I am going to be installing a CB radio in my 99 EX pretty soon. Iknow how to install everything except for the antenna, with regard to how its placed outside of the car.

I am thinking of getting a magnetic or a trunk lid mount to go on the trunk lid but how do I run the coax cable inside the car and make it look clean?

I dont like the idea of drilling into the car but, is that the only way? I have to see what the max cable length for the CB can be but if its long enough i was thinking of running it down the side of the trunk in the "gutters" where the rain falls down, inbetween the bumper and the frame of the trunk(if there is room, from what i remember there is), and drill a hole in the bottom of where the spare tire is and run it into the car from there, atleast there the hole wont be visible. Illustrating this may help. Where the cable is green, its visible, where it turns blue is where it is ran behind the bumpe(this isnt my car, its the only pic i could find tho):



Any ideas are welcome


Modified by imadigitalgod at 11:59 PM 5/26/2007


Modified by imadigitalgod at 12:04 AM 5/27/2007

 

You need to place the antenna as high on the vehicle as possible and it has to have a 30 degree open space around it.

CB on a Civic... every day I come across something new to make me more ashamed to drive a Civic.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by suspendedHatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
CB on a Civic... every day I come across something new to make me more ashamed to drive a Civic.</TD></TR></TABLE>

whats wrong with having a cb in a civic? its not all about "breaker breaker im cool for talking on a cb...", if ur somewhere that ur cell wont work, u switch it to the emergency channel and u can get help. most law enforcement monitor the channel.

also truckers can let u know what the holdups are and can give an alternate route. mine has weather channel options on it....so its not all about f**king around on it

all around town i see people with those stupid candy-*** fart cans on their civic but that doesnt make me ashamed to drive a civic




Modified by imadigitalgod at 1:10 AM 5/28/2007

 

You tell him imadigitalgod, when I started installing, if you didn't have a CB in your "******** wagon" or your Honda, you were just lame.

But Hatch is correct, the best place for a CB ant. is as close to the cars center of mass as you can place it, that would be about where your dome light is, and "hard mounted" is the best way, the next best thing is a trunk lid mount, mounting bracket "clips" to trunk lip, set screws, [from inside of lip] secure it to the lip, ant. cable ends up in trunk. You will need an ant. that clears the roof of the car by at least a few inches to get any transmission distance in the direction of the front of the car.

Please tell me you will take it to a 2way radio shop to have the ant. tuned, unless of coarse you have your own SWR meter and know how to use it. 94

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fcm &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Please tell me you will take it to a 2way radio shop to have the ant. tuned, unless of coarse you have your own SWR meter and know how to use it. 94</TD></TR></TABLE>

Ill definitely get it tuned, iv read so much about this stuff and understand that CBs are definitely NOT plug-and-play like stereos are. From what i understand, u can burnout the cb transmitter if its not tuned correctly.

im thinking of getting a Wilson antenna , i hear they are one of the best to get.

The CB i am getting is the Cobra 148 GTL which back in the day, it was the one to get. This one has the built in SWR meter so i wont need an external one

 

Good ant. and good CB, any good shop will use an in-line SWR meter and not depend on the one in the unit.

Yes, you are correct, it is the output transistor that blows if ant. is not tuned, although it would have to be way out for that to happen, more then likely only transmission range is effected. 94

 

dude sell you honda and buy a truck.....

 

My buddy in pittsburgh had a volvo 700 with an 8 foot whip cb antenna on the back bumper, he hooked his stereo up to it and he could pick up radio stations in ohio ......

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by IceySC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">dude sell you honda and buy a truck.....</TD></TR></TABLE>

and why would I get a truck just because of a radio i want to put in my car???

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CarbonizedDX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My buddy in pittsburgh had a volvo 700 with an 8 foot whip cb antenna on the back bumper, he hooked his stereo up to it and he could pick up radio stations in ohio ......</TD></TR></TABLE>

Rrrriiiiggghhhtt.....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by B18C_EJ8 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Rrrriiiiggghhhtt..... </TD></TR></TABLE>

It is possible with HF (high frequency) radio waves which is what the radio we listen to is. This is done be the HF radio waves bouncing off of the earths ionosphere that reflects it back down to earth. It can be as much as 2,500 miles. This is how HAM radio operators communicate with people all across the world without the use of satellites.

