the so-called ground plane that attaches to the base of the antenna IS NOT a
ground-plane because it's mounted above the insulator.
inexperienced truckers who buy them know absolutely nothing about Rf.
they are simply wasting their money on doo-dads that they think are going to
make their radio get out farther.
anything that is added to the the antenna above the fiber washer simply
increases the electrical length of the antenna.
Capacitance hats do not add length but they must be mounted above the
loading coil.
as far as tilting the antennas forward are concerned,
there are sevewral possible scenarios involved.
(1) the antenna is taller than 13'6" when mounted veertical
and hits the low bridge when passing under therefore a forward tilt is
mandatory.
(2)they no absolutely nothing about RF radiation or
take-off angle and tilt them forward 45 degrees to look cool.
(3)tilting the the antenna forward about 15-20 degrees can increase the
forward range of the signal by angling the signal closer to the horizon
because antennas that are mounted closer to earth ground than 1 wavelength
have a higher take-off angle than those that are mounted at or above 1
wavelength.

A truckers CB is his/her pride and joy and the ultimate
tool we use to communicate with each other over long distances.
money is not a object when it comes to building a nice
rig for talking on because we spend hours and hours
communicating with each other on long trips cross-country
--
Mad Dog
aka 714 Sandpile
aka KG4LBD
2002 KW T2000



"Dave VanHorn" wrote in message
...

"Frank Gilliland" wrote in message
...
In , "Dave VanHorn"

wrote:

Seen this a lot lately on the road..

Beats me why they do that, but it's possible the reason is founded
somewhere
deep in CB mythology.

That's a subject that almost deserves a book.

The "ground plane" gadgets that extend about 3" from the base of the
antenna
are pretty good, along with the "5kW" antenna I saw packaged with a mount
that had non-removeable RG-58 coax.