CB Antenna kits?

[rmgill]

I know several folks have CB's in their deuces. I bought a sugar scoop mount at Saturn and of course need the stand off for mounting the scoop on the bed. What sort of antenna mounts do you use and what other bits do you include in the truck for getting the CB working?

 

[cranetruck]

Ryan, the AS-1729 with tunable base, MX-6707 can be used as a CB antenna, but the SWR is rather poor and it's impractical to drive with the antenna in any other position than tied down making it even worse.

I use a small standard CB antenna, it can be seen just to the right of the passenger side flood in the image below.
You have the 24 to 12 volt converter as I understand it, so 12 volt is available for you. Do install a "hash" filter in line with the 12 volt supply.

My solution was to assemble a small 3 amp converter with extra filtering plus getting the 24 volt to it from the MX-7777 suppressor for spike protection. See "deuce electronics" image below.

Naturally, the ambient noise in the deuce makes it impossible to use the CB while driving unless special arrangements are made.
I run the speaker output from the back of the CB to the VIC-1 intercom system and can listen to the CB via the headset. It comes in loud and clear. Talking into the mike and be heard is a different story. In my case, only while at standstill. First image below shows the CB installed below the dash, a little out of focus, but still..

 

[Boatcarpenter]

Ryan, this thread has a little info about mounts. I was inquiring also so I could mount a CB antenna. There is a link in there for a drawing for the standoff if you need to get one made.
http://69.6.236.165/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=5665&highlight=antenna+mount

 

[rmgill]

I'm not sure what a hash filter is. The 24-12 volt power converter is a large 15 amp capacity (30 amp surge) unit with a built in fuse and other features. (PST-D24/12-300 at http://www.powerstream.com/dc1.htm).

I wanted to get one of these units, but being marine rated with a battery charger option, they're spendy.
http://www.newmarpower.com/dc-dcconvertersstandard/dcdcconvertersstandard.html

As far as CB antennas, I'm of a mind to use a full 1/4 wave whip on a spring mount that's somehow affixed to the sugar scoop. I was hoping I could pass the signal through the AS-1729 or similar base. Perhaps I need to find one that is fried that I can rebuild as a passthrough.

CB radio comms will likely be rigged up through and intercom setup once I have the funds to monitor it all on a headset system. I'll probably go with the VIC-1 setup once I can get one installed. I'll also want to pipe music into it as well because that actually made the drive down from PA quite bearable. I suppose that hooking up a module to plug into my celphone could be an additional option that'd be quite useful. Keep on going and I could have a veritable communications suite. Might as well plan for a module for adding an FRS/GMRS radio to the rig. That would make ground guiding easy, just toss the FRS radio to the ground guide and I can hear exactly what they say. Not that handsignals from someone that knows what they're doing don't work well.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Ryan, I've seen plans on the internet for converting the MX6707 for use with the CB. Don't recall where I saw it but it's out there. If a Google search doesn't yield results, try poling the Mil-Veh list.

 

[readyman]

Looks like they're working on the site, but here's the link.
http://idiventure.com/flashoffroad/radio/Milantenna/milAntenna.htm

I drilled a hole in the hex bottom of the lower mast segment and put in a right angle co-ax connector. I didn't want to mess with the internals of the base.
The top of the rigid lower mast segment can be tapped to screw in popular CB antennas like a Firestick. Look's original military when you're done.

 

[SixBuy]

Take a look at the Flightcom 403 intercom. It's tiny and it works on 28 V and it's cheap(er) if you can pick one up on ebay. Also does stereo with radio override and pilot (that's you) isolation. A simple switch or two will allow you to use more than one radio, say CB and GMRS or ham. Flightcom.net has the instruction manuals on line sos you can get an idea of the capabilities.
Has anybody come up with a neat way to mount radios beside the drivers seat or on the roof?

 

[Elwenil]

Lee has done the CB conversion on the military antenna and seemed to work pretty good for him. I plan to do the same for the antennas on my 715.

 

[Dieselsmoke]

A buddy and I did th antenna conversion to the tuneable base, SWR came out excellent, wasn't perfect but then where it was mounted didn't leave for the best of ground planes anyway. We found the instructions online, think it was a civvy hummer website.

 

[mcinfantry]

all i did was open it, gut the tuning stuff. solder a wire to the antenna and cut the length to 108" swr was PRETTY good!

 

[mangus580]

Basically you have to adjust one of the 'pots' down, and you can keep all the guts inside it.

 

[cranetruck]

Like Mike says, you can adjust a "pot" (a capacitor in this case).
I haven't tried it, but here is a schematic showing some of the key components. You select the 30-33 mhz range and then adjust C8 I have been told.

 

[Loose Deuce]

Hey Cranetruck, Its starting to look like the inside of a space ship with all the gismos. Do you have a better picture of those wheel chocks ? I think thats what they are ?

 

[readyman]

Here are some pics of the CB Antenna adaptor bypassing the antenna tuner.

 

[rmgill]

Where'd you get that fitting?

 

[readyman]

I soldered a Radio Shack right angle connector to the hex base of the antenna mast.

 

[SixBuy]

What am I missing here? How did you keep the shield from shorting to the center conductor? If the shield (body of the right angle) is soldered to the hex and the antenna mast is threaded into the hex, where's the insulation? And how did you keep the soldering heat from melting the poly inside the right angle? It certainly looks neat!

 

[readyman]

After removing the hex guts you're just working in the brass hex empty hole, no mast at that point, no mil-spec springy contact things/gizmos.

You have to disassemble everything. After removing all the mast parts, you end up with just a center conductor in the mast sticking out, kinda way up 2' into the hex base. Trim the mast center conductor(copper) to match where the coax meets it.

The right angle connector comes apart too(center conductors unscrew), to solder or weld to the hex base remove the insulator first so you don't melt it.

Solder the two (mast+co-ax connector) center conductors in the hex area and assemble the co-ax connector(the coax center conductors screw back together). There's no insulation at the solder joint.

 

[SixBuy]

Ah,ha! I was just about to believe in magic! I didn't realize the mast was nonconducting and had a center conductor. The last one of those I saw was solid metal. Oops, that dates me. Anyway, that is a slick way to go. You ought to take orders for some.

 

[readyman]