Back in 2005 I bought an amplifier from Art Bell and carried it out of his house in Pahrump NV, under his 12 70' towers & one 100' feed point tower for his 1600' double-loop for HF. His then wife Ramona made excellent coffee! RIP Art & Ramona. He's the guy who inspired me to achieve Extra class so it really hurt to hear of his passing.
Oh wow! I remember the Browning Golden Eagle's. They were the Cadillac of CB radios back in the day. And you always knew when someone came on with one from the feedback noise they made when the operator keyed their mic. I do miss those days sometimes.
My first set-up was an AstroPlain on top a 2 story building using an old 10 or 12 channels but I had crystal for all 23 cb channels and a couple for 10 meters as well, it was a WhiteFace Johnson and later an old ham dude gave me a home (ham) made 2 tube amp around 150 watts . luckily I lived in very rural area but still I was coming in 5x5 on TV sets 2 miles away then same old guy gave me a low pass filter to use. I was a teenager back then. I talked skip all over the place with that old rig.
A buddy's dad recently passed away an I have been helping clean up the estate and get it ready to put on the market. He gave me his dad's cb and ham radio collection, including 5 cbs, 2 10 meter radios, an old yaesu multi band transceiver, a 50 ' tower with rotor and a 6 element quad antenna. Also his dad was a tv repairman back in the day and he gave me all his tv repair equipment. I live in Canada so the tower won't come down til the weather is a little more cooperative. But I feel blessed that he gave me some of his dad's most fond possessions and am looking forward to getting it up and operational at my home.
Love the historical context, and all the useful information. I used to have a Moonraker in the 80s and I miss it a lot. I’m just dumb enough to buy another one. 🤯
Hi from the UK I had 4 elements beam was horizontal avant sigma 4 on top it it was up for about 10 year as you say cb change lots over here in the uk great watching you RUclips channel
You should publish a book "everything you need for cb" or somn like that lol ,love the videos, I've learned so much since I started watching you thanks!
Back I the day (1972-78 ) I was into the cb hobby. I had a Teaberry base station. Only 23 channels back then. I had a 40 foot tower with a three element Radio Shack beam antenna. I had two roaters. One would point the antenna any direction the other roater would turn the antenna horizontal or vertical. On good nights I could skip hundreds of miles. From my central Ohio home to Alaska, Jamaica, once I cheated with a guy in Mexico. Those were the good old days.
Those were the days for sure! I'll tell you though, these last few days the CB band has been going crazy with skip talk. Every channel had 5 or more guys chatting it up.
A quad is like the pics you showed but with a wire at the tips of each sections, like squares, with the wire being the actual antenna. Had a 4 element quad, horizontal, for several years until the birds landing on it finally broke the wire. Replaced it with a 4 element yagi.
Back in the late 70's I had a Big Gun 11. 20 ft long. And both vertical and horizontally polarised. It was nice to go to the flat side! I bought the antenna open box at Speigals for $50.00. That was on the south side of Chicago. Today on the CB the we have they same type of idiots destroying a good thing! Thanks for the videos!
Is there much radio traffic in Baltimore? I used to drove up there about once a month from 06 to 08 an never could find anyone on the radio. At the time I just used a cheap hustler 20 dollar mag mount an a little cheapo uniden 510 but still being a big city I figured I'd hear a lot of locals.
My biggest antenna was a signal engineering lightning 8 cubical quad. It looked the size of a semi trailer at 60'. I had a rohn 45G tower with a yaesu sdx 1000 rotor it's still up but the antenna has seen better days after 20+ years. Still have a ton of stuff although I don't talk on any of it. KB9THP
I had a 3 element beem that didn't rotate you just went one element say facing north . You could use all 3 or just one with a control box . It worked good. I wish i still had it because I'm getting back into cb.
Super Scanner, by Antenna Specialists. I had one back in the day, and absolutely loved it. Always dreamed about getting a Super Laser 500 one day, but that day never came. Oh, the memories...
Anyone remember when the FCC issued CB licenses? I remember mine KBQ5166. MY first ever CB radio....a Regency Imperial SSB. I had more fun way back then, then I ever have since I got my ham radio license in the late 70's.
GREAT VIDEO !!! I HAD A HUSLER 3 ELEMENT BEAM THAT HAD 9.75 DB GAIN AND A RADIO SHACK SUPER MAXUM 1/2 WAVE OMNI DIRECTIONAL ANTENNA AS WELL. I HAD AN ARCHER TWO WAY ANTENNA SWITCH ON MY DESK AND WOULD START MY CONTACTS OFF ON THE OMNI DIRECTIONAL AND THEN ONCE I FOUND OUT WHERE THEY WERE LOCATED I WOULD I WOULD START TURNING THE BEAM IN THERE DIRECTION. I HAD A CHANNEL MASTER ROTOR AND HAD THE BEAM MOUNTED ON MY PARENTS 40 FOOT TV TOWER THAT THEY LET ME USE AS THAT WAS BACK IN 1974 AND THEY HAD JUST SWICHED OVER TO CABLE TV. THAT PUT ME AT ABOUT 50 FEET TO THE BOOM OF THE ANTENNA WHICH I HAD MOUNTED VERTICALY. THE SUPER MAXUM 1/2 WAVE ANTENNA I HAD MOUNTED THE THE CHIMINY WITH CHIMINY STRAPS THAT I PURCHASED AT RADIO SHACK AS WELL. MY RADIO WAS A REALISTIC TRC-46 WHICH HAD SSB ALONE WITH AN ASTATIC D104 MICROPHONE. I LIVED JUST NORTH OF TORONTO ONTARIO CANADA AND WOULD TALK SKIP ALL THE TIME. I LOVED CB RADIO AND HAVE THOUGHT OF GETTING BACK INTO IT BUT I'M 63 YEARS OLD AND IT MOST LIKLY WON'T HAPPEN. YOU NEVER KNOW THOUGH !!!
