What are your thoughts about using the window antena for the cb antena? Would this work?
CK5
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using the window antena for a cb
- Thread starter wazzabie
- Start date
Bad juju. The SWR will be waaaay off and you'll blow your transmitter stage out in a heartbeat, plus maybe melt the antenna out of the glass.
Those antennas are tuned for FM and made for receive only.
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Those antennas are tuned for FM and made for receive only.
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combatmatt
1/2 ton status
^^what he said^^
Quite do-able, but trust me, the results suck!
Not sure where you would find the combination isolator/matchbox anymore.
They used to sell a box with a am/fm radio antenna cable, a socket, plus an PL259 connector on another cable.
You put the box between the am/fm radio and the antenna and hooked the other cable to the CB.
The box would isolate the two so you did not transmit into the other radio's front end and burn it out.
Then, you used adjustments on the box to match the antenna's impedance to the CB.
It worked OK on an external rod type antenna, not great, but OK.
But the windshield ones gave a weird radiation pattern.
And not much range.
Running barefoot never seemed to bother the antenna, but I saw one a guy claimed to have run a couple hundred watts through.
First thing it did, was fry the matchbox. Then blow the front end out of his am/fm radio, and boil the goo between the glass in the windshield along the wire.
Made a white line along the wire about 1/4 inch wide.
If you did not have the regular radio hooked up, and could go directly to the antenna with the CB, things would be a little easier, but the results would still be very poor. All you would need then would be a matchbox of some kind to match the impedance and other factors.
You could find one that would work at a hamfest or most hams would have one if they do any 10 meter stuff.
But, all that will do is make the CB and antenna each see what they are expecting to see. Nothing will make it a usable antenna unless you are talking to someone riding in the back of the truck.
Not sure where you would find the combination isolator/matchbox anymore.
They used to sell a box with a am/fm radio antenna cable, a socket, plus an PL259 connector on another cable.
You put the box between the am/fm radio and the antenna and hooked the other cable to the CB.
The box would isolate the two so you did not transmit into the other radio's front end and burn it out.
Then, you used adjustments on the box to match the antenna's impedance to the CB.
It worked OK on an external rod type antenna, not great, but OK.
But the windshield ones gave a weird radiation pattern.
And not much range.
Running barefoot never seemed to bother the antenna, but I saw one a guy claimed to have run a couple hundred watts through.
First thing it did, was fry the matchbox. Then blow the front end out of his am/fm radio, and boil the goo between the glass in the windshield along the wire.
Made a white line along the wire about 1/4 inch wide.
If you did not have the regular radio hooked up, and could go directly to the antenna with the CB, things would be a little easier, but the results would still be very poor. All you would need then would be a matchbox of some kind to match the impedance and other factors.
You could find one that would work at a hamfest or most hams would have one if they do any 10 meter stuff.
But, all that will do is make the CB and antenna each see what they are expecting to see. Nothing will make it a usable antenna unless you are talking to someone riding in the back of the truck.
what did the stock gm radio with cb use for an antena?
Separate antenna. See the Brochures link in my sig, go to '76 or '77, Accessories.
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Now thats a good question. I doubt it was the windshield one........
I don't think I ever worked on a GM. Lincoln had a setup, and it would mute the radio when the squelch broke.
I saw it as an option, but never worked on one of those either. I installed a regular CB with separate antenna on the one my father drove.
OK, something kept bugging me as I wrote this. I knew darn good and well I worked on a factory installed CB once.
I called a friend of mine, and he remembered, since he helped me and it was a friend of his's car.
Plus, he had worked on others. He said that most of them were shortened CB antennas with matchers.
Some used regular am/fm antennas, and some were even power antennas.
Said that the power antenna automatically extended to full height when you switched on the CB part.
None of them were windshield.
And they all had the splitter/matchers.
However, I think they had problems with those, and finally went to separate antennas.
Just for fun, I checked around and found a couple of the matchers on E-bay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250873070344&viewitem=
I don't think I ever worked on a GM. Lincoln had a setup, and it would mute the radio when the squelch broke.
I saw it as an option, but never worked on one of those either. I installed a regular CB with separate antenna on the one my father drove.
OK, something kept bugging me as I wrote this. I knew darn good and well I worked on a factory installed CB once.
I called a friend of mine, and he remembered, since he helped me and it was a friend of his's car.
Plus, he had worked on others. He said that most of them were shortened CB antennas with matchers.
Some used regular am/fm antennas, and some were even power antennas.
Said that the power antenna automatically extended to full height when you switched on the CB part.
None of them were windshield.
And they all had the splitter/matchers.
However, I think they had problems with those, and finally went to separate antennas.
Just for fun, I checked around and found a couple of the matchers on E-bay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250873070344&viewitem=
smier
1/2 ton status
Lot of money to spend for something used that at best would give mediocre performance, you can get a decent quality antenna and cable for about the same money. For a little more money you can have a great performing cb antenna setup that will last for years. There's a reason they quit making those setups, and it wasn't because cb radios are no longer widely used... Remember, you can have the greatest cb radio ever made, but if your antenna and cable suck, the whole setup will not perform well.
I have one of those AM/FM/CB "matchbox splitter" dewhickies somewhere in my pile of 70's CB stuff in my garage,along with a bunch of CB's and antennas....been collecting dust for a long time..
I also still have a factory AM/FM/CB stereo from a late 70's Caddy that I had in my old 72 K5...only plays thru the left channel mow,I thing an output transistor went in it,but it still works fine as far as the CB and Am/FM...the car I took it from had a typical AM/FM antenna (not in the windsheild) and the matchbox.splitter thing...I had poor results trying to use a regular antenna for CB as far as receotion and transmitting,the only "advantage" to it was it helped to keep theives from being able to see instantly you had a CB in the vehicle...
I also still have a factory AM/FM/CB stereo from a late 70's Caddy that I had in my old 72 K5...only plays thru the left channel mow,I thing an output transistor went in it,but it still works fine as far as the CB and Am/FM...the car I took it from had a typical AM/FM antenna (not in the windsheild) and the matchbox.splitter thing...I had poor results trying to use a regular antenna for CB as far as receotion and transmitting,the only "advantage" to it was it helped to keep theives from being able to see instantly you had a CB in the vehicle...
