Antennas

[Mr. Green Jeans]

I have started the mind boggling search for a good CB Radio, but my question has to do with antennas.

Which ones are the best? (I have heard firestiks are good)

How long should it be? (3,4, 5 feet)


Should I get a "No Ground Plane" Antenna?

Any help would be appreciated and if anyone knows a good CB shop in the Houston, TX area that would be great.

Mr. Green Jeans

[Crankshaft]

Most cb shops are hackshops, especially any near truckstops. Theres a few that do business online, and have a decent reputation for work. Groundplane antennas... depends what your mounting on? The wilson stick, silver loaded 5/8ths wave I believe its called is about the most efficient antenna for cb's. I run a wilson 5000, but its overkill really. Get as long as you can get, 5ft if you can. If you jog up to tyler, theres a cbshop off I20.

[pro1driver]

Originally Posted by Mr. Green Jeans

I have started the mind boggling search for a good CB Radio, but my question has to do with antennas.

Which ones are the best? (I have heard firestiks are good)

How long should it be? (3,4, 5 feet)


Should I get a "No Ground Plane" Antenna?

Any help would be appreciated and if anyone knows a good CB shop in the Houston, TX area that would be great.

Mr. Green Jeans

depending on the truck i drive, if say for instance i drive "slip-seating", than a Francis works wonders. if i am permanately assigned a truck, then i mount my Wilson 2000, and i'm done...............

as far as height is concerned, i was always told that you want the height of the antenna to be no higher than the trailer, 13'6". any higher than that, you risk damaging in tunnnels, etc. i even had "stubby" antenna's and they worked just fine.

[BUZZSAW]

I gotta agree in most cases ....if you slip-seat Francis is hard to beat as long as your mirrors ground. Lately some of our tractors have grounding issues such as .... plastic/fiberglass doors, plastic covered mirrors etc. so I recently switched to the New Wilson slide to tune no-ground antenna . This way I only carry one antenna ( either 3 or 4 footer) and it will work on ANY tractor . The coax that comes with it must be used and there is a tuner built in to the coax . What I like about this is ....it can be pouring down rain, snowing , or hotter than blue blazes : and I can tune my antenna to a good SWR from the comfort of my driver's seat. And I won't burn the finals up in my radio. The radio shop in Tyler is CB Cit*y and from what I understand they are pretty good. B-S out !!