This was a great video and brought back some great old memories. Growing up in Athens, Georgia, I remember seeing (and knowing) people who had some of these rigs. PDL II's became very popular in the '70's and worked quite well. I don't remember who it was, but one CB'er had a pair of stacked Moonrakers. It was an incredible sight to see. I really miss those days and your discussion was a great refresher on things I had forgotten.
I remember the PDL's and the Moonraker 6s and a few others. And another weird beam that had three vertical pieces that were spaced in a triangle and you used a 3 position switch to pick a direction of which element you wanted powered and it had no rotor.
My grandparents' base antenna was huge. I've got their radio but I don't know what happened to the antenna. It was so far up in the air, it looked small. The day it was taken down, I was amazed at how big it actually was. The base of the tower is still there; strangers live there now.
The yagi antenna is one solution. Vertical or Horizontal polarization makes a difference on the mode SSB or AM /FM carrier . A cubeular quad is another form of a beam, mostly used in ham Radio HF apps. I like building copper j pole antennas for ham VHF ham radio apps Nice, simple, to the point video. Keep up the good work. Take look at the K3LR radio station photo s on the internet, big ham radio antenna farm station, big time contest competition station. Hundred or thousands of dollars spend over the years to build it.
A good informative video about antennae. if I can get an antenna (I live in eastern Tennessee just over the mountain) I could probably talk to you over the CB radio.
I was totally crazy about CB radio back in the late 70's when I was just a teenage boy. But by the mid eighties CB radios popularity was quickly fading and I began to hear little snippets about some crazy thing called the world wide web. I figured it was probably just another fad that would probably shine for awhile and disappear. Boy was I wrong. I really miss the glory days of CB radio and even international shortwave broadcasting. I even had a fling with amateur radio. But even amateur radio has fizzled and I sold out six years ago due to the big downturn in activity. I strongly suspect that amateur radio will be extinct in less than twenty years. Our culture has shifted very drastically, the internet is king and smartphones are everywhere. I really miss the good old days of CB radio, it's very sad what became of it.😮
hello eric, best beam was the stack 3 beam it was allsome when used these on a browning golden eagle base radio back inday my c b handle was fbiman columbus, ga.
In 1988 I built a 3 element Quad, 13' long and installed it on an old 1950s thick walled Rohn push-up Tv mast at 50'. With 75 watts I hit Australia at 20 over S9 while a neighbor 12 miles away who hated Quads and was on a 5 element horizontal Hy-gain Long John with 150 watts - only hit him with S9. He never gave me a hard time about Quads again.
My friend's dad was heavy into CB in the 70s. He had beams and illegal crystals, fancy mikes, the works. Now comes the part I do not know if it is BS or not. He was having issues with a guy about 1/4 mile down the road. Dude was always stepping on conversations and just being an ass. Rodney's dad supposedly aimed his beams at dude and hit him with a carrier and fried his radio. I do not know if this would even be possible, but it made a good story in 76.
I been witness to a ""Pinning Party"" or two back in the day, to take care of people who was doing bad things, pinning= running a needle through the coax line to create a dead Short
Beams are great. I have a Diamond 10 element 2 meter beam that I hit repeaters in S.C. with all the time. But you're right, I have to point it at them. Our local repeater is 25 miles from me and I talk on it all the time with the beam pointed 180 degrees AWAY from the repeater. But that repeater does have a big footprint.
To me a quad antenna has wires on every element, also these days guys build for example friend of mine has a 60 foot beam 10 elements ,purpose I suppose is to get more gain ,I have a 40'yagi but thinking about trying something else, you talk as if CB were dead ,I assure you its live and well lol ,thanks for posting I enjoyed
Adding more director elements can increase gain, but it's not linear. For most CB people's, an omni antenna is the better choice. Having most of your gain focused in one direction is quite useful in some situations, but listening and talking in all directions at once is still valuable. For CB, I wouldn't use a beam exclusively, but only as a supplement for an omni.
I would love to have a Moonraker 4 beam, have a telescoping tower 80 ' tall just sitting here, but maybe some day I will get it back in operation, I'll have to get a crew to help move it to a different location that should be exciting. Great video, Thanks Eric.10-4 101 Sagebrush Base Out 🎙️
Hi Eric,,,,,,, again a nice video. As a beam antenna have you considered an HB9CV? It's a small beam antenna for 11/10 metres. The boom is about 6 feet long, and the front and back elements are about 16 feet long. Easy to turn on a TV rotator and for it's size there is a lot of gain. These antennas are readily available in the UK, not sure about the USA market, but easy to make. (information via google ) The only drawback is it's very narrow banded but good for about 500 KCs+/-. I tune mine for 27.350 to 27.500 ish. Which works fine for me. 73's Matt
I still have a PDL2 on my modest 50' tower. It needs some tlc for the flat side, but it still skips me almost anywhere I want to talk. Not to big, not to small, and packs in 12db Tx and 32db backside rejection. I have talked all around the world with this little gem. I also have an omni-antenna I use for local talk. I got tired of turning the beams all the time to hear different people. ;)
My friend has the unique ability to locate unwanted tubular television towers, that people just want to get rid of. He's found two recently. One of them we used for his forty five foot tall CB base station antenna tower. The other tower is waiting for us to take down and use for my CB base station. Depending on the amount of background noise, we're able to have nightly conversations between our base stations that are six miles apart. We both use President McKinley CB/SSB radios, dipole antennas and heavy gauge coax cable.
