To those with CB Bases & HF Ham Bases: What Antenna(s)??

[indiejeep]

I am in the process of building my base station. I am a General licensed ham as well as a CB user. My base station will have both CB & HF ham.

For those in a similar situation or in the know:

1. What antenna(s) do you use?
2. Do you use an antenna made for CB and a separate for HF ham bands?
3. Do you use an external antenna tuner, if so, which one?
4. Are there antenna tuners that will tune 11 meter in addition to the regular 160-10 meter?

[Jester]

Indie,

As a ham/CB'er, I use an Imax 2000 for my 10/11 meter QSO's. I am also in the process of putting up my G5RV wire antenna as soon as all this snow melts up here near Chicago...

You will find that a well-hung (HAH!) G5RV at a good elevation with a MFJ 900-series tuner is a VERY nice setup. However, the G5RV is a pain in the **Censored** to put up, and since I've done it before, I know a little better than I did when I was a true novice...

If you have good backyard space, go for the G5RV. 89$, great deal. If you are made of dough, you could probably get a Hy Gain for about 2000$ that would require a serious Rohn tower to support all those elements for 80-10. The G5RV does 160-10, and you will like what you can do with it! (You can even run over a KW through it no problem!)

Good luck, and let me know if you ever go on 10 meters: I like to DX on the calling freq (28.4 USB), maybe I'll work you some time?

[indiejeep]

Thanks Jester. The wire antenna is something I have considered. Any other thoughts? I am trying to get properly informed before making buying decisions.

[231]

1. What antenna(s) do you use?
2. Do you use an antenna made for CB and a separate for HF ham bands?

First I built mono-bander coaxial dipoles for 20m, 40m, and loaded 75/80m bands. I have nothing up for 160m that works good. For 10/11m I use my 11m antennas. My dual polarity beam and A99. The A99 works okay without a tuner on 12m & 15m, too. I have nothing up for 17m yet. No tuner needed except for the 75/80m dipole. I only have about 175kHz (under 2.0:1) of band space without the tuner on that dipole.

3. Do you use an external antenna tuner, if so, which one?
4. Are there antenna tuners that will tune 11 meter in addition to the regular 160-10 meter?

I did mono-banders so I wouldn't have to use a tuner for the most part. I couldn't afford one at the time that would handle legal limit (which I run). I picked up an old boat anchor Dentron 160-10 3kw tuner I use now. Works great and easily handles the wattage I sometimes run. I'm not a G5RV fan, especially since I've yet to hear one that worked well on 75/80m which is where I prefer to run. Much of what YOU might need will be dependent on available space, layout, etc. I'm very restricted here living in a newer neighborhood and all.

So it's going to be a wise investment to get a tuner eventually, but you don't HAVE to have one unless you plan on a single multibander wire antenna.

Lots of ways to go that'll do ya' well...so just do something to get on the air, then you can decide where you want to go from there.

[26 TM 100]

For 11 metres, I use an Antron 99, but I have cut the rings off...this makes it a little more 'broadband' than standard....With an LDG Z100, I can operate down to 40 metres with it.

For the ham bands I have an Hokushin 5 band vertical at about 8' off the ground...And I have a 132' doublet, wire antenna.

The Hokushin is fed via an LDG AT100, and the doublet is thru an Icom AH4 auto ATU

All the tuners work very well, and I don't have any problems tuning up anywhere, including 11 metres.

[drdx]

If you have the room, a simple setup is an 80 meter dipole, fed with ladder line with a tuner. This will get you 80-10 meters. Don't sweat 160 for now unless you're really interested in it. That antenna will tune to cb for a horizontal antenna and it is a nice compliment to a good cb vertical. The G5rv is popular, but if you have the room do a full size 135 ft 80 meter dipole. If you don't plan on running cw, you can always shorten it a few feet to where it is still full length in the sideband portion of 80/75 meters. A good simple mfj tuner for that purpose can be had for $50 or less on the used market. That will at least get you going. If you do the monoband dipole deal, you can make one for 40 and it will also work on 15, as the freq range on 15 is the 3rd harmonic of 40, so you're killing 2 bands with one stone. If you're just wanting to get on and chase a little dx, do a simple dipole for 20 meters, at that's a hot spot when the conditions are there. If you're not close to a ham shop, let me know, i may have some ladder line and you can spin your own. -drdx

[lonesome 500]

i like the Carolina windom antenna vs the g5rv but both antennas work well in their own right. i currently use the mfj 986 diff tuner...i have a m104c it works great on too....can get some really wide bandwidth with it

to not be stuck with only one ant....buy a good 1:1 balun or 4:1....for whatever ohm wire you use and cut wires to resonant lengths....have 10-160 band antennas...cut to mid band lengths on one coaxial cable....no tuner needed

[rmyers2051]

i like the Carolina windom antenna vs the g5rv but both antennas work well in their own right. i currently use the mfj 986 diff tuner...i have a m104c it works great on too....can get some really wide bandwidth with it

to not be stuck with only one ant....buy a good 1:1 balun or 4:1....for whatever ohm wire you use and cut wires to resonant lengths....have 10-160 band antennas...cut to mid band lengths on one coaxial cable....no tuner needed

Are you saying to use more than one wire length at the same time on a single balun?

[lonesome 500]

i like the Carolina windom antenna vs the g5rv but both antennas work well in their own right. i currently use the mfj 986 diff tuner...i have a m104c it works great on too....can get some really wide bandwidth with it

to not be stuck with only one ant....buy a good 1:1 balun or 4:1....for whatever ohm wire you use and cut wires to resonant lengths....have 10-160 band antennas...cut to mid band lengths on one coaxial cable....no tuner needed

Are you saying to use more than one wire length at the same time on a single balun?

yep........as long as they are as separated as possible......IE; fanned out..

[dud muck]

Keep in mind that most of local CB talking is vertically polarized.
When skip talking, the polarization is random so it doesn't matter for DX except that local noise is vertically polarized, so its generally best to be horizontal for skip talking.
It has been said the penalty for having the wrong polarization is about 20dB, which is what you could expect when talking to CB mobiles (and vertical bases) on a horizontal antenna.

As for the rest of HF, one antenna to consider is the horizontal loop. This antenna allows you to maximize the available real estate you have to operate on the lowest band possible, but it has to be at least 1/2 wavelength high off the ground for the lowest band you desire. When fed with a 300 or 450 ohm ladder line, it will work well with a tuner all over the HF bands.