Range and setting up a base station

With a standard CB and antenna setup in a mobile environment, you're pretty much looking at range of a couple miles. You could try some different antennas (at a cost, of course). You would probably notice a significant difference with a Wilson 1000. If you're OK with the height, a basic 102" whip is a real good choice and you definately will notice a difference. Those are about $15.

I think the wire antenna may be the easiest to hide on the base. In addition, they're cheap to make.

I run a 2950 and a wilson 1000, on my Jeep Cherokee, and can talk back to my base station at home at distances of 35 to 40 kilometers, when I'm out in the bush. My base consists of an Imax 2000 on a 40 foot tower, antenna mounted on 10 feet of pipe on top of the tower, rg213 coax, to a magnum s9 mobile hooked up to an astron rs20m power supply. The key here???? Antenna it is the one thing that can improve even a 4 watt radio. I can remove the s9, hook up my little cherokee cm10 plus, at 4 watts, and still get out. Oh and a decent power mic just to help out with the audio.

know a guy that lives in his mobile home , uses a 5 ft loaded Firestick ....1.3 match around the band ......on a tuned radio he seems to get out fairly well within 3 to 5 miles (if skip was rolling I truly doubt I could come close to hearing him even that far ?) .....he also runs power /and just a little extra really helps him out BIG TIME !! ......it surely helps to have the best of both worlds here (radio and amp if you can have one of those?) but weather base station or mobile are concerned it will always pay to have the best ANTENNA that one can have on either ......I have to believe that the ANTENNA is the heart and soul of any radio station. The old saying is ...you can have a 40 dollar radio on a well tuned and placed ANTENNA and do fairly well where in you can have a 400 dollar radio on a very poor ANTENNA situation and not come close to the performance of the 40 dollar radio .....How ever it works ? .....I think one should pay more attention to there antenna systems in the beginning before having concerns about there radios / amps .....but unfortunatley ...it just doesn't always start out that way ....more so the opposite )-: live and learn as they say. Good Luck to you gohusan.

If you want more range out of your mobile and base installations, you really have to look at antennas more than the radio or adding additional output power.

If you can't get a Wilson 1000 (or equivalent antenna) magmount or through the roof mount on the highest part of your vehicle, you will suffer in transmit and receive.

If you can't put a 1/4 wave or 5/8 wave base antenna up at least 36' feet at the home, you will suffer. A simple inverted V wire antenna will do a decent job for you, and offer minimum visual impact, but carefully check the SWR for proper loading, or you will suffer.

Your local terrain will be a factor too. Do you live in a hilly/mountainous region? or is it more flatland?

CB (hf) radio waves will bend over hills and generally give you more range than VHF/UHF signals, but you have to have the best possible installation you can afford (money-wise and neighbor-friendly-wise).

I am in southeastern Pennsylvania. The terrain is rolling hills, no big mountains. My home is only about 200 feet above sea level (check your altitude here www.topozone.com )

At the base, I have a Galaxy DX 2547 CB base radio (about 15 watts out on sideband) feeding an Imax 2000 antenna, the feed point is 36 feet above the ground. I use no amplifier. I can easily get 20+ miles in all directions, usually more like 30 miles.

In the mobile, I run a Wilson 1000 through the roof mount (drilled the hole) and a Magnum 257. I can easily talk 10-20 miles with the 25 watts (SSB) output the 257 offers. Turning on a MagnaForce 300 does nothing substantial to add to that coverage locally, so I no longer run additional power in the mobile.

All my equipment is grounded, to reduce stray RF and to reduce noise in the receiver.

I have gotten a much bigger benefit from my radio installations since I spent the time and money on better antennas and grounding techniques, than I did with amplifiers. Also, those operators in my area who run amplifiers splatter the band pretty badly, making it hard for other operators to use the band. Courtesy is still a good thing in our society.

