I had a customer this morning with a Freightliner Cascadia tractor that turned out to have a bad antenna. This system was an external, single-antenna setup. Most customers keep their old antennas so that when they leave the tractor/company they can re-install it and keep their good one. This customer didn't want his, so I did what I usually do - take the vinyl off the base to re-solder the usually-broken-off wire and have the antenna around as a testing unit/spare, or very cheap/quick fix for a customer who is short of cash. THIS antenna HAS no loading wire. It has TWO - not one, but TWO - unequal lengths of flat braided wire soldered to the metal base. one goes straight to the top of the antenna, across it, and about an inch down the opposite side where the end is taped in place. The second braided wire goes roughly 2/3 of the way straight up the opposite side and is terminated with tape, basically straight down from the first wire's termination. The spiral winding that is normally a copper wire in other CB antennas of similar appearance is some kind of blue plastic filament that terminates about 2" below the top. The bottom end did not appear to be attached to anything, but was terminated along the bottom of the 2nd braided wire. I have NEVER seen an antenna construction like this. Can anyone explain to me how it is supposed to work as a CB antenna? Photos below: Note, the blue filament is cut/ripped off a bit at the bottom as I tried to determine if it was some kind of very light-gauge coated wire by attempting to strip it. It was about 3/4" to 1" inch longer with a clean-cut end.
