Forum Discussion

Rageous's avatar
Rageous
Explorer
May 29, 2014

Class C - a good CB Antenna

I need to add a CB to the rig and was wondering what folks with a Class C are using for:
* an Antenna
* Type of antenna mount
* Mounting location
Thanks for your help with this issue, I know CBs are very finicky and that they need a good antenna.
Cheers
  • Thanks for the replies,
    I plan on just using the CB for information (eaves dropping)on road conditions and what truckers are saying. They will chat with you if they feel like talking. Sometimes just better than watching the mile markers go by!

    I don't think I would get much range using anything attached to the cab, CBs (from my past experience) like tall, wide open, and centered antennas. With the Class C, tall and centered is impracticable, and they would definitely need a ground plane.

    Has any one tried a glass mounted antenna? I wouldn't think they would get much range.
  • I went to a truck stop and the cb shop. He told me that the side mount would be good and that the antenna needs to stick up highere than anything on the roof. He recommended an antenna with a built in ground plane for fiberglass rigs. Was gonna cot $200 installed with radio. Just never got around to it however.

    As noted above most dont use the cb anymore. Have them in my 2 trucks and one for the car. Once in a while you will get someone talking, but unless you are traveling with someone you know not much of a chance to talk. We have FRS radios we will carry in case we travel with a friend.
  • Roy, I think most RV'ers use channel 15 although I seldom hear one of them.
  • Antennas need a good ground plane too, I would think best on a C would be somewhere on metal cab area, or possibly the rear bumper.

    On my daily driver, my Camry Solara, I replaced the FM radio antenna with a CB antenna (a short 24" firestik to not look too out of place), then used a blocking splitter to hook the FM radio into the CB antenna, then tuned SWR on the whole setup, tuning SWR is almost more important than the antenna you choose. If you go the route I did, don't hook the FM radio direct into CB antenna you NEED the special blocking splitter so the TX power of your CB doesn't burn out your FM radio.

    I plan on a similar combined CB/FM with a 2 or 3' firestik on our TV (the wife's daily driver, so she wont let me mount some huge antenna), but sadly for now we just travel with a crappy handheld CB with rubber duck, range sucks, but it DOES work and is better than nothing.

    EDIT: I only monitor 19 usually, but my radio does have a scan feature, so sometimes I am scanning the whole band, but 19 is the only one with anything on it these days (unless conditions are good for skip, and then I turn the damn thing off because you will never hear any locals over the 1000 watt jerks shooting skip).
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    I carry a CB radio with me under my truck seat and in the five to six years of pulling my trailer and I have never heard another RV'er... My CB comes on with the ignition key and I have it setup on Ch19 with the squelch all the way up and low volume. Probably on the wrong channel to hear any RV'ers I guess. I use mine to listen to the truckers that are in directly front of me or directly behind me mainly for road conditions.

    CB's went away I think when the cell phones got popular...

    Roy Ken