New Need Help Much Appreciated

[Jcfr0606]

Just bought a General Lee tuned an peaked pushes around 40 watts I'm told. Need to know basic info about antenna to go with an also thinking about adding a Texas star linear 150watt or some kind of amp. Any help or information or suggestions much appreciated new to the CB World.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[295 antenna]

Is this going to be used only as a mobile and what are you putting it on if so

[Jcfr0606]

Hey yea gonna be mobile putting it in my 2500hd Silverado

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[MDYoungblood]

Hello Jcfr0606,
Welcome to the forum. The General Lee is a nice radio and should work well in your truck. Antenna wise a Sirio 5000 Performer magnet mount or permanent mount is the hot ticket but check out the sponsor's sites and make your own decision. Now for a linear I would wait on that, first that radio is too hot power wise for a Texas Star and you may find it's not needed after the antenna install.
As a new member how about posting a intro in the "Welcome to the forum" topic, http://www.cbradiotalk.com/viewforum.php?f=89 , so others here can say, "Hi', thanks.

3's

Greg

[Jcfr0606]

Young blood thanks for the help man much appreciated an I posted into that new member section as well just now. Thanks again. I'll be ordering the antenna an mount today I was planning on a Wilson 2000 but the sirio looks good. If I hold up on the amp for now an eventually decide to add one later down the road what would i be looking for to run with my set up.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[sonoma]

with a good antenna you may not even need a amp. I have some amps but never really run them since my set up gets out with just a dual final radio just fine. remember if you get out with a a mp the receiving rig will have to be the same to get back to you. with a amp a lot more will hear you but will not be able to get back to you. just some thing to think about. in most cases a amp is not needed.

[ Post made via Linux Laptop ]

[MDYoungblood]

I'm not really the amp guy on the forum but a straight 4 pill that will handle the radio is what to look for. You could make a post here, http://www.cbradiotalk.com/viewforum.php?f=19 ,and ask that question about an amplifier and we can both see the answers.

3's

Greg

[Jcfr0606]

Good information I appreciate it never thought about getting out but it not coming back. I'm a noob to the cb game. I live in Southern MD Gregg an I wanna say a lot of people are using NO Name. Amp sound like it could be a decent amount of tweaking to get right, which is an issue cause nobody really works on them around here that I know of. Everyone use to go to Stickman for work. I'll post in that link an see what replies I get thanks y'all big help.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[MDYoungblood]

Good information I appreciate it never thought about getting out but it not coming back. I'm a noob to the cb game. I live in Southern MD Gregg an I wanna say a lot of people are using NO Name. Amp sound like it could be a decent amount of tweaking to get right, which is an issue cause nobody really works on them around here that I know of. Everyone use to go to Stickman for work. I'll post in that link an see what replies I get thanks y'all big help.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

I am sad to say that Chris Meyers aka "Stickman" past away this May, he did good work and had one of the finest amps out. If you can find one of his amps it would be worth the price their asking.

3's

Greg

[Jcfr0606]

Yea that's what I heard. Didn't know him personally but always heard he was the Man an knew his stuff.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[battyice]

I agree with the other guys - install the radio with a nice antenna and I bet you will be surprised at how it performs. Last week I was talking to some guys 15+ miles away on my base station, and decided to go out in the truck and see if they could hear me. I was surprised when they call came back and said I sounded good. 4 watts with a 4' Firestick antenna.

[The DB]

The key to performance is the antenna. Nothing else even comes close. An amplifier will help you transmit further, sure, but a better antenna helps both transmitting and receiving at the same time. It doesn't matter how much power you are putting out, if you can't hear them, you can't talk to them, it is that simple. If you really want to add an amplifier, that is fine, but don't sacrifice the antenna system for the amplifier, you will suffer because of a mistake like that.

The trick to a mobile antenna setup is two fold, you want it mounted as high as you can get it, and then you want it to be as long as you can get it, in that order. A longer antenna mounted on the bumper will not perform as well as a shorter antenna mounted on the roof that has the same tip height. The earth below the vehicle is really your greatest enemy in a mobile installation, so get that mounting point as high as you can get it, in a mobile installation that is the biggest thing. The other part, as I said, is antenna length. A longer antenna mounted at the same feed point will outperform a shorter antenna mounted at the same feed point. Their is a minimum workable length before performance really begins to drop off, and that is about five feet in length, you can get away with an antenna that is 4 feet in length, note the words "get away with". When using shorter antennas, performance losses are not linear. Every foot you remove from the overall antenna length has an exponential effect on the performance of the antenna system. Beyond that their are other things you can do to improve performance, like RF bonding. On many cars, especially newer cars, this can make a noticeable difference in and of itself.

Seriously, get the antenna system working as well as possible, then worry about an amplifier. Going from 40 watts to a 150 watt output will not actually yield as much of a difference as many people initially think. It sounds pretty big at first, but even though it is nearly four times the power, that doesn't mean that it will get you four times the performance. Again, like when it comes to antenna length above, when it comes to additional range increases due to more power it takes exponentially more power to get a given amount of additional range.


The DB

[295 antenna]

Very well put. And again on the power note here is a web site that explains it very well

http://www.hamuniverse.com/linearamp.html

[Blue Ox2]

Good article 295. Thanks for sharing.

73

Mike

[ Post made via Linux Laptop ]