For a 4 beam antenna. I'm thinking a tripod mount would be much cheaper for me. I have around 100 ft. of Rohn 25 laying around. Heavy duty rotors also. Cost of installation including the cement they said I'd need, still sounds very expensive. Have a taller hill to the south and have tall trees near my house. I could self install a V58 via 40 tower myself but for a 4 beam, i agree a need for more cement. QUESTION for you. V58 40ft high or 4 beam on a tripod half as high? Thanks in advance btw. ✌🏻
hello,good video,informative,got my self a 4 beam 11 meter yagi to replace my 3 element yagi,but the last few weeks have been very quiet with dx ing,so not sure how big the difference is,maybe next week gets busy,19 charlie tango 022 rotterdam,thanks
Been many years since l owned a cb and now I've decided to put an inexpensive small cb in my vehicle. Got the compact Uniden 505xl. With the Wilson magnetic antenna I've got my swr down to .5 on channel 1 and swr at 1.2 on channel 40. My question ( probably a dumb question) can the swr meter stay attached during normal operation or removed to get no interference?
Eric I enjoy your videos and this one hit home. I am a noob w/ a Cobra base unit and the A99 (38'). Honestly, I had higher expectations for getting local chatter. Instead, I am overwhelmed with skip and obvious illegal units (sorry truckers, I'm looking at you). I'm even looking to move on from CB to maybe GMRS (we do have a public repeater). I wonder if it is viable to slide a horizontal over the 99 near the base of the antenna. Dumb idea?
The issue you are having is effecting all of us these past few months. The Solar Maximum is causing us all to hear a lot of stations from all over making it hard to hear each other locally. Hang in there as it will pass soon enough.
I guess it all depends on the size of a man's ego Eric. Lot of guys got to have the best of everything! Me I'm happy with a coat hanger duct tape to a fishing pole that would probably work well enough for me. Take care man great video.
Hurry up on the part 4 homemade antenna video! Lol Just kidding, I'm fixing to build a 1/2 wave inverted V dipole and a regular 1/2 wave horizontal dipole and see which does better in my garage's attic as my HOA says no antennas. I may mount an A-99 in a giant oak tree in my backyard, but I worry if all the branches would hinder it. I know it will hide it, but maybe too good? Anyways great video series and thanks for taking the time to make them.
inverted v will make it hear in all directions. dipole has a small amount of gain to the brood side about 2dbi. all so the impedance changes to. inverted v will be lower than a regular 1/2 wave. just remember you will hear out only to 15-20 mi as a lot of local talk is vertical. but for the more serous radio talk like skip or locals with horizontal antennas are better as thy reject noise better. all so it has a small advantage talking skip.
I’m in Monroe NC just curious what you think about CB/SSB activity in NC. I’ve considered getting into ham radio but have also explored the idea of cb/ssb as well. I know it’s active in some areas but curious what it’s like in NC. I’d go with a Galaxy base station with an Antron A99 or something similar.
The Raleigh area was pretty dead when I left 6 years ago, but the western half of the state still has a lot of cell reception issues and that helps keep it alive.
I’d like to have a beam antenna but until further notice, whenever I assemble/buy an antenna, I think I will stick with an Omni directional antenna. I have had CB’s in my work truck but not as a base station. So trial and error, learn from my mistakes and ask lots of questions!
I’ve learned so much from you, I just subscribed to your channel, I like the Galaxy DX 2547 with a Antron 99 antenna and quality cable, is there anything else to consider buying? Thinking of mounting the antenna off the house and will need some king of bracket? Also where’s a good place to order from ? Thanks for all your informative videos sir
Look at the various cb sites that are online for brackets, then compare with what you can find on ebay- Ebay you can usually find the same items just more wallet friendly.
So theoretically, if the beam antenna has 10db gain and you were putting 160 watts into it, you would get the equivalent of 1,600 watts coming out of the antenna??
I'm finding it funny that going a week or more without powe is somehow somethijng people now find impossible. I lived through Ice Storm '98 we were without power, in the dead of a northeast winter in below freezing temps, for 12 days. It really wasn't an issue, as we adapted, simply got through it. Was it a major event, yes; was it ever life threatening, no. We had food, a wood furnace, and paid excessively for a couple generators that we still have.
I'm looking for some help with my base station antenna. I have a 102 steel whip on a 12 ft pole, 6 point ground plane, bee hive spring hooked to a Uniden 880. I have a grounding rod and strap connected at the base. I can't get my swr reading below three and a half. I have had multiple friends look at it and they are completely puzzled. They have all said the set-up is good but still can't lower the swr readings. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. The 102 steel whip reaches 22 feet into the air. I've been fighting this for two months and am at the end of my rope. Please help.
