Antenna for mobile CB, used as base CB

[trx680]

Not looking to spend a lot on a CB to be used as a base for home. Going to buy a decent mobile and hook it to my power supply. But as far as an antenna... not sure what will work. I could use a mobile antenna and run it on the chimney or at least the gutter if I had to.

Any ideas or suggestions?

 

[jonwienke]

That won't work. Mobile antennas have to be attached to the vehicle body to work properly. A mobile CB antenna would have to be attached to a metal box at least refrigerator-sized to work well. A base station antenna is designed to be complete on its own, and includes ground plane radials.

I could use a mobile antenna and run it on the chimney or at least the gutter if I had to.

 

[trx680]

That won't work. Mobile antennas have to be attached to the vehicle body to work properly. A mobile CB antenna would have to be attached to a metal box at least refrigerator-sized to work well. A base station antenna is designed to be complete on its own, and includes ground plane radials.

Thank you!!
Tell me more about the ground plane radial.
Does the base station antenna have to have the base touching the ground? Or could I run the cable to the chimney and secure a base station antenna to the chimney?

 

[KK2DOG]

Get yourself an Antron-99 base antenna (you don't need the radial kit) and some decent coax, even RG-8X will work fine.
Stick it on a 5' mast and strap it to your chimney and you'll be good to go.

 

[jonwienke]

Does the base station antenna have to have the base touching the ground? Or could I run the cable to the chimney and secure a base station antenna to the chimney?

A 5/8-wave ground plane antenna is about 20 feet tall, and you probably don't want to attach it to a chimney unless it is solidly built. Here's a good one:

Amazon.com: Sirio New Tornado 27 27-30 Mhz Tunable Base Antenna with 50Ft Coax Cable: Home Audio & Theater

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An antenna with ground plane radials will work significantly better than one without.

 

[Joe_Blough]

I did this back in the CB days. Used a mobile CB antenna on the roof of a house with four 1/4 wavelength pieces of stiff aluminum insulated wire as a ground plane. Had to trim the radials to the right length to get the swr down but it worked great. Just laid the radicals o the roof.

 

[W5lz]

If those gutters are metal they should work okay. Not the best in the world but it should work.

 

[jonwienke]

You'll have high swr and a weird directional signal pattern if you use a gutter as your ground plane. You'll also have to electrically bond every gutter segment in the vicinity--if they aren't connected, they aren't part on the antenna.

 

[522]

Gutters are definitely not the best option out there. Speaking from experience. It may "look" like you are all good and dandy but according to your meters ... nope.

Exactly what @jonwienke said... SWR will very likely be high, and your pattern will be piss poor.

 

[rbomba]

Try this hamstick dipole configuration used as a base set up. Uses two antennas. Do a bit of research on the set up. Works quite well. I've used something similar as a temp set up on an extendable painters pole set up in a patio table umbrella stand and it worked very well set up both horizontally as well as vertically.

Amazon.com: MFJ-347 HAMSTICK/DIPOLE Mount KIT (for Any 2 HAMSTICKS AS A Base): GPS & Navigation

Amazon.com: MFJ-347 HAMSTICK/DIPOLE Mount KIT (for Any 2 HAMSTICKS AS A Base): GPS & Navigation

www.amazon.com

Here's another site outlining someone else's project using this type of configuration -

HamStick Dipole

Building a HamStick Directional Dipole for use in a stealth mode in a HOA setting.

www.preparedham.com

Hope this helps...

 

[TailGator911]

Get yourself an Antron-99 base antenna (you don't need the radial kit) and some decent coax, even RG-8X will work fine.
Stick it on a 5' mast and strap it to your chimney and you'll be good to go.

This. I have this exact antenna on an eave mast mount just outside and above my radio room window only 15ft high, with only 10ft RG8X coax run and it works very well with my Galaxy DX-2547 base station. I am part of a Neighborhood Watch program and we do our comms on Ch 25 and I communicate full bars with all members in our subdivision with a good SWR (1.2) even without an amplifier, although I did have the radio very well peaked and tuned. I second the vote for the Antron-99!

JD
kf4anc

 

[W5lz]

You certainly don't have to use -all- the guttering around a house. Best would be gutters made the right length. But gutters longer than what's strictly necessary isn't going to make a huge difference.

 

[NC1]

You could try one of those big coil antennas, they seem to perform about the same as a 102" whip.

