# cb antenna reccomendations



## jsriley5 (Sep 22, 2012)

I have two old CB's both were working when they were retired and I have no reason to beleive they don't still work. But I don't have an antenna for either of them and intend to get two antenna soon for them. I figure to use one as a home base type and the other as a mobile unit and then probably pick up a couple cb walkies. Anyway what will be the most bang for my buck I can pretty well rig my own mounting hardware so what will I need, what should I look for and what should I be sure to avoid when looking for them? MY budget isn't very high for them I"d like to come in under 100 dollars and 50 would be better of course. But I don't want to hamstring myself by getting junk either if I had to I would settle for getting one now and then try to add the other later.

If it helps one is a sears 23 and the other a midland 866 I"m not shooting for fancy just want to get all the range I can out of them without breaking the bank.


----------



## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

I have 2 CB radios for SHTF purposes. Both are set up with magnetic base (car type) antennas. My range is about 10 miles at night. One thing that I need to do is to get a antenna designed for home mounting. I had a 1/2 wave antenna years ago (untill I had it laying behind one of my out buildings and my wife decided to cut it up and throw it out) and the difference in range was staggering. I was picking up CB transmissions from more then 100 miles (don't know my transmission range). On occasions I would pick up signals from further then that but I believe that those transmitting were using illegal 100 watt amplifiers.

I'm glad you brought this up because now I'm going to see if I can get a better antenna.

THANKS!:2thumb:


----------



## jsriley5 (Sep 22, 2012)

Well I"d still appreciate the info but mind has changed on several things so I have just purchased on line the manual to get me both licensed and up to speed on commo equiptment. When I first started thinking about comms it was mostly going to be a get it put it in a faraday cage and mark as open in case of Teotwaki but I think now that one I need more than just a quick start up on some radios to be able to use them best including the CB's And that perhaps getting "out there" and froming a working network will mean having more information of better quality more quickly so since I really prefer not to break the law I"ll be hetting a license and add a few waves of my own out there. And won't have to bug you all with nearly as many newb questions about basic equiptment selection. 

Now does anyone have some really good really cheap really basic start up equipt for sale??


----------



## AKPrepper (Mar 18, 2011)

jsriley5 said:


> I have two old CB's both were working when they were retired and I have no reason to beleive they don't still work. But I don't have an antenna for either of them and intend to get two antenna soon for them. I figure to use one as a home base type and the other as a mobile unit and then probably pick up a couple cb walkies. Anyway what will be the most bang for my buck I can pretty well rig my own mounting hardware so what will I need, what should I look for and what should I be sure to avoid when looking for them? MY budget isn't very high for them I"d like to come in under 100 dollars and 50 would be better of course. But I don't want to hamstring myself by getting junk either if I had to I would settle for getting one now and then try to add the other later.
> 
> If it helps one is a sears 23 and the other a midland 866 I"m not shooting for fancy just want to get all the range I can out of them without breaking the bank.


One of the best base antennae is the Antron A99. You can get it on Amazon, with or without the ground plane kit. And if you ever decide to switch to HAM radios, it'll work on the 10 meter band as well.


----------



## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

jsriley5 said:


> I"m not shooting for fancy just want to get all the range I can out of them without breaking the bank.


Oh man, look up 10 meter antenna plans. 
There are some unbelievably cheap antennas you can make from just some old wire, plastic and wood!


----------



## jsriley5 (Sep 22, 2012)

Yeah that is another thing I was kinda wondering. ONce there is no convienient electricity being steadily pumped into the house anymore and there are miles and miles of unused electric wire neatly strung way up in the air, Seems a person could pull a meter and hook up to then for an antenna, So some one with know how tell me why it wouldn't work and at what point you
d need to cut the wire to keep from being too much, and to prevent some kind of accidental surge finding it's way to you as well.


----------



## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

There are some pretty good (usable) antennae available at truck stops... but always overpriced there. Shop somewhere else for better deals.



jsriley5 said:


> So some one with know how tell me why it wouldn't work and at what point you need to cut the wire to keep from being too much,.


Power line wire is usually aluminum-clad over high tensile steel, and would be really hard to work with, honestly. I wouldn't bother.

Do a googl search for "ham radio antenna insulators" - there are many styles.

One problem with using existing power poles and wire is your antenna becomes very directional...you can't just pick up the poles and move them around. You need to look at either omni-directional designs, or have a way to turn your antenna assembly if directional.

You can spend MONTHS researching antenna designs!!! There are many way to make one! I like to use 1/4 wave "J-pole" for 2-meter.

