Can I cut an antenna???

[Mandelon]

I put a camper on my pickup but the antenna hits the cabover part. Last time I unscrewed the antenna. But I couldn't get any radio...oops, duh. Anyway, can I just cut 6" off the top? Or will that screw it up?

[Uplink]

No you will no screw anything up, or damage the radio, you are just detuning it. This result is degraded performance. By cutting it 6" you are changing the antenna's tuned range to a higher frequency (higher than the 108Mhz upper limit of your radio). The shorter the antenna the higher the frequency its tuned for (I have the formula for antenna tuning if you need it.) Antenna length is much more critical in transmitters than receivers. Basically, It will still work, just not as well. Hope that helps, Mark

[Lightning]

What about changing a factory antenna to one of those shorter billet style one's? Will this affect range? Does the composition of the metal in the antenna itself affect anything?

[JetBoatRich]

Uplink:
No you will no screw anything up, or damage the radio, you are just detuning it. This result is degraded performance. By cutting it 6" you are changing the antenna's tuned range to a higher frequency (higher than the 108Mhz upper limit of your radio). The shorter the antenna the higher the frequency its tuned for (I have the formula for antenna tuning if you need it.) Antenna length is much more critical in transmitters than receivers. Basically, It will still work, just not as well. Hope that helps, MarkCome tune my CB on my RV, that thing works terrible. The person I bought it from has a lot of extra cable under the dash.

[Uplink]

Lightning:
What about changing a factory antenna to one of those shorter billet style one's? Will this affect range? Does the composition of the metal in the antenna itself affect anything?Yes, while they look good, they are too short for optimum reception. 98 Mhz is the center of your FM radios band, that is the target frequency you want to tune for on your antenna. Therfore, for a 1/4 wavelength antenna (the most common style), your lenth in feet will be 234 divided by the freq. in Mhz.
The result is 2.39 feet. Composition of metal is not as critical as the length. <Mark>

[Mandelon]

...is not as critical as the length. I was afraid of that....It may not be that long, but its pretty wide around eek!
So I can take some bolt cutters to it and just nip the tip?

[Nubbs]

I replaced my factory antenna with a billet antenna and I still get good reception. Hope this helps.