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!!