Re: Radio S**t CB stuff

[dan_masi@MENTORG.COM (Dan Masi)]

On Sep 13,  1:01am, Igor Kessel wrote:

> >since the area surrounding the antenna is used as well.
> > So, in the middle,the whole car would be used as an antenna,
> > helping to pick up signals.
>
> Sorry, no. A car is a ground. Antenna is well insulated from it.
> Its the high position, unobscured the by the car's sheet metall,
> which acts as a shield, that's what counts.

Just a minor nit here... there's bits of truth in each of
these comments.  Jim was essentially correct.  Igor was correct
in saying that the car is a ground, but it isn't just the
high position that "counts".  For vertical antennas, the
efficiency is greatly increased by having a surrounding
conductive ground plane as large as possible.  This is by
*far* the most important effect of having the antenna in the
middle of the roof, especially when we're talking about
wavelengths as large as CB.

Dan Masi
'96 A4Q