I want to build a pdl 2 type quad . Not heavy made with pvc and fiberglass poles for the load poles. I just need some one to show me how to wire the drive wire to the coal and if the reflect side gets wired or not and if it does how to do it? Anyone that can help teach me this?
Wind load is no joke.... If you live in a windy area like i do (the midwest) you really need to do everything heavy duty. NEVER skimp on the mast pipe especially above the tower! Put up a heavy duty rotator at least 15 square foot...
build a curtain array or other wire beam .cheaper than a beam. sure you can not turn it but you can have moor than one! i all ways ran horizontal to cut out local bull. had a lot of cbers that ran a lot heat. big cb towers still exist just not common we. their was a gizmoche at 60 and a 7 element moon raker at 130 ft! art bell had a large horizontal loop. it was non directinal but had decent gain with horizontal and vertical polerisation
To avoid those heavy rotors, couldn't you just put up some vertical stingers & phase them. No moving parts up in the air because of steering done with different length coax feed cables to the mast & the variator in the shack. ??? I'd really like to get with some old sub-mariner to work out the length arrangements that'd be needed for the separate wave building sets (kind of like the steerable sonar arrays).
great videos. very limited knowledge of cb. been watching videos until my ears are bleeding and hard to filter the facts from fiction. i believe that you more honest than most. so if you would have the time to answer a couple questions i would really appreciate it. first if i were to mount a 102" on the peak of a metal roofed building would the roof act as the ground plane? and if so would the antenna need to be grounded to the roof? the roof is a 4/12 with a skylight ridged cap. or would i need the radials to make it work properly? next all the opinions on coax has my head about to explode. would like to mount it centered on a 40 by 50 roof and would need about 40 to fifty feet of cable. budget is some concern but would just mean it would take a little longer to come up with the finances. thanks Dave
If it’s mounted on a metal roof, then the roof should act as the ground plane. Just like if you mounted the whip onto a pickup truck toolbox, the pickup trucks metal body would act as the ground plane.
What area are you in? Im in michigan and am looking for someone to help me set up some 4 element yagi beams i just got and my dads cb from back in the day. He was into cbs big time, and now its my turn. Do you know anyone who helps people with that sort of thing in business these days?
40’ of Rohn 65 series tower $4,000..... A mid sized antenna rotator $600 to $1000. 3 ELE Yagi $200 to $300 100’ Coax $75 to $100 RG- 8 Tower base cement, Not sure! But your probably looking at around ten grand for 40’ of tower antenna and rotator by the time your all set and done! Element spacing isn’t to bad! Approximately 7 feet. So around 28 feet for a 5 ELE Yagi.
20dB loss when talking cross-polarization (horizontal to vertical) or about 6-7 S-units loss because CBs are only about 3dB per S-unit, not 6dB as were the old tube-type Collins S-line receivers.
Back in 2005 I bought an amplifier from Art Bell and carried it out of his house in Pahrump NV, under his 12 70' towers & one 100' feed point tower for his 1600' double-loop for HF.
His then wife Ramona made excellent coffee!
RIP Art & Ramona.
He's the guy who inspired me to achieve Extra class so it really hurt to hear of his passing.
What sort of Linear did Art sell you, a vacuum tube linear?
Brings back great memories! Browning Golden Eagle, Tram Titan 2, PDL and Moonraker quads and 50' towers. What fun.
Oh wow! I remember the Browning Golden Eagle's. They were the Cadillac of CB radios back in the day. And you always knew when someone came on with one from the feedback noise they made when the operator keyed their mic. I do miss those days sometimes.
My first set-up was an AstroPlain on top a 2 story building using an old 10 or 12 channels but I had crystal for all 23 cb channels and a couple for 10 meters as well, it was a WhiteFace Johnson and later an old ham dude gave me a home (ham) made 2 tube amp around 150 watts . luckily I lived in very rural area but still I was coming in 5x5 on TV sets 2 miles away then same old guy gave me a low pass filter to use. I was a teenager back then.
I talked skip all over the place with that old rig.
A buddy's dad recently passed away an I have been helping clean up the estate and get it ready to put on the market. He gave me his dad's cb and ham radio collection, including 5 cbs, 2 10 meter radios, an old yaesu multi band transceiver, a 50 ' tower with rotor and a 6 element quad antenna. Also his dad was a tv repairman back in the day and he gave me all his tv repair equipment. I live in Canada so the tower won't come down til the weather is a little more cooperative. But I feel blessed that he gave me some of his dad's most fond possessions and am looking forward to getting it up and operational at my home.
That is a great collection! Looks like you have officially entered the hobby for free!
Lucky you some of that can bring in some good money if you find the right buyer, especially the ham equipment.
Love the historical context, and all the useful information. I used to have a Moonraker in the 80s and I miss it a lot. I’m just dumb enough to buy another one. 🤯
Those were great setups!
Hi from the UK I had 4 elements beam was horizontal avant sigma 4 on top it it was up for about 10 year as you say cb change lots over here in the uk great watching you RUclips channel
You should publish a book "everything you need for cb" or somn like that lol ,love the videos, I've learned so much since I started watching you thanks!
What?!!!
Back I the day (1972-78 ) I was into the cb hobby. I had a Teaberry base station. Only 23 channels back then. I had a 40 foot tower with a three element Radio Shack beam antenna. I had two roaters. One would point the antenna any direction the other roater would turn the antenna horizontal or vertical.