This amateur radio operator's website offers good suggestions for mobile installations, and has helped me immensely.
www.k0bg.com

Hi there..

i am rather surprised you only get 3 miles max transmitting and hearing..
for many years i only worked from the car and even driving i got 15 to 25 miles (depending more on the trafic of the channel)..

most of the things one does at home to increase range is however even more importent to do on a mobil set up..

the more money you have the better you can increase the range

1st is the antenna...
what i used some years back that even distroyed the K-40 and Wilson 1000 was a penitrator D-2500

in placing the antenna the higher above the top of the mobil you can go the better...

remember the top of the antenna is mostly recieve..
the bottom of the antenna is transmitting..
obviously we not always have the choice to put on the roof
i had mine on the lip of the rear tail gate on back of the roof

fortunatly or unfortunatly depending on your point of view
everyone knew it was me pulling up..
for who else had a 5 foot antenna on their roof of a mustang

(dont forget to work the SWR as low as posible...i keep mine 1.1 if goes above 1.3 i check everything out)


2ed is radio
back then i used a Ranger AR-3500
then switched to the RCI-2970
Now use the Icom 706 MKIIG


3rd is mike
i used for the car back then Astadic D-104 575 hand held mike
with tone and audio boasting (sometimes i used my base desk mike then the Turner Plus 2)
remember if you like to use SSB then the mike is indeed importent for power is derived basiclly from the use of strong audio..

i remember once a friend of mine was standing leaning on the car...as i was getting skip from florida (when the other cars with cb's barly heard 5 miles away)...

when i mentioned skip from florida other nearby people were like yeh right.....i told them to come to my car and they were amazed....when asked how i pointed out my then AR-3500 and pointed to the antenna....just then i got in the car as someone was like....ahh but they will never hear you...so a called to the skip land
(as my friend was stil leaning on the car and some reason touching the antenna) and my friend jumped saying YAH
i said what laughing he said my antenna shocked him...
so i asked what he was touching (hehe) and as he did so i keyed up again and called him stupid for touching the antenna as florida and i were talking..
mean while my friends were not even able to hear the skip i was easily talking to ..let alone hearing..

anyway for home i use now..

1st is Jay's Interceptor I-10K

i used to use the A-99 (garbage compared to the I-10K)
(also last night spoke to a neighbor 35 miles away who said he heard of Jay's I-10K but thought it likly not worth while because was too much money...he was using a 5/8 wave by maco and said was a nice antenna for under $80....when he heard me he was like WOW nice signal and he is now likly also buying Jay's I-10K because i destroyed his local boys signals..

also Comet GP-9 dual bander
also Dual Polarity 9 Element for 2 meters and MURS
Also 12 Element for 220 band
Also 16 Element for 70 cm band and FRS and GMRS

2ed is radio Icom 706 MKIIG
yes it costs some money and well worth it..
way too much to go into on this subject..
but is AB1 biased 160 to 70 cm transmit (1 to 473 mhz,except for 220 band)

3rd is mike currantly the Icom SM-20 Desk power mike
it may well be better if i used a Heil mike..but i have had 2 bad mikes from Heil and even though he(heil) agreed to replace them.. there is no way i will waste my money on Heil again)..

4th is coax
Andrews Heliex LDF5-50A for HF
Andrews Heliex LDF7-50A for VHF and UHF

(not mentioned for mobil for runs of coax are too short to typiclly worry about loss and install is far more dificult in a mobil set up)


well hope i did not go over board in this..
anyway you should have a better idea now

there is a additional way to increase transmit and recieve
by adding a linear - amp

set up properly there is no need for this
is why i do not need to use

later

Gohusan quote

"777 hunter my question to you is what is a 2950??? "

The link below shows a pic.

http://www.rangerusa.com/photosLG/closeup2950dx.jpg

It is an export radio, that has been arround for years, easily opened for the cb band, and unlike other exports, no need to use a band selector. Just dial in the frequency you want to go to.