Did you not cover this in the study for the licence? CB is CB, broadcast is broadcast, and the other bands again are different in terms of length. I just n' understand why you are asking such basic questions - really sorry, but something here doesn't add up at all?
Presumably you know about the relationship between the resonant frequency of an antenna and it's length? 30 odd inches and a spring base - which could be a coil and being used for matching, or could just be a spring? We don't know, but you should. 30 odd inches suggests 70MHz or so - which makes little sense, so it could be a CB band antenna with base loading. You need to decide what you want it to do - work as a proper antenna on VHF or UHF on your handheld? It will be too long to match. If it resonates at 27MHz, it will be just a bit of wire in the sky for the scanner - so it will work, to a degree. If you want to use it for transmitting then you NEED a VSWR meter. They are not expensive, and frankly, as a ham, you're always chasing output power, so you clearly need one.
I just can't work out how you don't know this stuff - I assume you are in the US, because here in the UK, our most lowly licence class requires this kind of level of knowledge, and I assumed the US system would be the same.
So will it work? Yes. Well? No! Will it damage the portable radio if you transmit? Probably not, most are well protected agains mismatched antennas with too much return power, but there are no guarantees.
If you have a transmitter, then a basic VSWR meter, and the ability to use it is pretty vital stuff in the ham world, I'd have thought!