advice from those who know again

Hi all
Hope you are all well and recoverd from the last rally   

Am going to be doing a lot to the truck this year and would like some advice on a few things  

First thing is oil  

I am using Magnatec but does it really matter as to what oil i use wether it be cheap or expensive  

Second for the time being Anntena/areial for cb what sort is the best to have and what size
And please try to control yourselves with this one  Where is the best place to put it  

Oil, don't go cheap !!!

Best aerial for 4x4 is something like the Stinger, or here. Virtually indestructable.

nickburt wrote:

Oil, don't go cheap !!!

Best aerial for 4x4 is something like the Stinger, or here.  Virtually indestructable.

+1

get a halfords trade card and stick with the magnatec stuff!

Not often i disagree with nick but any of those aerials with the spring coil are crap.

They may be cheap and indestructible but the performance/range is very poor.
In a side by side test done by me the range is anything up to 50% less than a decent aerial from a firm like sirio.
They also suffer from swr issues. You can sometimes swr them in well over a few channels but at the extreme end of the bznd they go high swr. A decent sirio will give you a good swr from the bottom of the eu band to the top of uk.

High swr means that a big percentage of your power is reflected back down the cable into your rig. This not only reduces your range but damages your radio

If all you want to do is talk to the car behind you then go for whatever.
If you want the option of speaking to cars many miles away then get a sirio. Be careful, there are a lot of similar looking aerials that arent as good.

A couple of hours set up and about £50 can transform your cb setup from a few yards to 20/30 miles. With the time, money, and effort we spend sorting our cars it doesn't seem like a lot of work for a hell of a gain.

If your worried about breaking it then carry one of the small crap spring coil things for when serious offfoading in trees

Mark - how dare you disagree .............   

But I will agree with you - the Stinger is great for laning and stands up to being knocked around by trees etc... mines been on the truck for around 6 years now. Only real issue is that it's gone rusty!
Range is about 2 - 3 miles, depending on conditions. But, you're right about the swr, they can be a pain to set up for the full EU/UK frequencies.

Something nneither of us has mentioned - do not believe the "pre-tuned" sales pitch. Every aerial needs tuning to the individual installation. Things like ground plane (artificial ground planes sometimes work, but not always), quality of soldered connections, earthing etc.. etc... all play an important part in getting it right. So, when you buy any new cb equipment, make sure an swr meter is part of the set up. Some might disagree, but I always leave my swr meter inline. That way, it's easy to see if the swr has wandered off - as Mark says, high swr can (will) damage the radio.

On my list of things to do to the truck over the winter is to fit a decent aerial, but leave the Stinger on for those dense overgrowth moments!!!! Might even try connecting through a switched splitter, to make the swap over a bit easier - although that's another set of connections that will conspire to make low swr difficult to achieve.

Mark, which Sirio would you suggest?

All good, we're back in agreement.

Also worth mentioning aerial position. It should be in the middle of the roof. Anything else is a compromise.
Sticking it somewhere just cos its convenient is rarely a good idea.

I tend to favour this one..
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-SIRIO-MEGAWATT-3000-PL-MOBILE-CB-ANTENNA-/300756544049?pt=UK_Mobile_Phones_Communication_Radio_Antennas&hash=item46067caa31

You will also need a sirio mount. They use an so239 mount rather than the usual stud mount.

Thank you