new to all of this

[FantomDave]

i just got a cb base station and i got a magnetic mount whip from a local ham store. I currently have it on the roof above my room. It doesnt seem to work very well, maybe about a half mile, what am i doing wrong?

[TheTeZ]

well you arent going to get out like that.... to really do well you should get a base antenna.... if you do go the short mobile antenna with a magnet mount way, you should take a metal plate and put it on that. bigger the better, or you can do the 102" with radials like explained all over these forums

[FantomDave]

can it be anything metal? like an old snow disc or a stop sign or does it have to be a certain thickness and width?

[nutcracker]

I would just get a base antenna. You wont get far with a magnet mount on a piece of metal. And the swrs are probably sky high right now. A piece of metal just dosent provide enough of a ground plane to work efficiently. unless you have a big big piece of metal. A fiberglass whip mounted on a steel pole with some radials ran to the ground would probably even be a step up.

[FantomDave]

i think the swr is ok,

channel one is at 1

channel 19 is at 1.1

and channel 40 is at .9

[Twink]

swrs are great. hmmmm.... do you have it grounded? if so, how?

[Twink]

and what kind of antenna? describe your setup in every detail from the plug in the wall to the tip of the antenna... the more info you give us the more we can help.

[FantomDave]

ok, starting from the wall plug all the way to the antenna...

the wall plug is a normal two prong plug, it goes to the back of the cb where it says "105-120v 50/60hz 45w"

the cb is a Base station Gemtronics GTX-66

the coax on the back is standard

the cable is attached to the antenna which is a manget mount whip intended for cars and trucks.

the antenna is attached (via the magnet) to an old rectangular metal sign a bit smaller than a stop sign.

anything else i should include?

hope this helps

[Circuit Breaker]

swrs are great. hmmmm.... do you have it grounded? if so, how?

Grounding the antenna won't improve his TX/RX. All it will do is provide a DC ground that will offer a route for static bleed off and some lightning protection. There's big misunderstanding that "grounding" your antenna somehow improves its performance because it creates a "ground plane." This is not true. Your antenna may be happy and present you with a great match...however, a large portion of your power is being wasted simply heating up the ground. That will make the worms happy.

Just because your SWR is low, doesn't mean you have a good radiating antenna. I can hook up a dummy load and have a great SWR but not be able to TX/RX further than across the street. If this antenna is a magnet mount intended for vehicle use, it sounds like it isn't very tall...maybe 3 or 4 ft. Physically, that's shorter than a 1/4 wave length. It will work...but not as well as a 102" whip which is almost physically a full 1/4 wave length. As mentioned, a base antenna would work even better. An Anttron A99 or Imax 2000 would work pretty good. Your second disadvantage is height above ground. The higher the better. Although, you could get away with simply mounting any base antenna to the eaves of the house at the peak of the roof and get good results. Get good coax. Depending on the length, you can get away with RG-58 but I would go with RG-8X at the least. Depending on who makes it, the loss per 100 ft is 3 dB...which is half your power. But if you're only doing 50 ft or less, I wouldn't worry about it. LMR-400 or RG-213 is even better but more costly. The antenna and coax will probably set you back close to $100...depending on how far you have to go between antenna and radio. If you want to make the run as short as possible, mount the antenna to side of the house right outside your window. Go to the hardware store and get yourself two 10 ft lengths of metal electrical conduit. They usually screw together...don't get the small stuff. Get something around 1 1/4 inch OD. Sink about a foot of it into the ground outside your window and bolt it to the side of your house and mount the antenna to the top of the conduit. You should be good to go.

See how that does.

[Circuit Breaker]

I wanted to add...if you stick with the magnet mount antenna, get it up to the peak of the roof the best you can. You can still use the piece of sheet metal. But drill four holes in it 90 degrees apart. Using some nuts and bolts, add 4 or 5 ft of wire and spread them out away from the sheet metal. This will create a better ground plane for the antenna and should increase its performance. If the coax isn't long enough, which I doubt it will be, you can use an SO-239 barrel connector and then get a length of coax that will complete the distance. This will at least get you on the air until you decide what you want to do. Another suggestion, if you go this route...when you get the SO-239 barrel connector, get one that has a screw on the side. This way, you can add a ground wire to it and electrically ground the antenna. This will help bleed off static electricity that builds up on the antenna from the wind blowing against it. If you don't do that, not to worry...it won't harm anything. But you could see an increase in noise in the receiver.

Eventually, if you get an A99 or Imax 2000...these antennas are 1/2 wavelength and do not require a ground plane. They are 18 ft tall and fairly light. You can easily put one up by yourself. If you got that route, I do highly recommend getting the conduit, because it is stronger than TV antenna mast you get at Radio Shack. If you sink a foot or more of it into the ground (which may require digging a hole) and bolt it to the eaves of the house, that will make a pretty good system for you to start out with. Eventually, you can raise it higher but this will get you started. Hopefully, you live in a town that has some activity. And, if you're anything like I was, you'll really get into this stuff and eventually want to get a radio with sideband. Some might suggest an amplifier...but I believe in quality over quantity so it's best to get your station to its best sounding peak performance before getting an amplifier. Besides, the antenna is probably the single most import component to your station. It won't do you much good to be putting out a lot of power if you don't have the antenna to radiate it anywhere.

['Doc]

FantomDave,
You've pretty well got most of what you need. It may not be the most 'bestest' way of doing things, but evidently it's working, at least to some extent, for you. I'm sure there are things that could be 'improved', though.
The absolute best thing to have to do any 'improving' is information about whatever it is that you want to improve. That means having at least a sort of general idea of what makes the @#$ thing work the way it's supposed to. Oh boy! I would suggest doing some reading/studying in the 'Dummy' sections of the radio part of the library, sort of. (You will have lots of company! I'm the one in the 'Guiness' T-shirt.)
The only other suggestion I feel comfortable in making is don't do anything you can't back out of gracefully. Make sure you really need to cut something off before you cut it off. Some things are just the 'pits' to try to put back.
Good luck.
- 'Doc

[FantomDave]

Awesome, thanks to everyone! The more i read and learn the more excited about all of this i become! Once again, thanks!