CB in cars...

I like to drill very large (3/4 inch) holes in my roof and use NMO (Motorola) mounts. Lots of fun they are but they never leak and are indestructable. Unscrew the antenna when you get rid of the car, and if you can sell it to a Radio guy you can charge an extra 20 bucks for it.........

Otherwise, I would go with a cheap mobile and Mag mounted antenna.......

 

I've always tried to charge for my added value modifications, darn the luck, it just doesnt ever seem to work out for me.....lol

 

Me either but by golly it sounded good........

 

wax paper is the best thing i have found for the mag mounts so the paint doesn't get messed up

 

I use one of the "cellular look-alike" antennas that I bought at Radio Shack. I didn't want to drill a hole in my pickup. I think that it was around forty bucks.

Anyway, it works pretty #### good. Surprisingly. My radio isn't tuned or anything.

I might get a little more range out of something else, but I don't run into very many situations where I can hear somebody else but they can't hear me.

 

I used to use a simple full length whip on a magnetic mount on top of the roof of my old Suzuki Samurai with a standard "el cheapo" 4W CB radio. With this rigs I could, under good atmospheric conditions, make contacts from a hilltop in Western Germany with other CBers as far as England, Italy and Slovenia (about 1000 miles away).
On the Land Rover defender I'm currently driving, I mounted the CB antenna permanently to the rear lefthand upper corner of the body:

The antenna on the right is for normal car radio.
Just inboards of the work light is a little aluminum box, it is a coax feedthrough if I want to connect an external antenna like a HF dipole when I'm camping.
I couldn't use the top of the roof, since it lifts up to form the space for a double bed and I was afraid that I might have grounding problems with the hinges:

On the right front bumper I have an antenna for the 2m ham radio permantly mounted:

The bodies of Land Rovers are made out of aluminum, this rules out the use of magnetic antennas.
If I just use an antenna temporarely, I can use a clamp and attach it to the rim of the spare wheel on the hood and run the feed wire through one of the two vent hatches below the windshield.

Jan

 

with the mag mounts even if you can keep them from scratching the finish they will still create a dark spot because its protecting the area it covers from sun bleaching which occurs to everything .

if you have a steel bumper you could mount to that . but a short antenna will be compromised even further buy the low height and being below all of the vehicle . if youre mainly into road trip use id just go with a wilson 1000/5000 mag mount and put it in the trunk when you dont want it on . you could use it on the trunk so it didnt look so tall . best performance for any antenna is as high as you can mount it though .

 

That is what I've done before. Works like a charm. Should move it around a little, too. That way the paint can dry out from time to time.

 

Just a tip . Don't call any truckers a "goody buddy " . That is now the CB term for a homosexual .

 

Or if you find a good cheap radio with a roger beep, keep the beep TURNED OFF!