 

It's called "skip" and works for any RF, however using a CB ant. to pick up am or fm from a distance, I have never heard of, and I have installed a lot of CB ant.

I just happen to have one of those "8'" ant. at the shop, I am going to install a Motorola ant. end on it and pug it into a car HU and see if it works, I am pretty skeptical as we are talking about completely different frequencies, even the "triway" ant. am/fm/CB or am/fm/cell have a "black box" that "matches the ant. mast to either radio and CB or radio and cell phone. 94

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by imadigitalgod &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

It is possible with HF (high frequency) radio waves which is what the radio we listen to is. This is done be the HF radio waves bouncing off of the earths ionosphere that reflects it back down to earth. It can be as much as 2,500 miles. This is how HAM radio operators communicate with people all across the world without the use of satellites. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Guy, I work in the RF field, installing & repairing 2-way radios, so I know a bit about how this stuff works.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by B18C_EJ8 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Guy, I work in the RF field, installing & repairing 2-way radios, so I know a bit about how this stuff works.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

How am I supposed to know all of your credentials? Maybe others that read it can learn something. No harm meant but by what you said it gave me the impression that you thought it was impossible and a total lie of what his friend said about receiving signals from that far away.

 

I doubt a cb antenna would work well in a FM radio impedence is probably way off. Doesn't mean it couldn't be tuned.

The point of tuning your antenna is because the termination impedence of you radio and antenna are different. If its really bad and you have a weak output you could burn your radio up. The main purpose is so that all of the signal is recieved/transmitted. Your effective recieve/transmit range will be reduced if this is off.

Ever hear a transformer hum? Its exactly the same thing, the humming is caused by the signal traveling down the wire hitting the termination and some of the signal bouncing back to the source unit. In this case the termination is your antenna impedence. It should match your radios output impedence.

Antenna strip in the gutter area would probably work but your range would be drastically reduced.

 

Nope doesn't work, or I should say not very well.
My test bench is an Alpine HU, test bench speakers, [front] and shop speakers , [rear], a 4ch. Alpine amp, I have an old Metra "hide a way" car ant. mounted to a grounded sheet metal bracket, this is our test bench and our shop sound system and works well enough, gets all the local stations, a bunch more from other towns and big US stations in the evenings.
I took and installed a Motorola ant end on the RG58, [I think] cable and mounted the whip, ball mount and all, to the sheet metal bracket and plugged it in, no AM reception that you could listen to, and some poor FM reception, and could not receive all local stations, a 32" piece of 16ga wire stuck into the Alpines ant. port got all local stations and good clean, [for FM radio] sound.

Now, albeit this was not mounted to the bumper of a car, but sounds to me like "myth busted". 94

 

Did you impedence match the antenna to the radio?

My guess is this is way off so most of your signal would be reflected causing really crappy reception.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by IceySC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">dude sell you honda and buy a truck.....</TD></TR></TABLE>


im still trying to figure out why you say this just because of an electronic device i want to put in my car.

thats like saying "you want a power inverter installed in ur civic? dude just get an RV/Mobilehome"

 

Eh I'm just relaying what I got told.... in the day n age of highschool kids it's not a shocker to have bent truth to impress friends...

Either way I've seen lots of cars with mini cb antenna's and I frankly would do dual 8 footers just to screw with people......

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nsxxtreme &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Did you impedence match the antenna to the radio?

My guess is this is way off so most of your signal would be reflected causing really crappy reception.</TD></TR></TABLE>, not at the time, and yes it would be way off, we tried "tuning" it, removed about 6" of the top coil, [15" of wire] and it made no diff. at all, I would be willing to bet we will have to remove all but 32" of lead before reception is acceptable. 94