Hi interested in putting a whippy style aerial on my buggy as at the minute there is none , may in the future want to put another one on for a CB. Found some of the usual aircooled sites but to be honest they are over £100 pounds which for what i am looking for it maybe a tad expensive.
So was wondering if anyone on here knows where i could possible get one that is maybe not quite as expensive

Thanks in advance for any help on this 

Have you tried the CB shops I got mine from www.thunderpole.co.uk you will obviously have to buy a mount but could for instance get nearly a 9ft whip for £16 and a mount for about £5 just need coax think they do a complete kit if you want to connect it to a cb later. They even do different colour aerials I picked up an orange one.

yeh, google serch for a local CB shop is good if you dont want to pay firestik prices,
i've just laid out for two 5" fiberglass thunderpoles, cables, body mounts, positional fittings (so i can angle them or drop down to park in garage) and a midlands CB, and still had change out of £150
Rich.

My good lady bought me two off line from a scooter shop in this country. Sorry can't me more help

Thanks for the replies guys

I think i may just have to go down that route and just get a cb aerial i do have a midland cb radio kicking about , thought i would ask before going out and buying something 

Thanet scooter supplies I think it was well it was Thanet scooters do a 6' whip nearer 7' but it has no coax connections it is just a whil

I just thought I would mention, it would be very advisable to get yourself an SWR meter, as buggies
are an issue for CB's in that they are fibre glass bodies and this really screws up things a bit, in the CB operational sense.

For best operation the aerial must be setup to avoid a high SWR (Standing Wave Ratio), this isn't as complicated
as it sounds but really should be undertaken, if for no other reason than to avoid destroying your CB when its used, a very
high SWR can easily do this.

Its all to do with getting rid of the 'reflected wave', a high SWR will have the effect of sending the transmitted wave back down the
antenna and at high levels it can destroy the cb. Its all about ensuring that as much of the transmitted wave goes up through and 'out' of the antenna.

The SWR meter will help you tune the antenna, you are aiming for a low SWR. Not as straight forward as it sounds but its doable!

I am using a Sirio Groundless Antenna, made for boats and anything fibre glass that lacks a metal chassis and body,
it works incredibly well.

Sooo, if you are interested in using the cb and not just having a nice big whip on the back, then the Sirio Groundless
aerial would be the one to use.

http://www.sirioantenna.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=394

http://www.manxmaniac.co.uk/suppliers-1.php?album=CB-Radio

Peter 

What size connector is underneath Peter?  is it a full size PL259 or the smaller DV27 ?

Might just look into that aerial myself, as I`m currently using Firesticks and they keep fracturing at the base due to not being as flexible as teh manufacturers make out. I like the idea of that big spring there.

I've got the same aerial as peter and works really well.

It's a full size connector that goes straight into most cb's

I am pretty sure is the same size as the one that goes into the back of the cb itself,
the larger 'standard' type ?

The aerial also is supplied with an already cut (tuned) length of coax with one connector already
fitted, its all in the aerial pack from Sirio 

I fitted it all in place and using an SWR meter I have a reading thats barely noticable, ie 1.1

Plus my wedge shaped blue cheese box stuck under my cb has raised the sound thats coming at me
by at least 500%, the cb speaker points straight at the floor and sound is lost... 

Peter

Thanks for the replies interesting in what you guys have said , I have had a look on a few sites now came across this which on the face of it looks like the kind of thing I am looking for http://www.thunderpole.co.uk/cb-radio-packs/thunderpole-cb-radio-off-roader-pack.html. This comes with everything I would need. Although I have an old cb not sure how good it is. So ideally instead of buying what I need all separately would be good if I could buy it all together

However after doing some reading plus trying to remember when I did have cb's back in my younger days the grounding of the aerial does have to be considered. Obviously the shell is fibre glass so straight away that would make having a cb a bit more difficult. Choices

1. Use a body mount means drilling into the shell which since I have a softtop so not really keen on drilling any more holes in it. Another thought was whether the fibreglass would crack around the hole if the aerial is too flexible.

2. Alternative position I am thinking would be on the engine cage at the back which also means that if I never really use it a lot the one advantage is I could take it all off without having to repair any holes

Would be cool to also have an aerial as a purely personal view a whip aerial of some sort I think can add to the coolness of the buggy. Peter I do like your cb looks like it is a nice small compact cb

Alan

Alan, if you choose to attach to the body, what i have done is fiberglass a 4 inch plate (basically giving you a large washer) on the underside of my fixing point drilled the antenna point through body and the plate, this will act as a support and help spread any stress caused by flexing and also gives me a ground plane attachment to run a bit of earth wire either to my electrics or seperately straight onto chassis.
engine cage is easiest as its already grounded and you can get mounts easy enough.
Rich.

Your link looks interesting, the thing that will be very important is that you can set the SWR.

I have used the aerial I have because it offers a proper 'manufactured' solution to the fibreglass body
that has no effective ground plane, and it works unbelievably well and does exactly what its
designed to do.

My radio is just the job, its tiny and has a decent casing too.. Once you get over having all the bells and whistles
some cb's offer, it's nice to have a system thats inexpensive and with the antenna I use, actually works 

http://www.4x4cb.com/public/item.cfm?itemID=1175



Peter

Hi Peter

yeh I happen to find what I thought was yours after seeing a pic of it in situ , looks like just the ticket

like you say not really looking for anything that is all singing all dancing not as if I will be needing to talk the space station or anything. thinking would only really use it for coming to any meets. so be lucky if it would get used 2 or 3 times a year

so partly not wanting to spend a lot of money for that reason , just looking for something that means I can join in any cruises whether it be in the uk/abroad. these days I would rather buy products that are recommended by people rather than buying it to find out it is not doing what I had intended it for.

like the fact it is small does not have many buttons so as long as it means I can join in that could well be along with the groundless antenna the perfect setup. looked at the price on one cb website only 60 quid so yeh that could well be a winner with the right setup

alan

Well, that link I put in takes you to Jim's site, 4x4CB, and mine is £49...

All your reasons are fine, and in reality they may only be used a few times a year.

Although the cheese box I taped to the bottom looks a lil iffy... It works so well that it's hard to believe 

Whatever you decide, I hope all goes well 

Peter