CK5 - The Full-Size GM Off Road Community

It's true...I tried it both ways. One 102 whip antenna does the best. Just don't stop real fast (a stop sign in town has a dent in the top cause of me!)

Keep your truck muddier than you!

Depends on where you have them. Two antennas on a K5 will not work cause it isnt wide enough. You need at leat 9 feet of space and 75 ohm coax to achieve proper results. The proximity of antennas on a K5 will interfere with the radition patterns of the anetnnas.

June 2001 - The Texas Sawz All masacre begins. Be afraid rust, be very afraid. http://www.coloradok5.com/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif

The 9 feet is BS. The 18 wheelers are not 9 ft.

I've got my 2 4' whips mounted to my mirrors and I "get out" just fine. Maybe its not optimum but it does work well.

Rene

http://www.standonguard.com/images/m_gordie.gif

ya, it does well for in front and behind you, but one will give you more of a circle.

http://www.coloradok5.com/forums/images/icons/cool.gif Keep your feet dry http://www.coloradok5.com/forums/images/icons/cool.gif
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Measure from one end of the mirror to the other, bet its damn close to it. You get more of a directional pattern with properly installed duals. Sort of an oval instead of a circle.

Two lanes wide, twelve yards long, sixty-five tons of American pride....Canyanero!

Blazer_Boy
Nope not even close, its more like 6 1/2feet on a Big Rig. I dont like running duel antennas, but from my experience driving over the road I've run duel CB's with duel antennas, FM radio, and TV antenna with in inches of each other and had no problems with the swr's. The only thing that was effected was my CB's would walk over my radio and TV. I've never heard about that 9feet, but if its so then its still BS.

<font color=blue>Professional <font color=red>JEEP EATER</font color=red> it's a population control thing.</font color=blue>http://cwm.ragesofsanity.com/aim/timetokill2.gif

It also depends on the type of truck that you are driving. Peterbilt is not 9 wide at the mirrors. The advantage that I found in running dual antennas is the fact that with a single stick the antenna will pick up traffic far off or low decibal transmissions better on that side, the truck blocked out the other side killing the weaker of the signals. With dual set properly I could receive in a larger spectrum over a wider area, but it cut my output by a little. Of course with the setup that I ran a few of the times you couldn't shut the signal down that I was throwing unless you were way off or playing with some real fire in the wire. Big Radios Gotta Love Them.

Formaer truck driver known as WRONGWAY.

Now known as TITAN *LOL*

Isn't a standard semi-trailer 102 inches wide? That's 8.5 feet. The mirrors need to be out a bit wider than the trailer, so the mirrors being 9 feet apart on a semi-tractor doesn't sound at all unreasonable.

The mirrors on a little ol' K5 are at least 6.5 feet apart!

<font color=black>HarryH3 - '75 K5</font color=black>
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Go down to the library and get an ARRL handbook. There are polar graphs of the raditation patterns of antennas and expaination how things work. The pattern wont work with a crap when they get too close. Just because you've never heard of something or studied doesn't somehow make it false.
Hey HarryH3, common sense has guided you in the right direction http://www.coloradok5.com/forums/images/icons/smile.gif. I'll have to measure the width this weekend when I go out to my uncles. All he does is fix up wrecked Pete's so there's always a couple around. I usually tune the antennas on them if they have antennas on them when we sell 'em.

The edge of the mirror on a big truck is about 9' apart. the only problem Iis that I have never heard of a glass mirrir mount. The antenna is mounted to the inside of the mirrors and unless you know something that I don't it is not 9 fott apart there. ESPECIALLY ON A PETE!

Now we're just splitting hairs here. Wow, its a few inches from 9 feet, its around that number. Just because a truck is that wide and almost every truck has duals doesnt mean that its perfection. Its alot wider than a Blazer so it'll work better that one. I'm just explaining the nature of radio wave propagation, I didn't make this distance number up. If you wanna rant on someone go pee on the grave of the man who figured out the distance.

Regarding dual antennas, according to the Firestik website:

"Spacing of the antennas in a dual antenna installation will have an affect on the radiation pattern of the antennas. Technically, spacing between the antennas should be nine feet (2.7m) to have the most balanced pattern. If that distance cannot be achieved, that alone should not discourage you from using co-phased antennas as you will still receive most of the benefits of a dual antenna set-up. However, spacing less than five feet (1.5m) may require some special tuning skills in order to achieve satisfactory SWR readings."