Here is a link that compares a hand full of models, as well as explains a bunch of things you will need to know when making a decision on any antenna - whether it be a mobile or base.

Copper Electronics, Inc. - Big Coil antennas EXPOSED!

 

[ThomasB3131]

You could also make a 1/2 wave wire dipole antenna out of 14 gauge stranded copper wire, three pieces of pvc pipe as insulators, and an SO-239 connector. There are plans on the internet for the specific lengths and instructions on how to build it. I have built this very same antenna and use it as a portable/temporary antenna and it works very well for what it is. Also you can hang this antenna up almost anywhere and it will work suprisingly well.

 

[DJ11DLN]

102" whip on a metal roof. Had very good performance with that back when I messed with CB. But obviously you would need that metal roof and need to be willing to punch a hole in it...there are plenty of good suggestions here if you don't.

 

[522]

You could also make a 1/2 wave wire dipole antenna out of 14 gauge stranded copper wire, three pieces of pvc pipe as insulators, and an SO-239 connector. There are plans on the internet for the specific lengths and instructions on how to build it. I have built this very same antenna and use it as a portable/temporary antenna and it works very well for what it is. Also you can hang this antenna up almost anywhere and it will work suprisingly well.

Been there, done that on the homemade dipole. Quite surprised with how well it worked.
Not to mention fun to build something ... but also cheap !

 

[K3DHJ]

As I understand it, most mobile antennas don’t have ground plane radials because the metal roof of the vehicle is the counterpoise. I mounted my mobile antenna in the attic above the garage. I started by putting it on a 2’ x 2’ steel plate but that wasn’t enough metal for a good counterpoise aka ground plane. SWR was too high, around 3:1. Ended up using sheet metal from Home Depot, because I just didn’t have anything else laying around. Need to have enough metal to simulate the roof of a car, 9 square feet or more, according to my research. The steel plate was approx $9, the sheet metal about $24. Later, I found a forum post and a separate YouTube video confirming that I could have used plain old aluminum foil. I suspect I could have attached magnetic base of the antenna to the steel plate, and set that in the center of an aluminum “blanket.” I’ve read posts about using a metal pizza pan or metal trash can lid, an old filing cabinet it dm old metal PC computer case. Folks claim these work but I don’t think it’s enough metal for the CB band. Might be ok for the 2 m and 70 cm HAM bands. Here’s a photo of mine, I’m getting an SWR of 1.5:1

 

[prcguy]

For this application roll out some 4ft wide chicken wire and staple it down, its cheap and makes a great ground plane. You can make an X with two 18ft long strips or just coat as much of the attic as possible and the more the better. For even better performance loose the mobile antenna, run the longest wire you can to the top of the ceiling then make a T shaped capacity hat at the top with some wire and trim to resonance. This way of loading a short antenna is less lossy than the coil loaded mobile antenna and you can probably get a 6ft or longer vertical wire in the attic which would not require that much capacity hat to resonate.

Taking KK2DOGs advice and putting up an outside A99 on the chimney will work much better.

As I understand it, most mobile antennas don’t have ground plane radials because the metal roof of the vehicle is the counterpoise. I mounted my mobile antenna in the attic above the garage. I started by putting it on a 2’ x 2’ steel plate but that wasn’t enough metal for a good counterpoise aka ground plane. SWR was too high, around 3:1. Ended up using sheet metal from Home Depot, because I just didn’t have anything else laying around. Need to have enough metal to simulate the roof of a car, 9 square feet or more, according to my research. The steel plate was approx $9, the sheet metal about $24. Later, I found a forum post and a separate YouTube video confirming that I could have used plain old aluminum foil. I suspect I could have attached magnetic base of the antenna to the steel plate, and set that in the center of an aluminum “blanket.” I’ve read posts about using a metal pizza pan or metal trash can lid, an old filing cabinet it dm old metal PC computer case. Folks claim these work but I don’t think it’s enough metal for the CB band. Might be ok for the 2 m and 70 cm HAM bands. Here’s a photo of mine, I’m getting an SWR of 1.5:1View attachment 77463

 

[TheSpaceMann]

Just build a CB ground plane out of wire!

 

[poltergeisty]

Here's the antenna for that dipole mount kit. 10 meter Ham Radio mobile ANTENNA HAMSTICK stainless, base load+whip 28mHz | eBay