On good nights I could skip hundreds of miles. From my central Ohio home to Alaska, Jamaica, once I cheated with a guy in Mexico. Those were the good old days.
Those were the days for sure! I'll tell you though, these last few days the CB band has been going crazy with skip talk. Every channel had 5 or more guys chatting it up.
A quad is like the pics you showed but with a wire at the tips of each sections, like squares, with the wire being the actual antenna. Had a 4 element quad, horizontal, for several years until the birds landing on it finally broke the wire. Replaced it with a 4 element yagi.
I was going to inform him on the exact info you posted about the Quad antenna! The pics he’s posting are just Cross polarized Yagis!
Ty Erik..yes I believe I'll be best suited in the Part2 category..at least to get going..Cheers from the upstate Ft. Drum NY area..
Glad to help!
Back in the late 70's I had a Big Gun 11. 20 ft long. And both vertical and horizontally polarised. It was nice to go to the flat side! I bought the antenna open box at Speigals for $50.00. That was on the south side of Chicago. Today on the CB the we have they same type of idiots destroying a good thing! Thanks for the videos!
I had a PDL 2 beam on a 50 foot tower , it did a great job and held good in the wind.
One of the great antenna's of it's era!
I had a Super Scanner a few years ago, when I lived in Baltimore, that antenna served me well.
Is there much radio traffic in Baltimore? I used to drove up there about once a month from 06 to 08 an never could find anyone on the radio. At the time I just used a cheap hustler 20 dollar mag mount an a little cheapo uniden 510 but still being a big city I figured I'd hear a lot of locals.
I had stacked PDL 2's Loved it. Wish I could get them now.
Heck yes~!
My biggest antenna was a signal engineering lightning 8 cubical quad. It looked the size of a semi trailer at 60'. I had a rohn 45G tower with a yaesu sdx 1000 rotor it's still up but the antenna has seen better days after 20+ years. Still have a ton of stuff although I don't talk on any of it. KB9THP
Do you have anything available for sale????
in the 70's I had a set of Mosley 3-element cross-polarized beams on the house, they were dynamite!
sounds like a great setup.
I had a 3 element beem that didn't rotate you just went one element say facing north . You could use all 3 or just one with a control box . It worked good. I wish i still had it because I'm getting back into cb.
What company was that ?
I have a hex beam but I have to turn in by hand !
@@denp54z I can't remember what it was called.
Super Scanner, by Antenna Specialists. I had one back in the day, and absolutely loved it. Always dreamed about getting a Super Laser 500 one day, but that day never came. Oh, the memories...
I ran a 4 element Moonraker. A good friend used a Roger D Quad. That was a talking machine.
Anyone remember when the FCC issued CB licenses? I remember mine KBQ5166. MY first ever CB radio....a Regency Imperial SSB. I had more fun way back then, then I ever have since I got my ham radio license in the late 70's.
GREAT VIDEO !!! I HAD A HUSLER 3 ELEMENT BEAM THAT HAD 9.75 DB GAIN AND A RADIO SHACK SUPER MAXUM 1/2 WAVE OMNI DIRECTIONAL ANTENNA AS WELL. I HAD AN ARCHER TWO WAY ANTENNA SWITCH ON MY DESK AND WOULD START MY CONTACTS OFF ON THE OMNI DIRECTIONAL AND THEN ONCE I FOUND OUT WHERE THEY WERE LOCATED I WOULD I WOULD START TURNING THE BEAM IN THERE DIRECTION. I HAD A CHANNEL MASTER ROTOR AND HAD THE BEAM MOUNTED ON MY PARENTS 40 FOOT TV TOWER THAT THEY LET ME USE AS THAT WAS BACK IN 1974 AND THEY HAD JUST SWICHED OVER TO CABLE TV. THAT PUT ME AT ABOUT 50 FEET TO THE BOOM OF THE ANTENNA WHICH I HAD MOUNTED VERTICALY. THE SUPER MAXUM 1/2 WAVE ANTENNA I HAD MOUNTED THE THE CHIMINY WITH CHIMINY STRAPS THAT I PURCHASED AT RADIO SHACK AS WELL. MY RADIO WAS A REALISTIC TRC-46 WHICH HAD SSB ALONE WITH AN ASTATIC D104 MICROPHONE. I LIVED JUST NORTH OF TORONTO ONTARIO CANADA AND WOULD TALK SKIP ALL THE TIME. I LOVED CB RADIO AND HAVE THOUGHT OF GETTING BACK INTO IT BUT I'M 63 YEARS OLD AND IT MOST LIKLY WON'T HAPPEN. YOU NEVER KNOW THOUGH !!!
This was a great video and brought back some great old memories. Growing up in Athens, Georgia, I remember seeing (and knowing) people who had some of these rigs. PDL II's became very popular in the '70's and worked quite well. I don't remember who it was, but one CB'er had a pair of stacked Moonrakers. It was an incredible sight to see. I really miss those days and your discussion was a great refresher on things I had forgotten.
Amen, more fun than I ever had after I got my ham general license.
I remember the PDL's and the Moonraker 6s and a few others. And another weird beam that had three vertical pieces that were spaced in a triangle and you used a 3 position switch to pick a direction of which element you wanted powered and it had no rotor.
