posted by Admin on Nov 28

Antenna - Mobile CB Antenna

Executive summary of CB Antenna by Michael Russell

CB Antenna

If you were into citizen band radio at all you knew that there was a certain prestige to having certain kinds of antennas, especially if you had a CB setup in your home.

For the mobile units, the ones that were installed in your motor vehicle, the antennas were rather simple and relatively weak. In the afternoon, mobile CB antenna were lucky to reach a few miles, especially during sun spot time. Mobile antennas came in several types. One of the most popular antennas was the fiberglass model that hooked on the back bumper. These antennas were very good transmitters and receivers. Some could handle up to 1000 watts of transmission power.

Another popular type of Mobile Antenna was the magnetic roof top antenna. Then we have the center load mirror mount antennas. Of course one of the most common mobile antennas were the trunk mount CB antenna. A good trunk mount antenna wouldn’t cost you more than $35.

Next, we’ll take a look at the most popular and powerful base antennas.

Antenna - Base Station CB Antenna

Not only were the units themselves powerful but the antennas that people put up on their roof tops could have given some rival TV stations a run for their money.

Choosing a CB antenna for your base station was not easy. One of the most powerful, yet most frustrating was the ever popular Moon Raker. This was a beam antenna that looked very similar to TV antennas, most having 3 elements mounted on an 11 meter base. These were called regular Moon Rakers. The problem with them was that they were directional antennas. So if you were speaking to somebody who was south of you and your antenna was pointing north you had to turn the antenna 180 degrees in order to get a decent reception. Also, Big Sticks were relatively cheap next to a Moon Raker that sold for a couple of hundred dollars. A Big Stick was about $70.

For people who didn’t have a very large budget, there were base station antennas made that quite honestly were not much more powerful than their mobile counterparts. The biggest problem with all of these antennas, especially in the old days, was that they were constantly interfering with TV receptions.

Check out my other guide on Marine Radio

TOP CB Antenna Product Reviews

Cobra HG A 1500 Base-Load Medium Magnet Mount 300W...	Customer Review: Do not have good radius with this antenna, may work well if your driving by a truck stop or something but not good if you want to talk to someone more then a mile away.... Read More	(27)
Midland 18-258 40-Channel Glass-Mount CB Antenna...	Customer Review: I've installed this antenna per manufacturer specs and tuned using my SWR meter.<br /><br />Performance of this antenna is worse than bad. It looks nice, the hardware quality is poor. The performance is even worse. <br /><br />... Read More	(16)
Cobra HA-TA Hand-Held CB Antenna...	Customer Review: This antenna works well. It is much more effective(transmitting and recieving) on my Midland 75-785 CB Handi-talkie than the stock "rubber duckie" that the radio came with. As with all "solid"(non-rubber duckie)antennas, be careful not to stress th... Read More	(12)
Cobra HG A 1000 Base-Load Small Mount 100W CB Ante...	Customer Review: Just like a lot of you i had the same problem happen to me i got the wrong cb antenna. It upsets a lot that amazon false advertised this item i was looking forward to the 1500 but all i got was a bottom of the line antenna. Before you buy this item... Read More	(15)
Pyramid CB20 Magnetic Mount CB Antenna...	Customer Review: Click Here for More Info	$17.99