOR TRS 100 TRISTAR BASE & RADIAL to corect that. do to a weird web address and our smilelys I can't put the direct link up but here is a link just scroll almost to the bottom and you will see it. http://www.copper.com/cgi-bin/product_display.cgi?categories=ANTENNAS-ACCESS

I see you ran your coax through the same exact bolt hole I did. Your going to love it, I was worried that missing the one bolt would put to much stress on the hinge but 2 years and alot of abuse later...plus 2 NATO cans and a 33" spare later it is rock solid. The stock tire carrier is one of the best I've seen.

Nah, I just drilled an exact fit hole for the coax. I debated about running through the bolt hole, but decided against it. Had I known that's what you had done and it's fine, I probably would have. But this was just as easy, and the hole is a perfect fit, I just have to add a ground strap, some di-electric grease, and silicone up the hole and I should be set. Just waiting on the cb radio now.

..
The size and positioning of the metal ‘ground plane’ (or the antenne on the ground plane) at the base of the antenna controls the departure angle of the RF signal from the antenna. If the metal ground plane is small the RF signal angle is too high for good local range and reception.

... Installing many ground straps on various things on the truck can reduce some random RF noise generated by the truck that can be heard on the CB. I even had two 'body to pavement' ground straps on my old ’Radio Rambler‘.

This mobile could talk over 350 miles on 'local ground wave'(75 meters)

Have a good one and CUL.. Don S..

hahahaha nice

I have my antenna mounted on the tire carrier. The bushings are so far gone that it grounds just fine.

Thats awesome, not so great for off roading though I would be willing to bet.

I added a ground wire from the clamp through the coax hole and screwed it to the metal frame inside the cab.





I also drilled through the clamp and put a screw in through the clamp into the tire carrier for two reasons. Better ground, and also no chance of the clamp rotating on me. If you'll notice, the screw head twisted off, so it's pretty much a permanent installation now.

Yur body is probably grounded a whole lot better than my bed.. I thought I could ground to the bed once, but that didn't work until I grounded the bed to the frame( it was isolated).

I was trying to get some relays to work.

quote:

Originally posted by hillbille:
I hate to bust anyone's balls but I searched- link below- supposedly courtesy of FIREstick.

I would ground directly to the clamp. Test the tire carrier mounting. You might have a good ground at that point, or at a point on the body inside( where the coax is routed).

link
"...If you have a GP antenna mounted and you're are experiencing high SWR you need to be certain that your antenna mount has a good chassis ground. DO NOT test for mount grounding with the coax connected to the radio. Low resistance grounding must be in existence between the mount and the vehicle chassis directly, not through the radio..."

I never said NOT to ground the mount. Only that it was not necessary with a good case ground.

quote:

DO NOT test for mount grounding with the coax connected to the radio. Low resistance grounding must be in existence between the mount and the vehicle chassis directly, not through the radio..."[/

You can read what you want into that, hillbille. The way I understand it, they are saying not to test a ground connection at the mount with the cable connected to the CB because it will show ground continuity through the circuit board to the negative side of the power connection. Grounding either end is sufficient. Grounding both ends is redundant, which is better. If danielmid wants to test for ground continuity at the mount (Which, by the way, you did a fine job.) he will have to disconnect the coax from the CB (Which he doesn't even have yet.) to keep from getting a false reading.
Running a good ground to the case, directly grounds the bulkhead connector that the antenna screws onto. I think Daniel understood that.

quote:

I hate to bust anyone's balls but...

I went through all this because I actually LIKE to bust balls.