Thread: UHF INSTALL

If you are lazy like me, you will find the sunroof wires all set up and powered , if you fish around in front of the light.

It is switched but so much easier to use than any other power source and it has plenty of capacity.
BTW as far as antenna goes, I have drilled a hole in the upper rear corner of the drivers door jamb, passed the antenna wire through and above the headlining and have fitted a gutter mount swivelling mount. I have a ground independent antenna with a variety of screw on low to high gain antennas. I shortened the antenna feed in to suit. This avoids most interference sources.
Regards Philip A

Originally Posted by PhilipA

If you are lazy like me, you will find the sunroof wires all set up and powered , if you fish around in front of the light.

It is switched but so much easier to use than any other power source and it has plenty of capacity.
BTW as far as antenna goes, I have drilled a hole in the upper rear corner of the drivers door jamb, passed the antenna wire through and above the headlining and have fitted a gutter mount swivelling mount. I have a ground independent antenna with a variety of screw on low to high gain antennas. I shortened the antenna feed in to suit. This avoids most interference sources.
Regards Philip A

So you've detuned the length of your coax, hooked to a poor power source and recommending it as the way to go...

He *has* to run the coax up there, why not Do the job properly and run power???

Its in thanks

So you've detuned the length of your coax, hooked to a poor power source and
recommending it as the way to go...

Tombie stick to mechanicing.
Quote form Mobile One site and my experience as CB radio product manager many years ago.

The cable length should be a multiple of 1/2 wave length of
the frequency i.e.: for 27MHz the length should be either 3.6m, 7.2m,
10.8m or 14.4m etc, but this is not at all essential for performance but
rather for accuracy in testing the antenna!.
In the case
of UHF CB the length of cable is not important as the vast majority of
UHF antennas are broad-band and do not need to be tuned.

The shorter the better as the less loss.
And IMHO, the sunroof power is great power as it is usually used to power a high amp appliance.
Regards Philip A

Originally Posted by PhilipA

Tombie stick to mechanicing.

I'm sorry! I will forget being An Air Technical Communications guy working with radio and electronics on military aircraft.

Or my time doing CB repair, tuning and modifications...

No major losses may be incurred but they will be there...

So if he's running the cable for power why not run the optimum length coax?

It's this reasoning that I will never go into commercial installations- I take my time and make it spot on..

Originally Posted by PhilipA

And IMHO, the sunroof power is great power as it is usually used to power a high amp appliance.
Regards Philip A

Have seen noisy feeds on that line as it goes through switching and the fuse box.

But if it works for you!

I will apologise PhilipA...

My installs are wide band radios, so are more finicky than a standard UHF and wide range antenna. In the case of a stock UHF and Antenna the SWR over the 80ch band will show very little impact.

I also like to be able to test correctly, hence tuned length coax...

Originally Posted by Tombie

Have seen noisy feeds on that line as it goes through switching and the fuse box.

But if it works for you!

30 years ago when HF CB was all the rage I would use antenna coax between the Tranceiver and the battery to shield the power feed ie earth the coax braid at each end of the cable and run the +12V via the centre conductor. It was the only way you could listen in on HF SSB DX or "skip" stations whilst mobile.

Ah! those were the days...................................