I personally run dual Firestik's on my K5 most of the time, mounted on both sides of the body just aft of the cab using those Radio Shack balls. Honestly, I have no idea how good or bad my setup is but it seems ideal for the highway, and just looks cool IMO. http://www.coloradok5.com/forums/images/icons/cool.gif However, when not on the road I remove them and just stick a single magnet-base antenna on the roof using a single cable.

I could have sworn that it was only 8'4" you wanted the antennas apart on... (IIRC, its 1/4, or 1/8 of the wavelength that you;re aiming for) besides, I dunno if you;re talknig S-10's here, but on my old C20, it was about 7 foot accross from the rolled edge of the door flare to the other rolled edge. if I had trailering mirrors, I could easily attain the 8'4" that I thought I needed.... 9 foot would be a little harder, but hey.

the other thing is dual antennas are generaly directional, as opposed to omnidirectional like the single antenna's. for this reason, I plan to run both Duals, and singles when I get around to it with a switch... currently, I just run a single planted dead center in the middle of my suburban roof ( yes, I hacked a hole in the roof for it) this seems to give me an unprecidented distribution pattern, and extremely low SWR, but it also knocks lights, and roofing tiles off of most any drivethroughs I go through, and I can't park in a parking garage, or even a regular garage. I also have a `loud' radio hooked into a `loudener box' for those few times I 'need' it.... &lt;click click&gt; hey, JERKFACE who just cut me off, you suck! &lt;click click&gt; ( they can hear it through thier car stereo, which is good enough for me)

while on the topic, whatabout a Tri-phased antenna? ( triangle pattern?) or quadriphased antenna? (square pattern) I've always wondered about those, but never really enough to look into trying, or seeing if there;s anything worth looking up on the web.

Laterz,
-Rich
The Ddragggon,
(used to be Pandafoot after my old truck)

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are Crunchy, and taste good with Ketchup

what if you run one up front and one in the back?

then only people to the sides of you would be able to hear you.... not exactly useful in most situations. I figgure I'll just have the dual setup with a switch between it, and the single antenna.

-Rich

I'm a nobody.
Nobody's Perfect
therefor I'm perfect.

Amazing, all these post about ants and nobody has mentioned the ground plane.. When I drove a truck (Handle was Dawgone and Trinity) I had a Galaxy 66, Texas Star V-Plus Modulator, and two Hustler ants which one was a dummy on a 98 Peterbilt 379 and the set up worked good, sometimes depending on conditions, great.
However, a friend of mine had a goofy looking set up that had one ant facing up and one facing down off the same bracket using a Galaxy 33 radio and that thing flat would walk the dog. I didn't try it because it didn't look too cool, gotta look cool ya know, and besides that he already had it....... I ran my right ant as a dummy because when I had it hooked up it was too hard to keep in tune because that side tended to get into trees and what-not more in certain areas I had to go. (no, I was not a bed-bugger) Also, when I had the two hooked up I could not transmit as far. I left the dummy on there because we are back to the cool thing again........ good luck....

John

Like to go sloppin' 'round in da mud in a rapid fashion....=)

I, myself would run a single antenna with alot more POWER! GOPHERKILLER

"YOU AIN'T GOTTA THING IF YOU AIN'T GOT THAT SWING" Lottsa MoDuLaTiOn rules...

Like to go sloppin' 'round in da mud in a rapid fashion....=) http://coloradok5.com/forums/images/icons/cool.gif

I run a wilson 5000 magnet mount right on top, and I get good signal to all my buddies arround the area. I know I'm not looking to talk trans-state, so long distances aren't a big problem. But I also know that the Wilson 5k does hold its weight in long-distances transmissions. The 62" whip also dosen't swing too much and hit things (like my truck and road signs) but it has hit bridges and drive thrus.

I personally run a 102" stainnless steel whip mounted on my overhead light bar. And yes, I've got the pot-belly spring up there. Works very well for me. Yes, I do wack trees, bridges, ...ect. But the spring helps out . /forums/images/icons/grin.gif I prefer a single 102" center of truck over cophasing a pair of mirror mount antennas. If I would go dual antennas, I'd use K40 tunable tips. /forums/images/icons/tongue.gif

can you cophase any kind of antennas..as long as they are the same kind? cuase i realyl want to run thi kind of setup on my k5..but dont know what to buy or what antennas to get..and how do you tune them right?..or can you have someone do that for you if you dont know how to do it..would cophased antennas work right on each mirror...

Bryan