Kerry Ware super scaner
My grandparents' base antenna was huge. I've got their radio but I don't know what happened to the antenna. It was so far up in the air, it looked small. The day it was taken down, I was amazed at how big it actually was. The base of the tower is still there; strangers live there now.
Sounds like it was a really powerful setup!
PDL 2"s were a nice little set of beams.
The yagi antenna is one solution. Vertical or Horizontal polarization makes a difference on the mode SSB or AM /FM carrier . A cubeular quad is another form of a beam, mostly used in ham Radio HF apps. I like building copper j pole antennas for ham VHF ham radio apps
Nice, simple, to the point video. Keep up the good work. Take look at the K3LR radio station photo s on the internet, big ham radio antenna farm station, big time contest competition station. Hundred or thousands of dollars spend over the years to build it.
A good informative video about antennae. if I can get an antenna (I live in eastern Tennessee just over the mountain) I could probably talk to you over the CB radio.
Go for it!
Young mans job. Big antenna , big job !
Looking forward to part 4!!
I was totally crazy about CB radio back in the late 70's when I was just a teenage boy. But by the mid eighties CB radios popularity was quickly fading and I began to hear little snippets about some crazy thing called the world wide web. I figured it was probably just another fad that would probably shine for awhile and disappear. Boy was I wrong. I really miss the glory days of CB radio and even international shortwave broadcasting. I even had a fling with amateur radio. But even amateur radio has fizzled and I sold out six years ago due to the big downturn in activity. I strongly suspect that amateur radio will be extinct in less than twenty years. Our culture has shifted very drastically, the internet is king and smartphones are everywhere. I really miss the good old days of CB radio, it's very sad what became of it.😮
hello eric, best beam was the stack 3 beam it was allsome when used these on a browning golden eagle base radio back inday my c b handle was fbiman columbus, ga.
In 1988 I built a 3 element Quad, 13' long and installed it on an old 1950s thick walled Rohn push-up Tv mast at 50'. With 75 watts I hit Australia at 20 over S9 while a neighbor 12 miles away who hated Quads and was on a 5 element horizontal Hy-gain Long John with 150 watts - only hit him with S9.
He never gave me a hard time about Quads again.
My friend's dad was heavy into CB in the 70s. He had beams and illegal crystals, fancy mikes, the works. Now comes the part I do not know if it is BS or not. He was having issues with a guy about 1/4 mile down the road. Dude was always stepping on conversations and just being an ass.
Rodney's dad supposedly aimed his beams at dude and hit him with a carrier and fried his radio. I do not know if this would even be possible, but it made a good story in 76.
I've heard similar stories, but I can't say if that can really happen. I'd imagine that with enough power it could.
I been witness to a ""Pinning Party"" or two back in the day, to take care of people who was doing bad things, pinning= running a needle through the coax line to create a dead Short
Thanks! Learned a lot here 👍
you're welcome
Beams are great. I have a Diamond 10 element 2 meter beam that I hit repeaters in S.C. with all the time. But you're right, I have to point it at them. Our local repeater is 25 miles from me and I talk on it all the time with the beam pointed 180 degrees AWAY from the repeater. But that repeater does have a big footprint.
To me a quad antenna has wires on every element, also these days guys build for example friend of mine has a 60 foot beam 10 elements ,purpose I suppose is to get more gain ,I have a 40'yagi but thinking about trying something else, you talk as if CB were dead ,I assure you its live and well lol ,thanks for posting I enjoyed
I run a maco 7 element on the vertical side and a 4 element on the flat side.. starduster on another tower for a ground plane
Thank you I've been searching the internet for info on cb base antennas
Great info ! May have to home brew some kind of rig myself
Adding more director elements can increase gain, but it's not linear. For most CB people's, an omni antenna is the better choice. Having most of your gain focused in one direction is quite useful in some situations, but listening and talking in all directions at once is still valuable. For CB, I wouldn't use a beam exclusively, but only as a supplement for an omni.
I would love to have a Moonraker 4 beam, have a telescoping tower 80 ' tall just sitting here, but maybe some day I will get it back in operation, I'll have to get a crew to help move it to a different location that should be exciting. Great video, Thanks Eric.10-4 101 Sagebrush Base Out 🎙️
Hi Eric,,,,,,, again a nice video. As a beam antenna have you considered an HB9CV? It's a small beam antenna for 11/10 metres. The boom is about 6 feet long, and the front and back elements are about 16 feet long. Easy to turn on a TV rotator and for it's size there is a lot of gain. These antennas are readily available in the UK, not sure about the USA market, but easy to make. (information via google ) The only drawback is it's very narrow banded but good for about 500 KCs+/-. I tune mine for 27.350 to 27.500 ish. Which works fine for me.
73's Matt
Love the Art Bell reference
super bon video merci
I still have a PDL2 on my modest 50' tower. It needs some tlc for the flat side, but it still skips me almost anywhere I want to talk. Not to big, not to small, and packs in 12db Tx and 32db backside rejection. I have talked all around the world with this little gem. I also have an omni-antenna I use for local talk. I got tired of turning the beams all the time to hear different people. ;)
I had a 4 element moon raker. It was 15 feet wide.
I run a long boom 5 element up 50 foot. Ive talked all over with my Brownings and that beam!
