"Mad Dog" wrote in message
...
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.

Therein lies the humor The first one that really made me laugh was the
"Zing Ring".
A circular gizmo that you were supposed to clamp around the bottom of the
loading coil on a base-load antenna.

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.

Years ago, I ran a firestick (5' or so) with a cap hat that I built for it.
Worked pretty well, in comparison with base stations in the same general
area.
I had an above-average ground plane though, on my chrysler imperial.

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.

Many that I've seen are definitely not in that region.

(2)they no absolutely nothing about RF radiation or
take-off angle and tilt them forward 45 degrees to look cool.

That's what I was mostly thinking.

Of course my 2M antenna is tilted forward a bit, but that's because the only
good mounting point for it has that tilt built in. No practical way to
straighten it out, so I just live with it.

(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.

Possible. I'm not sure what it would do to polarization.
It would rotate to the sides, but then again, that may not be a bad thing.
A trucker would normally want to talk fore and aft, and not so much to the
sides.
That's why the co-phased verticals always made sense to me, provided they
are mounted at the right distance.

I see co-phased antennas here locally, mounted within 2' of each other..

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

I always wondered why so few truckers are hams.
You guys spend as much or more on your rigs, as I do but you get so very
much less in the end.
Now that you don't need CW, anyone who can qualify for a CDL ought to be
able to snag a ham ticket in a week or so of spare time reading.

Of course you'd still have to have the CB along to talk to the other
fellows.