Also download this antenna design and save it: http://www.wa5vjb.com/yagi-pdf/cheapyagi.pdf

from this article:
http://www.iw5edi.com/ham-radio/?cheap-yagi-antennas-for-vhf-uhf,93


----------



## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

OK, I cheated and googl'd "10 meter vertical antenna"

http://www.hamuniverse.com/cbantenna10meters.html

http://www.dxzone.com/dx20213/10-meter-homebrew-vertical-antenna.html

http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Antennas/10M/

http://www.arrl.org/hf-vertical

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/hamants.html

http://forums.radioreference.com/scanner-receiver-antennas/206547-vertical-antenna-10m.html


----------



## jsriley5 (Sep 22, 2012)

Thanks I"ve been to some of those sites already myself and will go back once I"ve gotten my ARRL book and done some reading and learned a thing or two I was pretty much hoping someone would "dumb it down" and give me an easy choice  I"ll for now just look at the connectors and raw material lissts and try to get and have some on hand to play with once I get my edjamacatiun up to snuff. I will be doing alot of studying as I intend to attempt to pass all three ham tests on my first trip. I feel certain I can get the first two in one shot once I read the material and take the practice tests a bunch of times, And have some hope of getting the extra by doing the same. Wish me luck!! probably be 3 to 6 before I go though so I gots plenty of time to study and listen in on my uhf/vhf sets I have on the way.


----------



## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

jsriley5 said:


> I have two old CB's both were working when they were retired and I have no reason to beleive they don't still work. But I don't have an antenna for either of them and intend to get two antenna soon for them. I figure to use one as a home base type and the other as a mobile unit and then probably pick up a couple cb walkies. Anyway what will be the most bang for my buck I can pretty well rig my own mounting hardware so what will I need, what should I look for and what should I be sure to avoid when looking for them? MY budget isn't very high for them I"d like to come in under 100 dollars and 50 would be better of course. But I don't want to hamstring myself by getting junk either if I had to I would settle for getting one now and then try to add the other later.
> 
> If it helps one is a sears 23 and the other a midland 866 I"m not shooting for fancy just want to get all the range I can out of them without breaking the bank.


There are two major types of antenna for a base-station - an indoor and an outdoor based unit. If you want to have signal inside your house without any cables running through the wall, you can place an antenna in the attic (rafters) and have decent signal. Firestick makes a good little unit for doing that (GoogleSearch: Firestick basestation antenna) ... doing so should bring up something like: http://www.walcottcb.com/firestik-iba5-indoor-cb-base-station-antenna-p-359.html

If you want an outdoor antenna that you can clip to the side of the house (or fence or ... ) for a few bux more, you could get just the antenna, then wire it and call it good ... something like: http://www.walcottcb.com/procomm-pr...adio-antenna-p-1894.html?cPath=377_28_352_419

Or, if you want to start from scratch, all new equipment, check out: http://www.walcottcb.com/cb-radio-and-antenna-system-base-combo-p-1904.html?cPath=377_28_352_419


----------



## Well_Driller (Jun 3, 2012)

AKPrepper said:


> One of the best base antennae is the Antron A99. You can get it on Amazon, with or without the ground plane kit. And if you ever decide to switch to HAM radios, it'll work on the 10 meter band as well.


I agree on the A99, I have one and it works pretty well. I use it between the scanner and the ham radio, it receives fairly well up through 40 meters. My main antenna I use though is a gamma match fed dipole antenna that I built out of left over aluminum elements from several parts of old beams we acquired. So far it's the best antenna I ever had on the base unit. Mine is a bit fancier than what most are building but you can find plans for them. A little bit of math is involved with it too. On the mobile units I like the 8ft fiberglass whip antennas. My base antennas are up on a 60ft tower and I pick up transmissions from all over the world if conditions are right.


----------



## Well_Driller (Jun 3, 2012)

jsriley5 said:


> Thanks I"ve been to some of those sites already myself and will go back once I"ve gotten my ARRL book and done some reading and learned a thing or two I was pretty much hoping someone would "dumb it down" and give me an easy choice  I"ll for now just look at the connectors and raw material lissts and try to get and have some on hand to play with once I get my edjamacatiun up to snuff. I will be doing alot of studying as I intend to attempt to pass all three ham tests on my first trip. I feel certain I can get the first two in one shot once I read the material and take the practice tests a bunch of times, And have some hope of getting the extra by doing the same. Wish me luck!! probably be 3 to 6 before I go though so I gots plenty of time to study and listen in on my uhf/vhf sets I have on the way.


You can experiment with building antennas with your cb's and you don't need a license. You will learn a lot from it, and what you learn about building the antennas will apply to other bands as well. cb band (11meters) is right next to the 10 meter bands. Do the research on it, there is a lot to learn more than we can really explain in here. Get yourself an SWR meter as it is a very useful tool when tuning the antennas.


----------



## readyprepared (Nov 18, 2013)

As to the OP, regarding CB mobile antennas that won't break the bank, look into the Wilson Little Will mag mount for $40.


----------

