CB Radio antenna help needed.

[ebinmaine 80,089]

For my old Ford truck I want to put a CB radio in there as part of the Retro theme.

 

I have a vintage Uniden unit on the way.

I want to use an antenna that would be very visible on the outside. Preferably some sort of metal. Not a fiberglass one. Preferably clamped to the passenger side mirror bracket. That's flat steel that is probably something like quarter inch thick by 1.5 wide.

 

How do I go about figuring out what sort of antenna I want that is as tall as possible and the correct length for good tuning?

[SylvanLakeWH 32,008]

Been a minute, but I had best luck with a magnet mount whip antenna... no clue what brand...

 

Duals mounted on my old F-150 mirrors didn't seem to work... going back to 1981ish... so 

[lynnmor 8,971]

If there is a major truck stop over there on I95, you might want to check it out.  I have seen things at truck stops that might not be found elsewhere.

[8ntruck 9,176]

CB antenna terms that come floating up out of my memory include 1/4 wave, 1/2 wave, and full wave antennas.  I'm thinking you will probably want a 1/4 or 1/2 wave type.  I don't remember what the length was, though.

[Ed Kennell 46,798]

My radio guy installed this one on my 2010  F-150.      The black thingy is slid up and down to tune and locked with set screws.

 

 

 

 

 

[squonk 47,763]

Back in my Chevy garage days our shop foreman had this long honkin CB antenna on the roof of his pick up. He thought he was better than us so he ate his lunch at 1:00. He would sit in his truck and talk on the CB. We always played jokes on each other so one day me and another guy  came back from lunch and I had a banana peel to toss out. I climbed into the back of the truck pulled his antenna down and stuck the peel on the end and gently let it straighten out. Then waited for him to see that peel on his antenna. 

[Wayne0 1,611]

I had a 6' Fire Stick on my old Wagoneer, It worked awesome, but you don't want glass. I recommend a K-40 if they still make them 

[ri702bill 12,699]

That's going back 45 years for me! Twin 18" Fire Sticks on my 1970 Wagoneer's low-mount mirrors. And a Cobra 23XL Radio.

[8ntruck 9,176]

I just remembered another thing.  An electrical engineer friend helped me set up my antenna,  using a standing wave meter.

[Handy Don 17,202]

42 minutes ago, 8ntruck said:

I just remembered another thing.  An electrical engineer friend helped me set up my antenna,  using a standing wave meter.

Getting a ¼ or ½ wave antenna perfectly tuned makes a huge difference in signal clarity. 

[ebinmaine 80,089]

10 hours ago, Handy Don said:

Getting a ¼ or ½ wave antenna perfectly tuned makes a huge difference in signal clarity. 

 

I vaguely remembered that from a couple friends having ham radios about 30 years ago. I think with a CB frequency, you have to have quite a long antenna to approach those numbers. For the visual aspect of it, I'd like to have as much height over the roof as possible .. up to about 12 or 13 ft total.

Edited 6 hours ago by ebinmaine

[Handy Don 17,202]

2 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

CB frequency, you have to have quite a long antenna

Yep. A straight wire antenna would be 36 feet long!

Shorter physical lengths use wire coils and other cool electronic tricks. 

Edited 4 hours ago by Handy Don

[ebinmaine 80,089]

3 hours ago, Handy Don said:

Yep. A straight wire antenna would be 36 feet long!

 

 

That might be pushing height extremes a little bit

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Handy Don said:

Shorter physical lengths use wire coils and other cool electronic tricks. 

 

 

That would explain why I see a lot of fiberglass antennas that say they have a copper coil wrapped around them