Stricko:
Twitter is new CB. I do still meet a few dinosaws that insist on wireing things into their trucks lol
Sent from Galaxy Ace
no it isnât, Twitter is for saddoâs 
with a CB, you can have a proper conversation, canât do that with tw@ter 
Sent from my Desktop Computer 
shuttlespanker:
Stricko:
Twitter is new CBSent from Galaxy Ace
no it isnât, Twitter is for saddoâs
with a CB, you can have a proper conversation, canât do that with tw@ter
Sent from my Desktop Computer
Errr ok
There appears to be a lot of sad people around then, and a lot of them drive trucks.
You sound like my dad lol. I bet you still buy cds/dvds lol
Sent from my galaxy because the mobile net is the way forward
I must admit i was a twitter sceptic but im now quite a fan its a great way to communicate
Stricko:
shuttlespanker:
Stricko:
Twitter is new CBSent from Galaxy Ace
no it isnât, Twitter is for saddoâs
with a CB, you can have a proper conversation, canât do that with tw@ter
Sent from my Desktop Computer
Errr ok
There appears to be a lot of sad people around then, and a lot of them drive trucks.
You sound like my dad lol. I bet you still buy cds/dvds lol
Sent from my galaxy because the mobile net is the way forward
Trust me, I am not your dad!!!
And I donât buy CDâs or DVDâs either
This time sent from my Blackberry as I am not at home
shuttlespanker:
Trust me, I am not your dad!!!
Well you never know !
Red Squirrel:
Simon:
You shouldnât NEED to tune in your aerial, it isnât imperative, you wonât damage your transmitter if you donât. However a tuned aerial WILL give you a better range.Besides this, many aerials you can buy nowadays tend to say PRE-SWR and if you buy one of these you really shouldnât have a problem. That is not to say you canât fine tune them even better with an SWR meter.
so called Pre tuned aerials are only tuned roughly and as a rusult iâve never fitted one yet that does not need tuning!
the crap thats written on the packet is just that crap!
the reflected power off an un tuned aerial will damage the transmitter (output transistors) in no time
when fitting one aerial you will use 50 ohm coax and if fitting twin aerials you will need the less common 75 ohm type, if you try to use 50 ohm for twins it will never work as it should,nor will it tune !
as has been said already if twins are to be fitted they need to be as far apart as possible and another point base loaded aerials with the coil at the botom eg (stinger and modulator types) dont lend themselves to being fitted in pairs (co phased)
if the areial has a coil on the bottom try to keep it as high as poss and away or above any lightbars/other metal objects as it will be simpler to tune that way
Simon
You are right as most aerials are pre tuned BUT how does one know that the coax and connectors have been done right?
Also the aerial is only half an aerial, dont forget the metalwork of the lorry is the other half
G8YMW:
Simon
You are right as most aerials are pre tuned BUT how does one know that the coax and connectors have been done right?
Also the aerial is only half an aerial, dont forget the metalwork of the lorry is the other half
this
GM0AZC
G8YMW:
Simon
You are right as most aerials are pre tuned BUT how does one know that the coax and connectors have been done right?
Also the aerial is only half an aerial, dont forget the metalwork of the lorry is the other half
the metal work of your truck is the groundplane of yer ariel and as a pre tuned ariel doesnt know the area involved its prerequisiteite that a pre tuned arial is a flawed idea.
I use the standard twig supplied by Daf: Are these any good? I donât get out very far (none of us who use these do) and I was wondering if I took out said twig and swapped it for something else, would I get a better result? Would attaching some wire from twig to cab make any difference?
The most important part of any aerial is the Co-Ax, a decent bit will make a huge difference, then all you need is one of theseâŚ
Muckaway:
I use the standard twig supplied by Daf: Are these any good? I donât get out very far (none of us who use these do) and I was wondering if I took out said twig and swapped it for something else, would I get a better result? Would attaching some wire from twig to cab make any difference?
Attaching some wire from your twig to your cab will make things worse. The original Daf fitted mount will have a good earth to your cab, which should be good enough. If you can get to the back of your mount, you could try giving it a clean-up with emery paper and tightening up the fitting to get a good earth. If itâs at all loose, do that asap.
I donât know how good those Daf aerials are. The Volvo ones were crap but you could buy better ones made to fit the Volvo mount. I expect the same aerial would improve things for you.
Moose:
so called Pre tuned aerials are only tuned roughly and as a rusult iâve never fitted one yet that does not need tuning!
the crap thats written on the packet is just that crap!
the reflected power off an un tuned aerial will damage the transmitter (output transistors) in no time
OK then Moose, which channel (frequency) do you tune your rig too if itâs SO important for the health of your CBs transmit side? And do you tune it to the same channel if you have a CB that does both UK and EU frequencies? If I use my 480 channel CB, do I tune it to the middle of its range and pray that the standing wave isnât too far out at either end of its frequency range, or do I tune it to channel 19 in the UK frequency range and hope no-one wants to use the furthest away channels because Iâll burn out my transmit side?
Fine tuning your aerial and co-ax to your CB on a channel will give you optimum reception and output on that channel. Each frequency has a slightly different wavelength in its standing wave, which gets further out of tune with your co-ax/aerial the further away from that tuned channel you get. How far out does your tuning have to be before the reflected power of your 4w CBs standing wave starts to seriously affect your transmit side?
