All Your (CB) Base. – Project:Keira

If you noticed in the Azusa OHV photos, I had no antenna – even if I installed one a week prior; it turned out that the antenna base I made was not strong enough to keep the Firestik NGP CB Antenna straight. After a few rough trails I removed the Firestik temporarily because it was swaying around too much. After giving it some thought, I came up with an idea on how to reinforce my custom CB antenna mount, and the solution was in the form of JB Weld SteelStik. First I removed my antenna mount and lined the body area underneath with aluminum tape. I then mixed up some SteelStik and started forming a base underneath and around the metal mount.

This JB SteelStik can be used for a lot of things.

After allowing the JB putty to cure for about an hour, I removed it from the truck and then used my Dremel and a grinding drum to clean up the edges and smoothen out the shape.

After using the Dremel, I did a quick test fit to ensure that the reinforced mount would still be low enough to clear the cowl piece.

Test fitment – flush on the bottom, still low enough to fit under the cowl.

With fitment confirmed I gave it a spray of black paint. I could have just left it as is since the entire thing would be hidden under the cowl anyways, but I figured I’ll do the job complete, Plus the layer of paint will add protection for the metal parts.

Final touch – a coat of black spray paint.

At this point I was also thinking about the high SWR readings I had with this particular setup. I was using a standard Firestik II antenna, but I decided to experiment and try their NGP (No Ground Plane) antenna instead. The NGP didn’t use the same CB cable as a regular antenna, so I had to remove the old cable and re-run the new NGP-specific one. Also, instead of the standard PL-259 end, the NGP cable had a ring lug, so the antenna wire was now routed above the mount instead of below… and yes – I did drill a clearance hole for the old cable, but it turns out that the hole was still needed to clear the bottom of the antenna stud mount.

Bolted in, the reinforcements made the antenna mount super sturdy.

With the new reinforced base, there was no more antenna sway. At the same time, switching to the NGP antenna was a good decision since I was now getting 1.1-1.6 max on the SWR across the CB channels. I also ended up selling my original Firestik II antenna to my brother, so everything worked out just fine.

Thanks, Pal