Any Experience With Diesel Antennas?

**David Ford** · 09-08-2010, 09:42 AM

Does anyone have experience with Diesel antennas? I found a fiberglass one in my garage from a few years ago when I was into CB. I was thinking of replacing my window mounted antenna with this one mounted on the mirror. Any thoughts?

Dave

**TurbineDivinity** · 09-08-2010, 01:07 PM

Yes actually. But we need to identify the antenna you have. How long is it? Does it have a wire wrap that goes all the way to the top with a tighter bundle of windings at the top? Or does it have a buldge at the middle or a coil at the middle of the antenna.

More importantly do you have all the mounting hardware for it?

**voyager7** · 09-08-2010, 02:30 PM

Picture would help.

**Stealth Stalker** · 09-08-2010, 06:58 PM

Any antenna mounted to metal will significantly outperform the one you have. But I don't know anything about that particular brand of antenna.

**David Ford** · 09-08-2010, 09:27 PM

Dang. Hooked up the antenna - it's dead. Not too sure how, though. The squelch I get from it is very low pitched, and the normal chatter I get from the interstate I was unable to pick up. I even saw a few big rigs rollin' through town, using their radios. I couldn't hear them until I was VERY close. It may have something to do with how I mounted it (did something wrong maybe?), but I'm unsure.

**David Ford** · 09-08-2010, 09:28 PM

Originally Posted by TurbineDivinity

Yes actually. But we need to identify the antenna you have. How long is it? Does it have a wire wrap that goes all the way to the top with a tighter bundle of windings at the top? Or does it have a buldge at the middle or a coil at the middle of the antenna.

More importantly do you have all the mounting hardware for it?

Looks like it's about 4 ft. Wire wrap that goes all the way to the top with windlings at the top. Fiberglass. Says "Diesel" on the end, and I have all of the mounting hardware for it.

**TurbineDivinity** · 09-09-2010, 02:34 AM

Okay you have the basic top loaded wire wrap. If the end cap comes off let me know if you have a tuning screw there or not.

Some basics however may mean you have a bad ground plane. First thing is to tune it up but a quick checklist before we start

The stud on the end of the antenna should be clean and shiny, the mount for it is a little tricky as I am going to ask a few questions about the mount. first part is does it have its plastic spacer in place and in the right configuration. I don't know how many times I have had to dig one up because it got lost somehow. the "nut" the you screw the antenna into should be isolated completely from the ground. there should be a plastic spacer that isolates the center pin from the shield.

If you have a multimeter, Unscrew the cable from it and make sure that the part the antenna screws into is not grounded. While you are at it , test both the ground and center pins of your cable to make sure you don't have any breaks or shorts in it as well.

Your mount should be attached to a solid ground point. you would think this would be the case if attached to nice shiny stainless steel mirror bracket. Sadly bolts between the brackets rust. corrosion causes it to be a very crappy ground in some cases. do a Ohm check between the mount and a good known ground point on the car

Okay , if cable is good, mount is good. and everything is tight and together we need to tune your antenna. But we are going to need a SWR meter to do this.

Read through this real quick

http://www.life123.com/technology/ho...-antenna.shtml

Now what they don't tell you is how to do this with a wire wrap. the better ones have a screw at the top that allows you to adjust the length of the antenna easily. If yours doesn't not to worry it is not as big a deal but it will take a little more work to get right.

How to tune a wire wrap, first thing is to have on hand a little scotch tape. it will make the process easier. when you pull off the little rubber end cap you should see a tiny bit of copper windings on the end. If the antenna was never ever tuned you may need to CAREFULLY peel back/cut off an 1/2 inch of insulation form the end to expose some of the windings. Now as you just read in the guide you need to determine if your antenna is too long or too short. If too short it is very very easy to just spread a couple of the windings. The funny thing is that it take so little to make it right. 1/8th of an inch and the Antenna is perfectly tuned. If the antenna is too long , you may need to nip tiny bits of the winding away till it is right

Now here is where the scotch tape comes in. every time you make a change. tape the windings into place and put the end cap back on before you make your reading., And do it with the doors close while in the car. In no time you will have a 1.2 - 1 match or as close as you can. switch back and forth between 1 - 40 till they show exactly the same reading you want the needle to move as little as possible in the end.

So there you are. let us know how that works out for you