In short, as I said earlier, a properly tuned co-ax/aerial will pull in and get out further than a rig that hasnât been tuned. But not spending that extra ÂŁ5 or so isnât going to burn out your rig unless itâs REALLY out of tune, which a new co-ax/aerial wonât be. Even tuned, itâs still only âroughlyâ in tune by the time you get 20 channels away from the channel you tuned it to, let alone 40 or 240.
Iâve spent many hours making all sorts of tunable antennae, for long range radio transmission and reception. Iâm talking about 100s of miles, using military frequencies on military kit. Granted that kit was much more robust than a CB. It also had much higher transmit power, but we still used the same length of antenna for a wide frequency range, only changing antenna length when reception started to tail off. This was a change of at least a foot, not a couple of mmâs (at most) which is what weâre talking about in tuning a CB aerial.
i would tune the twig to the channels most used myself, its all ok fitting a pre tuned twig and then wanting to run some âpowerâ! without tuning as the rusults will be costly⌠i often tuned twigs on ch 20 on the uk 40 and if the swr was flat i could run power without a problem throughout the 40 and beyond to some extent, if using a multi band radio i would tune to the most used and use a matcher! as we both know you have 2 choices, tune the twig or use a matcher
the newest type of cb radio seem total crap to me and all i can say is the ones that dont get set up either dont last or dont work v well, when you see the position of some aerials you can tell they wont tune or have a high swr without plugging the meter in!
i will stick to avanti moonraker/oscar/sirio stuff that i have been used for years
Moose:
the newest type of cb radio seem total crap to me
Surely there must be somebody out there still making decent CBâs with decent components as opposed to cheap printed circuit boards that you canât tinker with much yourself or fix when they go wrong?
Does anyone know what the best makes of CB are which are in production today?
Red Squirrel:
Moose:
the newest type of cb radio seem total crap to meSurely there must be somebody out there still making decent CBâs with decent components as opposed to cheap printed circuit boards that you canât tinker with much yourself or fix when they go wrong?
Does anyone know what the best makes of CB are which are in production today?
Some of the old established names are still going, Midland, Cobra etc, but they are now having radios built in China as opposed to Japan. Having said that, the Chinese are now building some very good ham radio sets that the big boys canât match for price, and while these are in the main still hit and miss, the build quality IS getting better.
Ken.
Simon, our Daf twigs are mounted to rear of cab using the wing nut mounts so we can fold them down when delivering under trees. I think the wing nut mounts do work loose in time so this could be the problem. Some drivers have changed to the short length stinger but I think these are worse. I agree with what you said about Volvos; These are fairly clear but the rang is barely half a mile sometimes.
thanks for the help fellasâŚalthough now im more confused! 
dbk23:
thanks for the help fellasâŚalthough now im more confused!
donât be confused mate just check the voltage on these two wires
get yourself a magmount ariel and you will be fine.
once you get started you will learn some of the other stuff.
Moose:
i would tune the twig to the channels most used myself, its all ok fitting a pre tuned twig and then wanting to run some âpowerâ! without tuning as the rusults will be costly⌠i often tuned twigs on ch 20 on the uk 40 and if the swr was flat i could run power without a problem throughout the 40 and beyond to some extent, if using a multi band radio i would tune to the most used and use a matcher! as we both know you have 2 choices, tune the twig or use a matcher
Ahh, now your talking. Running power on an un-tuned twig will greatly increase the chances of burning out your CBs transmit side. Which is potentially possible, but a pretty remote chance to be honest, using a standard, out of the box CB. But you didnât mention using boots until now, giving a noobie the impression that it was essential to spend even more on tuning their rig. Running boots on an un-tuned setup will also pick up every tiny crackle and boost that too.
Moose:
the newest type of cb radio seem total crap to me and all i can say is the ones that dont get set up either dont last or dont work v well, when you see the position of some aerials you can tell they wont tune or have a high swr without plugging the meter in!
i will stick to avanti moonraker/oscar/sirio stuff that i have been used for years
Iâm not sure if these new CBs are crap, or if itâs where you have to mount aerials now. But I wish I still had that old Amstrad. Those are all old, well known, reliable companies making reliable gear.
One of the problems is these big, tall, hold a party in them, cabs. We used to get a big based mag mount, any aerial you could afford, slap it on the roof (perfect for a good ground plane) and away you go. A flat roofed cab (even a hi-line) would go under a 4m bridge/tunnel with feet to spare. Do that now n 10 minutes after you come off the boat a low bridge has swept it off the roof of your cab, knackered your twig and your getting no output cos your co-ax broke. So you get a new mag mount and twig, stick it on the back of your cab n get very limited range. Move it round to the side of your cab improves the range, but your boss moans about it marking his paintwork and looking scruffy. You canât get a mirror mount cos your mirror arms are shrouded in plastic. A gutter mount is no good cos its a plastic moulded cab top which is bonded into where the gutter used to be (and gutter mounts were rarely any good anyway). So where can you mount it to get good clear 360 degree âsightâ lines for your aerial ?
Those big President CBs seem to be pretty popular in Europe. Have you tried any of those? I havenât yet. I suspect the little ones, which look very similar to the Midland range, have very similar circuitry too.
Iâve been using a Maycom CB for about 10 years now. Not as good as that old Amstrad, but it does for running with mates. The boss should is getting Mercâ to fit their CB twigs into the fitting on the front of our Mercâs. Iâm still waiting for mine, so Iâve no idea if theyâre any good yet.
