Wilson Antenna 'Ground Plane'

[iceman78]

saw this little widget on ebay and wanted an opinion:

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...229466%26kwid%3D902099%26mtid%3D824%26kw%3Dlghttp://cgi.ebay.com/Wilson-Cb-Ham-R...444?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c186b026c

my gut is telling me i'd be better off spending the $5 on an ice cream cone than this. anyway what do you think?

 

[Moleculo]

Gimmick.

It's supposed to install underneath the load coil on a wilson 1000/5000. If you're using a mag mount version, it's completely useless since the body of the vehicle already accomplishes the same thing, only better. If you're want to use it in free space (like on a mirror mount), it would offer some benefit if it was the proper size, but the proper size would be 3-4 times the size of that (or more).

So basically it's just just another typical CB product designed to take your money without offering any real benefit.

 

[W5LZ]

...Butter-Pecan! That's a good flavor for that icecream cone.

Although that particular GP appears to at least make contact with the ground side of the antenna and mount so that it might possibly be a part of a 'groundplane', it also appears to be only something like 10 to 12 inches in diameter. A 12" groundplane at any HF frequency is totally useless. It may be effective at 70 cm, but not at 27 Mhz.
'Stacking' groundplanes, with a separation of less than 2 - 3 inches between them isn't doing anything productive, has no electrical value. It may not hurt, but it certainly doesn't do any good at all.
- 'Doc


if you can find it, raspberry ain't bad either.

 

[2020 Ghost]

good to know i was about to buy one i knew they might have been rubbish:blush:

 

[Moleculo]

Wow, a thread raised from the dead! I put a new link to the same thing on ebay in case others are wondering what we were warning against spending money on.

 

[psycho]

good to know i was about to buy one i knew they might have been rubbish:blush:

Not rubbish....nowadays it is called salvage. Might do something if you are driving a plastic vehicle that has no groundplane.....not much though.