What CB Antenna should I get?

[Legionnaire]

Hello everyone been gone a while hope you didn't miss me much. I just earned a CB Radio gratis and decided wth it'll be fun, if not useful in emergencies, to set it up in my truck and maybe make a base station in the home later. The probelm is, there are too damn many antennas out there and I don't really know much about them. I don't have a clearance problem around here so I want to get as long of an antenna as I can, but which one? Wilson 5000? K40Plus? Firestik 7' or Firestik II 5'? This is where I come when I need the serious questions answered!

[The One]

On your truck I would recommend the Wilson 5000 or even a little Wil they are great antennas. I also have used the k-40 they are good antennas also. I do recommend setting the SWR with a meter to get the best operation out of all of them.

[Vicious Ignernt]

Leg,

The most important thing is to get a serious ground, clean DC power, and find a Great, not good, but Great Tech to get the VSWR set, and set RIGHT. A clothes hanger with 1:1 VSWR will do better compared to an expensive Wizz-Bang 1000 with a "Vizwar" of 1:100

[Big_Saw]

Leg,

The most important thing is to get a serious ground, clean DC power, and find a Great, not good, but Great Tech to get the VSWR set, and set RIGHT. A clothes hanger with 1:1 VSWR will do better compared to an expensive Wizz-Bang 1000 with a "Vizwar" of 1:100

I use dual 102" steel whips on my F250, and had 'em clipped and tuned by the local raccoon....also use a Wilson 2000 Trucker on both my SUVs and the ghetto-cruiser....

[methusaleh]

Predator 10K for most of the time, switching to a Wilson 5000 when I have to drive where trees hang low.

And yes, I run the Predator from a hole right smack in the middle of the roof of my Explorer...and get some stares from the general public!

[snal]

I use a Firestick on my F250, but i also tried the little 19.95 Radio Shack magnetic mount...got an SWR of just under 2.0 with it at the back edge of my cab, moved it forward, closer to center and got just 1.3.
The Firestick is mounted with a bracket that I made and bolted to my steel kayak rack/ladder rack. I was unsure of the quality of ground from the rack, so I used a battery cable bolted to the rack...then to the factory tie-down bracket bolt in the bed...it now gets an SWR of 1.2.

[Big_Saw]

Predator 10K for most of the time, switching to a Wilson 5000 when I have to drive where trees hang low.

And yes, I run the Predator from a hole right smack in the middle of the roof of my Explorer...and get some stares from the general public!

Love it!!! Betchya it looks like a RC car, huh?

[Big_Saw]

I use a Firestick on my F250, but i also tried the little 19.95 Radio Shack magnetic mount...got an SWR of just under 2.0 with it at the back edge of my cab, moved it forward, closer to center and got just 1.3.
The Firestick is mounted with a bracket that I made and bolted to my steel kayak rack/ladder rack. I was unsure of the quality of ground from the rack, so I used a battery cable bolted to the rack...then to the factory tie-down bracket bolt in the bed...it now gets an SWR of 1.2.

Getchya some conductive grease, like the little packs they sell for a buck for your spark plug boots at the parts house....and smear it into the threads on all your fasteners, then seal both ends of the nut with silicone....you'll probably reach optimal SWR then....

[snal]

Getchya some conductive grease, like the little packs they sell for a buck for your spark plug boots at the parts house....and smear it into the threads on all your fasteners, then seal both ends of the nut with silicone....you'll probably reach optimal SWR then....

Thanks for the tip!

Any idea about base antenna grounds? I've tried both a 102" whip and a 7' Firestick as a base antenna, mounted to a bracket on the peak of my roof at the eave, ungrounded, bad bad SWR on both, but both do well on the truck.
Only base I've ever used before these was an Antron 99 ungrounded, did great. That was years ago.

[Big_Saw]

Thanks for the tip!

Any idea about base antenna grounds? I've tried both a 102" whip and a 7' Firestick as a base antenna, mounted to a bracket on the peak of my roof at the eave, ungrounded, bad bad SWR on both, but both do well on the truck.
Only base I've ever used before these was an Antron 99 ungrounded, did great. That was years ago.

My base antenna is grounded via a piece of solid 10g copper wire, affixed directly to the ground terminal in my electrical panel.....I had an electrician buddy do it, though, 'cause the zap scares me to death...:eek:

I have perfect SWR on a 102" whip atop a homemade 22' aluminum tower....and can sometimes catch & throw pretty clear skip all the way into Canada.....

[snal]

My base antenna is grounded via a piece of solid 10g copper wire, affixed directly to the ground terminal in my electrical panel.....I had an electrician buddy do it, though, 'cause the zap scares me to death...:eek:

I have perfect SWR on a 102" whip atop a homemade 22' aluminum tower....and can sometimes catch & throw pretty clear skip all the way into Canada.....

Will the lack of a ground, or poor ground, effect the SWR? I'll be putting up my 28' homemade mast this weekend. Plan is to drive a 1" galvanized waterpipe into the ground, slip my stainless mast over it, which will locate the top of the mast about 10' above the peak of my roof, and a bracket at the eve will hold it in place. Once that is up, I'll bolt on the "T" up top, which will add about another 2' in height, and provide mounting points for my CB antenna and my 2m/440 antenna, roughly 3' apart.

[Big_Saw]

Poor ground will affect everything about how your antenna interacts with your radio....if you use the old pound-the-ground-down approach, I'd recommend a copper pipe, as far as you can drive it....pre drive your hole with a rock bar or something of the like, and a ittle smaller than your pipe (copper's too soft to go pounding on it)......sand the copper pipe with some good grit, and drill a hole through the exposed portion....smear on more conductive grease...... wrap a few winds of wire around the pipe, just below the hole, feed through the hole and bolt your wire to it...then coat the whole exposed portion with silicone sealant, and wet the ground around your pipe every day for a good week and tamp it to get the soil around it real tight with the new ground-pole....viola!

[Zombie Axe]

I use dual 102" steel whips on my F250, and had 'em clipped and tuned by the local raccoon....also use a Wilson 2000 Trucker on both my SUVs and the ghetto-cruiser....

The 102" whips look fancy, but they are the correct height for a great signal on a truck! I have one I use for 10 meter ham band (CB is 11 meters). So +1 :)

[Vicious Ignernt]

Poor ground will affect everything about how your antenna interacts with your radio....if you use the old pound-the-ground-down approach, I'd recommend a copper pipe, as far as you can drive it....pre drive your hole with a rock bar or something of the like, and a ittle smaller than your pipe (copper's too soft to go pounding on it)......sand the copper pipe with some good grit, and drill a hole through the exposed portion....smear on more conductive grease...... wrap a few winds of wire around the pipe, just below the hole, feed through the hole and bolt your wire to it...then coat the whole exposed portion with silicone sealant, and wet the ground around your pipe every day for a good week and tamp it to get the soil around it real tight with the new ground-pole....viola!

WOW!:eek: I am impressed! I have no words to express my awe and respect.

Saw, have you ever heard of adding salt to the ground plane?

[Big_Saw]

WOW!:eek: I am impressed! I have no words to express my awe and respect.

Saw, have you ever heard of adding salt to the ground plane?

Can't say that I have....what's the purpose?

I may not have ZAs expertise with all things commo, but I consider myself well-versed in the CB realm.....