My friend has the unique ability to locate unwanted tubular television towers, that people just want to get rid of. He's found two recently. One of them we used for his forty five foot tall CB base station antenna tower. The other tower is waiting for us to take down and use for my CB base station. Depending on the amount of background noise, we're able to have nightly conversations between our base stations that are six miles apart. We both use President McKinley CB/SSB radios, dipole antennas and heavy gauge coax cable.
Wow lol that setup is way overkill if you just want 6 miles of range.
Good work, but do a little research to get better pricing. 73s kx420. Northern Indiana!!!
Great video, as always, my friend!
I wish they still made the supper scanner beam. i'm sorry I traded mine a fully programed two meter radio
"Dillpole" LOL!
That’s my favorite flavor antenna.
I cringed everytime he said that. Dipole there's no l before the P.
For a 4 beam antenna. I'm thinking a tripod mount would be much cheaper for me. I have around 100 ft. of Rohn 25 laying around. Heavy duty rotors also. Cost of installation including the cement they said I'd need, still sounds very expensive. Have a taller hill to the south and have tall trees near my house. I could self install a V58 via 40 tower myself but for a 4 beam, i agree a need for more cement. QUESTION for you. V58 40ft high or 4 beam on a tripod half as high? Thanks in advance btw. ✌🏻
Sounds like quite a project, but then again, sounds like quite a setup!
Love these Videos
Thanks!
Great Information. Thanx
hello,good video,informative,got my self a 4 beam 11 meter yagi to replace my 3 element yagi,but the last few weeks have been very quiet with dx ing,so not sure how big the difference is,maybe next week gets busy,19 charlie tango 022 rotterdam,thanks
Nice T-shirt ;)..and great videos. 73
Yugo for life! My 1988 GV was so much fun!
Been many years since l owned a cb and now I've decided to put an inexpensive small cb in my vehicle.
Got the compact Uniden 505xl.
With the Wilson magnetic antenna I've got my swr down to .5 on channel 1 and swr at 1.2 on channel 40. My question ( probably a dumb question) can the swr meter stay attached during normal operation or removed to get no interference?
Awesome
Eric I enjoy your videos and this one hit home. I am a noob w/ a Cobra base unit and the A99 (38'). Honestly, I had higher expectations for getting local chatter. Instead, I am overwhelmed with skip and obvious illegal units (sorry truckers, I'm looking at you). I'm even looking to move on from CB to maybe GMRS (we do have a public repeater). I wonder if it is viable to slide a horizontal over the 99 near the base of the antenna. Dumb idea?
The issue you are having is effecting all of us these past few months. The Solar Maximum is causing us all to hear a lot of stations from all over making it hard to hear each other locally. Hang in there as it will pass soon enough.
ahhhh the ole Moonraker 4
I guess it all depends on the size of a man's ego Eric. Lot of guys got to have the best of everything! Me I'm happy with a coat hanger duct tape to a fishing pole that would probably work well enough for me. Take care man great video.
Hurry up on the part 4 homemade antenna video! Lol Just kidding, I'm fixing to build a 1/2 wave inverted V dipole and a regular 1/2 wave horizontal dipole and see which does better in my garage's attic as my HOA says no antennas. I may mount an A-99 in a giant oak tree in my backyard, but I worry if all the branches would hinder it. I know it will hide it, but maybe too good? Anyways great video series and thanks for taking the time to make them.
inverted v will make it hear in all directions. dipole has a small amount of gain to the brood side about 2dbi. all so the impedance changes to. inverted v will be lower than a regular 1/2 wave. just remember you will hear out only to 15-20 mi as a lot of local talk is vertical. but for the more serous radio talk like skip or locals with horizontal antennas are better as thy reject noise better. all so it has a small advantage talking skip.
I’m in Monroe NC just curious what you think about CB/SSB activity in NC. I’ve considered getting into ham radio but have also explored the idea of cb/ssb as well. I know it’s active in some areas but curious what it’s like in NC. I’d go with a Galaxy base station with an Antron A99 or something similar.
The Raleigh area was pretty dead when I left 6 years ago, but the western half of the state still has a lot of cell reception issues and that helps keep it alive.
late 90's i had stacked 4 element flatside. (took moonraker 4 and made 2 flat sides from it,
That must have really reached out there!
Eric how far apart to place gmrs & cb antennas on a tower?
I’d like to have a beam antenna but until further notice, whenever I assemble/buy an antenna, I think I will stick with an Omni directional antenna. I have had CB’s in my work truck but not as a base station. So trial and error, learn from my mistakes and ask lots of questions!
how far you get with new antenna on cb
my dads quads are still in use
PDL II's, Moonrakers! 👍🏻
13 element 2 meter beams soooo much easier! 😉
I have a very large girth tree that needs to be topped because the top burned, how high should I put the antennae? Im using it for the antennae
I’ve learned so much from you, I just subscribed to your channel, I like the Galaxy DX 2547 with a Antron 99 antenna and quality cable, is there anything else to consider buying? Thinking of mounting the antenna off the house and will need some king of bracket? Also where’s a good place to order from ? Thanks for all your informative videos sir
Look at the various cb sites that are online for brackets, then compare with what you can find on ebay- Ebay you can usually find the same items just more wallet friendly.
So theoretically, if the beam antenna has 10db gain and you were putting 160 watts into it, you would get the equivalent of 1,600 watts coming out of the antenna??
