CB Antenna - Firestik help needed

[Mike E]

I installed a 4' Firestik cb antenna on my rear bumper and ran it into the center console. I cannot tune this thing for the life of me! It's a "trim to tune" and I've trimmed and trimmed like they say and the meter wont go down anymore to where it should be.

Does anyone esle have this type of antenna that could offer some assistance?

Thanks!

[ree]

Throw it out and buy a FireStik II or FireFly series antenna that you can tune by hand with the knob at the tip. It won't be more than $15-20.

Otherwise, have you talked with the vendor you got it from or called up FireStik (602-273-7151 / http://www.firestik.com/b4email.htm) to see what they have to say?

[Mike E]

Yea, I was wondering about the Firestik II. Do you think the 4' length is ok for the rear bumper? I was reading about how the back of the truck could cause a signal problem but I have seen others with the same setup.

[Beastmaster]

Get yourself a longer antenna. 4' will not give you adequate coverage to run the antenna without reflecting at least 20-30 percent of the signal back to itself because of it's proximity to everything.

[Mike E]

Do you think I would be better off mounting to the roof rail and stiking with a 4' firefly or firestik II?

[ree]

Yes. Using as long an antenna as possible up on the roof is the best plan. If you park in a garage a 4' will be long and hit your door and drive throughts. So unless you use it 100% of the time, invest in a fold-down mount that you can use when parking, etc.

[KB7TCV]

Mounting on bumper will not work to much metal surrounding it will only be able to recieve/transmit to the side and rear of the vehicle 4' on a base loaded antenna will not work. Am talking from experience. If the antenna was top loaded and stood above the top of the truck it will work. I mounted the antenna on mine after learning the hard way at the rear of the truck dead center of the lip behind the weatherstriping behind the rear gate. 100% improvment

[Mike E]

I have a standard, 4' top loaded Firstik fiberglass. I'll remove the mount from the rear bumper and move it up to the roof rail and see what happens. Thanks guys!!