Welcome.
Is this to be a toy with which a mile or so of RX/TX under best conditions would meet the goal?
One can dick around a long time in avoiding
what works . . and wind up spending more money to have received less.
Successful models (examples) are available. Templates to follow.
This makes best expenditure of money & time without mistakes.
I just want a radio (is where most of us have started; but it isn’t
quite plug & play).
Nothing else matters much past antenna height and mount location. The details in these two are contributors where “basically good” becomes “outstanding”.
— The coax choice & routing/protection is part of that.
— Clean 12VDC/protection is easiest to achieve as a system. Fused POS to BATT, and a NEG ground to chassis as close to radio as possible.
As a truck driver running 10k miles/month I can assure you that
it just doesn’t happen that I can converse with private vehicles at significant distances, on average (2+ miles; usually up to 1-mile), unless said vehicle has optimized the antenna system.
That means the large ground plane of the roof.
A permanent NMO style (research, we bring it up constantly) is all-around winner for performance & longevity with the bonus of being low-key in appearance.
This mount system is what’s used for Fire, Police, EMT, etc.
To get by in the meantime (don’t expect too much) would be a
Mag Mount
Be aware you need an antenna with a minimum of 5’ length to be “competitive”. (Can hear, and get heard, in the majority of circumstances).
With this mag mount addition to what you’ve already spent you’d have been most of the way in expense towards an NMO antenna system.
Actual radio rig performance.
A 64” whip on a NMO-34b is how I’d do it.
Add a rain cap cover to the mount when you’ve stowed the antenna away.
There are more details for those wanting
high performance, but the above was the crucial set of decisions.
This thread link will acquaint you with what the majority experience.
The blame falls on “no one uses it”, when that’s simply not true. There’s context (links within my posts), and there’s having installed
a radio rig that gets the job done.
I have to run down there in next week and was wondering if it was worth throwing up the antenna to pass the time. Not sure if there's any traffic except for the guys blowing out the channels from 3 states away.
forums.radioreference.com
The overwhelming number of users 40-50 years back gave an erroneous impression of what was necessary to get a good rig. Yes, it was easier in some regards — and background noise was lower —
but the basics haven’t changed.
The complaints made in that thread are representative of many thousands of other posts or opinions across the Net and over the past 25-years.
Not accurate.
Gear + Install matter most. “Context” is second, and easily confusing to the great majority. Context is two-part given truck driver use, then the difficulties encountered with atmospheric
Skip currently at play. To the best of my knowledge no one else has covered these two in this depth (why I wrote what I did).
Citizen Band is today for the few, yes.
But those you’ll encounter having yourself installed a HQ radio rig will meet what prompted the desire in the first place.
My health & wealth are affected by my intelligent use of this radio service. The expense of my radio rig is returned to me several times annually.
That’s before the pleasure of company while traveling alone.
You’ve arrived at the right time. Radios with integrated NRC have revolutionized what’s possible
at low expense.
Antenna plan is first.
Power is second
Radio is last.
.
