drales Posted June 24, 2007 Share Posted June 24, 2007 We now have a motorhome, a Marquis Ace Modena, built by Swift, on a Fiat Ducato Chassis. In the 60/70`s I was an avid user of the C.B. Radio, I would like to get my new radio equipment up and running, however, the big problem is aerials, I can`t use a mag-mount as the body is mainly fibreglass, I don`t want to drill holes for obvious reasons, can anyone out there, possibly a radio ham give me any ideas on setting up a usable aerial without too much trouble? regards aye Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted June 24, 2007 Share Posted June 24, 2007 Lots of oportunities exist! If you want good range then it means that the antenna needs to be relatively large and as high as possible. If its more for "convoy" type use with friends then a modest antenna mounted lower will be sufficient. Lets start with the most effective and work down to the most unabtrusive. Have you a roof rack on the top? If so mount the antenna to this and tape to the roof some wire radials which all connect electrically to the mounting point. A good alternative to wire radials is the adhesive aluminium tape used by air conditioning engineers. or Fix the antenna to the top of the rear ladder. The ladder will act as the bottom of the antenna. In both cases run the coax through the ladder tubing, under the van and back up inside through the floor in a suitable place. or Fix an antenna to one of the wing mirror arms. You see trucks use this technique frequently. Fun the coax through the door jam and into the engine bay, then through one of the grommets in the bulkhead to get into the cab. Hope these thoughts are of use to you Good luck Clive (G4ODM / The Ayatollah!, Leg man, Red Robin .......) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin r c Posted June 24, 2007 Share Posted June 24, 2007 Does anybody still use CB (?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brisey Posted June 24, 2007 Share Posted June 24, 2007 There is still some traffic on CB mainly truck drivers. The good thing is that the kids have got fed up with it, prefering playstations etc, and the airways are quite clear. CB does seem to be gaining in popularity in with motorhomers with channel 3 being referred to as the motorhomers channel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted June 24, 2007 Share Posted June 24, 2007 Channel 3 on which band? 2781 (27.62125 Mhz)? or 2697 (26.985 Mhz)? C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brisey Posted June 24, 2007 Share Posted June 24, 2007 UK FM CB channel 3 (27.62125 Mhz) I believe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin r c Posted June 24, 2007 Share Posted June 24, 2007 Forgive me if I am being thick, I am sure my original FM 40 27/81 CB is 27 meg. and still set up in the garage. ( came after the old AM 40 rigs) is this FM rig still able to be used or has it changed since then. (?) martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted June 24, 2007 Share Posted June 24, 2007 The first legal CB in the UK was 40 contiguous channels with 10 Khz spacing from 27.60125 up to 27.99125. These were brought in in 1981 Later after some pressure from the rest of Europe the UK government reluctantly accepted the same frequencies as used in America and widespread across Europe but not with AM modulation but with FM modulation.This puts channel 1 on 26.965 and chanel 40 at 27.405 Mhz. Those alert will notice that this spans 45 chanels but 5 chanels are missed out by the channel selector mechanism as these are the original frequencies alocated to model control. Today no license is required for a CB radio and both bands remain legal as do both old and new radio,s. However no old type radio,s are allowed to be imported. Hope that helps. C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin r c Posted June 24, 2007 Share Posted June 24, 2007 Thanks / will the channel numbers be ths same on my old unit as a new one today.? ( I have tried it and it still appears to work ). my mag mount might cause me a bit of a problem (!) (!) (!) martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted June 24, 2007 Share Posted June 24, 2007 Chanel numbers remain 1 to 40 but as the old and new radio,s are on different frequencies an old type radio cannot talk to a new type radio. Some radio,s were made to be able to switch between bands. C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drales Posted June 26, 2007 Author Share Posted June 26, 2007 Clive, Thanks for the info, it seem my k40 magmount is us so I will be going to Maplin to see what is on offer and then see what I can do . once again thanks. regards aye Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thai Bry Posted June 26, 2007 Share Posted June 26, 2007 CliveI've still got an Old Cobra 148 CB radio which had both AM & FM and was the old AM imported in when things were still a bit "underground" so to speak.Can I now bring this out of mothballs?Thai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted June 26, 2007 Share Posted June 26, 2007 Hi Brian, Officially your rig is illegal. Very nice though. I had three. But YES. when set to MID and FM it will work the 2697 UK legal 40 spot on. There was a local bloke who did a 6 band (EPROM) conversion board for the Cobra 148 GTL DX, the one with the MC145106 PLL and a couple of 4008 adder chips. The mod included all the "missing" channels as well as the original 2781 40 number for number. But that was a few years back! Still a nice Radio today. My Janet worked all over the world with hers into a Silver Rod on SSB before it was legalised. C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roger s Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 The only other thing I would add to what Clive has said, to improve your aerials ground plane is run an earth wire from the aerial mount to the vans chassis, it may well be you will be ok but this is an added option. Interesting seeing your call sign Clive until he "retired from motorhoming" G7ODM was an active vanner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spartan3956 Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 Ive just fitted a Midland cb to my Auto trail. I did try to fit a fancy aerial to the rear ladder but the ground plane didnt give me a good SWR reading. I opted for a cheap aerial fitted to the drivers mirror on an adapted mirror mount and the readings are excellent at least 10 mile range with a small cable run to the unit under the bonnet. I wanted the unit for use in Europe as i travel with friends and mobile phones are costly and the hand held walky talky units are next to useless. Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drales Posted July 4, 2007 Author Share Posted July 4, 2007 Hello again Clive, I`ve dug out an old burner, (50 Watts) it`s marked as AM/SSB would it work on a new set for FM freqs, or is it U/S for my needs? regards aye, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 It will work fine on FM when set to AM. C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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