Skippman

I'll be running both a CB and a 2M/70CM radio in my JK. I know very little about SWR at this time, mostly due to a lack of practicle experience so my questions migh seem... rudimentery.

Here's my gear:

Yaesu FT-7800
Comet SBB-5
Cobra 18 WX ST II
CB antenna TBD (trying to match the apperance of the SBB-5)


Can I run the coax for both antenna's side-by-side? This would make installation of the cabling much easier. Also, how much distance between the antennas do I need in order to keep my SWR in line?

AK4Dave

There is always a chance that when two antennas are close together they will react negatively. But, because HF and VHF/UHF frequencys are so far away from each other then they may not just as well. I have read here that some have had problems and other haven't by having the antennas in close proximity to each other. You pretty much just have to try it and see.....you could get lucky. I know most HAM mobile radio ops don't put antennas very close together. So if it were me, unless I could test it out first, I'd just "try" and put each antenna as far away from the other as I possibily could.....ie, one on one side of the JK, and one on the other.

I would imagine you are thinking about mounting them to the spare carrier. It would be nice if you could possibly find a long piece of say 1/4" aluminum flat stock with a series of holes in it to mount up temporarily for testing. This should tell you pretty quickly what you need. Does the 7800 have an swr meter in it? If not, then here is where an external SWR meter would help you immensely.

Do some more searching here, as I'm sure somebody posted a pic with antennas like you are suggesting and had no problems.

Good luck and post up your findings.

racinfast002

pics of how you mounted your radios?

TheonlyREDhead 2008 JK

Skip you better hurry and get that antenna done so we can razzz eachother when we wheel!!!

Red

mcds99

As long as you are not running both radios at the same time you should be fine. I don't know how you would hold 2 mic's and drive

Jeff

I have an HF and VHF/UHF antennas mounted on 2 arizonarockyroad spare tire mounts. Both coax leads run together from the Yaesu FT100 radio to the antennas.

I can run 10M on HF and VHF/UHF with good results on both, but only one at a time.

pics n my gallery.

N4XGI

Skippman

Cool. That answers my questions. Guess I'll have to get an antenna mount so I can install the CB. I'm still waiting on some other mods before I put the HAM in.