Any of you had or got a daf that can tell me the best place to mount the cb aerial on a Daf 95 super space and what is the better one to have
Cheers
I had a thunderpole red devil which fitted on the mount where the factory fitted aerial is fitted at the back of the cab. The wires for the aerial are behind the tacho above the driver just pull the plastic cover off.
In an ideal world any aerial you mount would be in the centre of the roof with its coil above any metal that could reflect back.
In reality your first big problem with a DAF SSC is that the roof is fibreglass so the roof mounting isn’t really an option. This leaves you with either a mirror mount or fixing a mount to the cab metalwork, much like the DAF supplied mount. Neither are perfect and don’t expect a range of much more than 2 to 3 miles unless sitting on a hilltop or running some big “boots”.
Mirror mounts can be difficult to get a decent chassis earth and also being mounted at one corner of the cab can also be a little directional, for example great broadcasting forward of the truck but useless behind.
The DAF mount on the rear of the cab is convenient in that it is all fitted up but again doesn’t perform very due to the aerial being too low down and also sitting right next to the steel plate that is the back of the cab. Also depending upon your type of trailer it can also be shielded from behind making the situation even worse.
Also what do you want to achieve from the radio?. Just a little banter with fellow drivers or serious DXing whilst parked up.
If its just a little banter then my advice would be to use a top loaded, something like a DV27, aerial on the DAF mount. Also take a little time and ensure the mount is both tight to the panel and has a good earth by cleaning off the paint. This is a right PITA because you need to remove the rear bunk trim panel but it will make a difference.
Cheers
Neilf
its for nothing special mate,it has an mirror arm mount at the minute its not the best and it taps on the side of the cab and as we have just had it painted so i just wanted to shift it
Well if all you want is a bit of banter and a range of a couple of miles then the easiest way would be to use the DAF mount behind the cab.
The DAF aerial isn’t too bad and has a wide bandwidth so you should get a low SWR across both UK and EU bands. They can Suffer from water ingress though so if you can’t get the SWR down then it’s probably time for a new aerial.
n
As I said previously try and get a top loaded aerial. I’ve had some good results on high roof cabs, where the aerial is tucked behind the cab, with the metal version of the Sirio DV 27. This is often referred to as a sparkler and although they are a little difficult to find now they are still available in Lymm. The more readily available fibreglass DV27 is also a good bet but best avoided if you do a lot around low hanging trees.They sit around 3-4" above the top of the air kit and the fibreglass one doesn’t like getting knocked about.
Cheers
Neil