Cb Questions
 

Hey guys,

I bought a cobra 29 nw ltd classic from a guy a couple days ago and don't know where to mount the thing in the cabin. I've heard people taking out their ash tray and mounting it there? Or maybe a velcro mount on the dash? What do you suggest? I want it hidden or at least lower near the carpet or ash tray.

Also, antenna mounting locations? I definitely don't want the antenna on the roof since it is the 102 inch whip. I'd like to keep it a little lower. Would the spare tire rack be the best way to go? Also, I need to pick up an antenna mount. What mount would you suggest if I wanted to mount a 102 inch whip to the spare tire rack?

Thanks!

Morning Tibby,
If you have any in NC, TA truck stops are a great place to go look at some things. They have an ok selection on mounts, cables and other things. PA's are a blast. As far as mounting I laid my down on the center console under my ash try because I didn't want to drill or mod my dash yet. But if you are a non smoker replacing the ash try with your CB is a great place IMO. Though with a 102 inch whip I'd maybe think about mounting to the rear bumper in a corner. That blasted thing is 8 ft tall, it will tower over the truck from your spare tire rack. If it's on the bumper it wouldn't be too much of a pain in parking garages. I just have a 2ft whip with a mag mount on my roof and I smack a lot of things with it. Welcome to the CB world.

D*** what are you all doing up at those crazy hours!!!!!!!!!!!! tibby I just installed a Cobra 29 myself. Check out my build thread for the pics. If you want some better shots of how its mounted just let me know and I will get some for you. I just used two screws into the under side of the dash and it is solid as a rock. Its out of the way and I can still use all three power outlets and the ashtray even though I don't smoke. I can also still use the storage tray in the center council with it mounted there. I did have to pull off the black plastic piece not sure what its called and cut that out a bit to make the cb fit down just far enough to mount properly. I had already cut this some for the posi-loc I installed and honestly with the cb there you can't even tell I cut it unless you really look for it. As for the antenna I mounted mine on my rear bumper with a Firestik dome mount. I don't know if that mount will work with you antenna or not but they make a plain old stud mount for the antenna as well that would probably work. Another thing you may want to consider is getting a small strap to bend the whip over and down and attach it to your roof rack so you won't hit everthing you drive under. I think they make some sort of contraption specifically for this reason with these antennas you just have to search a bit. Hope it helps at least a little I'm no profesional but I figured I would share my experience.

Because my first electronic training was in RF, I facepalmed when I read about bumper mounting CB on a blazer. But rather than go off on yet another rant, I looked up 'Firestik' using google to see what they had to say about that.
BUMPER MOUNTS
They got it covered. If you guys read and understand what they're saying there and you go ahead.. then you been warned.

I was a Ham for quite a while, so I gotta agree with Pettyfog there. While you can just clamp the thing anywhere, you might not get much performance out of it. I'd rather have a shorter one in the middle of the roof than a towering number off in the corner.

Of course, they make them just for that kind of mounting, but it's going to cost. Find out what the antenna you have is designed to do, and then do it. At that length, I kind of hope it's not intended to be a roof mount, but I don't remember "kit" components always being what you want.

Build yourself a fractal antenna! Then you won't have to worry about knocking out low flying aircraft :)

Disclaimer - I've been out of amateur radio for years, and out of CB for decades so I'm not really up to date on what's available now. Also, I'm a software engineer so my math skills aren't up to giving good advice anymore

(if you don't like math, do NOT try to understand antenna design. I still get a headache thinking about the two I made 12 years ago)

So.. we got a consensus here .. let me tell you guys it's NOT important to know the math, {thank God or I'd never have made it as an engineer, I always just looked up the formulas and reduced them based on need} it's important to understand the principles of RF propagation and standing waves. And the ratio means power out vs power reflected. Think radar. All electromagnetic transmission works like radar.

The Firestik 4 footer is end-tuned for minimum SWR which means max efficiency, Anything reflected from the body of your blazer corrupts that and CAN damage the final amp.

Like I said though.. read the link and be informed.

Signed: One who keyed up an aircraft kilowatt transmitter inside a hangar and caught the antenna on fire. After the plane had just been refueled. It did point out a faulty when wet insulator but I could'a had my ass courts-martialed for that.
:icon_emm:

petty and wyzard have hit it on the head....there are many people who mount antennas to the bumper and it works but its not the best place by any means. a 102 inch whip is 6 inches short of being a full 1/4 wave antenna and is the one that everyone trys to copy, adding coils and wound wire makes up for the overall length. ive done lots of trail and error on my blazer to find the best spot for reflect and forward power and unfortanatly its in the rear of the roof, mounting a 102 is out of the question, so your most reasonable choice is on the bumper but that opens a can of worms in other ways so u have to decide on what can of worms you want to open. a wilson 1k or 5k mag mount is one of the best bottom loaded antennas out there and is a great compromise they work well and tune very well u might look into one of those also. on a side note yesterday i talked to my son locally from 25 miles away on my setup to my base station set up at the house my house radio is a cobra 29 chrome this is a astonishing range for cb in the noisy part of the day and petty and wyzard could back me up on this...if u want some real fun get your tech class and get on 10 meters and talk all over the world. there is so much more then just the 11 meters that cb is on

my dads been a ham op since the 60's(gen. class) and i grew up around radios all my life and am very passionate about it as radio is a great hobby and it has very real benefits such as emergency communications and those communications of "hey can you bring the chain and come get me unstuck!"


i havent caught a antenna on fire but i can light up a 4ft florescent light by putting it close to my antenna......

.
 

Wow, there is quite a bit of information here lol. I think I might mount it in place of the ash tray since I am a non-smoker, but I still want to use the power outlets on either side and this cobra 29 cb is huge. I might test out a few spots.

As far as antenna mounting, nobody mentioned the spare tire rack? It would be hard to mount the antenna on the right side of the bumper because the rack swings open and I have the drop down style of tailgate. So I might be able to mount it on the left side of the bumper. I still have holes where I took off my bumper ends that I can use if I get creative lol. But I was kind of set on the spare tire rack being the mounting location. I'm not sure how a magnet mount will work on the spare tire rack, and I was looking at maybe a bracket type mount instead of a magnet. Also, would you trust the swr meter that is built in to the cobra 29 or not?

if u use the cigarite lighter plugs you have a very good chance of getting exsesive noise in the line use a good sorce for power and ground. chevy recomends straight to the battery...
check this out frm gm...
Radio Telephone / Mobile Radio Installation Guidelines

No, the math really isn't used by anyone but crazy Hams. Still, they started throwing this stuff at me the first time I casually mentioned that I thought about building an antenna

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...0bedbd63ba.png
It follows that
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...1797eabdaf.png

Still don't know what that means