I'm finding it funny that going a week or more without powe is somehow somethijng people now find impossible. I lived through Ice Storm '98 we were without power, in the dead of a northeast winter in below freezing temps, for 12 days. It really wasn't an issue, as we adapted, simply got through it. Was it a major event, yes; was it ever life threatening, no. We had food, a wood furnace, and paid excessively for a couple generators that we still have.
It took us just 48 hours to adjust to the new norm.
Living here in South Louisiana with the hurricanes alone you take a risk even for a simple TV antenna
I bet there would be a risk. It seems like you guys are always getting hit with some type of major storm.
Thinkingvof making my antenna of a top rail of a fence... for a mast, secured to the house... looking at a Tram 1498 maybe
I'm looking for some help with my base station antenna. I have a 102 steel whip on a 12 ft pole, 6 point ground plane, bee hive spring hooked to a Uniden 880. I have a grounding rod and strap connected at the base. I can't get my swr reading below three and a half. I have had multiple friends look at it and they are completely puzzled. They have all said the set-up is good but still can't lower the swr readings. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. The 102 steel whip reaches 22 feet into the air. I've been fighting this for two months and am at the end of my rope. Please help.
I want to build a pdl 2 type quad . Not heavy made with pvc and fiberglass poles for the load poles. I just need some one to show me how to wire the drive wire to the coal and if the reflect side gets wired or not and if it does how to do it? Anyone that can help teach me this?
There are some great books out there to help with that.
I have a imax for stand by and maco 104 on flat side guess im old school lol
Are you going to start a channel over at Rumble ? I hope so. Thanks for great videos
when the cell phone system collapses or is hut down soon the cb radio thing will be very important as you talk about in the 7o s
I kinda have a stupid question; is it possible using a rubber Duckie antenna with a pl-259 to bnc right angle adapter with a mobile cb radio?
Hi! Alright, Thank you All About Different Base Ant'S. See you On NEXT One!!
Good old Art Bell
The question has to be, how dedicated are you in your hobby?
Wind load is no joke.... If you live in a windy area like i do (the midwest) you really need to do everything heavy duty. NEVER skimp on the mast pipe especially above the tower! Put up a heavy duty rotator at least 15 square foot...
build a curtain array or other wire beam .cheaper than a beam. sure you can not turn it but you can have moor than one! i all ways ran horizontal to cut out local bull. had a lot of cbers that ran a lot heat. big cb towers still exist just not common we. their was a gizmoche at 60 and a 7 element moon raker at 130 ft! art bell had a large horizontal loop. it was non directinal but had decent gain with horizontal and vertical polerisation
To avoid those heavy rotors, couldn't you just put up some vertical stingers & phase them. No moving parts up in the air because of steering done with different length coax feed cables to the mast & the variator in the shack. ??? I'd really like to get with some old sub-mariner to work out the length arrangements that'd be needed for the separate wave building sets (kind of like the steerable sonar arrays).
Had a quad one time storm took it down made me a wire antenna simple dimple
And it works!
Nope ha ha junk man got it tip the garage man 🤩
How high is too high?
Dipole not dilpole lol!!
That drives me nuts just like hams calling a balun a "balum" or worse a "balton!"
great videos.
very limited knowledge of cb. been watching videos until my ears are bleeding and hard to filter the facts from fiction. i believe that you more honest than most. so if you would have the time to answer a couple questions i would really appreciate it. first if i were to mount a 102" on the peak of a metal roofed building would the roof act as the ground plane? and if so would the antenna need to be grounded to the roof? the roof is a 4/12 with a skylight ridged cap. or would i need the radials to make it work properly? next all the opinions on coax has my head about to explode. would like to mount it centered on a 40 by 50 roof and would need about 40 to fifty feet of cable. budget is some concern but would just mean it would take a little longer to come up with the finances. thanks Dave
If it’s mounted on a metal roof, then the roof should act as the ground plane. Just like if you mounted the whip onto a pickup truck toolbox, the pickup trucks metal body would act as the ground plane.
Need more cowbell.
A Yugo t shirt 😂
yugo's rock
What area are you in? Im in michigan and am looking for someone to help me set up some 4 element yagi beams i just got and my dads cb from back in the day. He was into cbs big time, and now its my turn. Do you know anyone who helps people with that sort of thing in business these days?
I am not sure who can help, here in NC I have to go almost 2 hours away for a guy to work on them.
MY dad had a laser 4000 it was a 32 ft boom
That will get you heard!
it was nice he had the money to do that. the you said it LOL.........
Maco quads and multi element
Generally Quads don't work both polarisations they only work the one you feed with a couple of exceptions pdl2 etc
the word your looking for is polarity.
Thanks!
40’ of Rohn 65 series tower $4,000.....
A mid sized antenna rotator $600 to $1000.
3 ELE Yagi $200 to $300
100’ Coax $75 to $100 RG- 8
Tower base cement, Not sure!
But your probably looking at around ten grand for 40’ of tower antenna and rotator by the time your all set and done!
Element spacing isn’t to bad! Approximately 7 feet. So around 28 feet for a 5 ELE Yagi.
20dB loss when talking cross-polarization (horizontal to vertical) or about 6-7 S-units loss because CBs are only about 3dB per S-unit, not 6dB as were the old tube-type Collins S-line receivers.
Richard StUmp SAYRE, Pennsylvania
Yugo!!!! LOL
Yugo for life...