I am trying to hook up a C B radio in my apt and am using a K-40 antenna connected (screwed) onto a piece of?

Question

to a piece of railroad tie, Is this enough of a ground plane or do I need something larger? Do I need to further ground this, if so how.? Any suggestions, help, advice, all is welcome. Thanks.

Answer 1

You need electrical conductivity for a ground plane. A railroad tie won't do squat. Attaching an antenna to this would make it a simple vertical antenna. For a ground plane you need metal. It can be as simple as a few wire/tube radials. 3 will work, more is better. Antennas such as the K40 are not measured and cut to tune to frequency but utilize an antenna tuning unit. That's fine but it means producing a tuned ground plane is next to impossible. So basically any piece of flat metal or radials equal to the length of the antenna will be the best approximation.



A ground plane in this purpose is not the same as a ground. A ground plane is used to replicate the function of highly conductive actual Earth but at some elevation above ground.



To ground the system you should still take a wire from the ground connection of the antenna to Earth ground rod.



You're still going to want this as high as possible for best performance.

Answer 2

The answer is no, it will not work. You would need a fairly large piece of metal to have what the antenna is looking for to be resonant, and even still loaded mobile whips are always a trade off between size, effective pattern, and SWR. About groundplanes;



From the Advanced Specialties website;



WHAT IS A "GROUNDPLANE" & WHAT ABOUT ANTENNAS FOR FIBERGLASS OR NON METALLIC SITUATIONS?

A - Most mobile Vehicle antennas are actually "half" of the antenna, the other "half" is the body of the car or truck, which is connected to the shield ground side of the coax cable. This "other half" is also known as the Ground Plane of the antenna. If the Groundplane isn't adequate or large enough, poor SWR readings &/or performance will result. There are special "No Ground Needed" antennas designed for Boats, Fiberglass Door Trucks ect. Some of these antennas require a special included cable that can't be cut or replaced, others can be used with any cable. If a regular CB Antenna is mounted fairly close to, but not on, the vehicles ground, such as on a truck's fiberglass door, sometimes running a thick ground wire from one of the mounting bracket's bolts, to a good chassis ground, May sometimes work, & allow the use of "standard" mobile CB antennas in these situations.



To help you understand what kind of antenna your radio would like to see, take a moment to read these;



http://www.signalengineering.com/ultimate/antenna_basics.html

http://www.signalengineering.com/ultimate/mobile_antennas.html



then, if your apartment situation allows, try to build one of the verticals they describe. If you have to use something stealthy (or indoors only) there might be some ideas you can turn up with a Google search.

Answer 3

A 3/4" piece of copper rod (Home Depot) about 4' long hammered into the ground is what my husband said you would need. You'd have to connect the wire from the radio to the rod. Home Depot also has clamps for that.

Answer 4

the k-40 i have is magnetic place it on top of your refrigerator or on top of your ac out the window that will do it good lick extra ham operator talking around the world through a tin can and 5 watts