What is the best mobile antenna for a base station?

[BrownCow101]

My hands are tied on this one. I have a mobile CB used as a base station in my dad’s shed. The problem is I’m stuck with magnet mount antennas on his metal roof because no holes are allowed to be drilled in the shed. There is a hole already near the roof roughly 15 feet up. It was just big enough to route a mobile antenna I had lying around. It’s not the worst but, far from the best. I’m not allowed to have them nice big base antennas in the yard either sadly.

 

[prcguy]

9ft whip. Most mag mounts are too small to effectively couple to the metal beneath at CB frequencies and if you can get to a ground connection in the mount and hard wire that to the metal roof or increase the surface area of the mag mount it will improve things.

I did some testing years ago comparing an HF whip on a permanent grounded mount and a mag mount and found the mag mount at the same location as the permanent mount degraded performance. I got an 8x11” sheet of thin refrigerator magnet material then coated one side with copper foil then made a very short ground strap to the mag mount and the additional capacitive coupling brought the mag mount up to permanent mount performance.

 

[slowmover]

Was this it?

 

[K4CUZ]

Was this it?

View attachment 155278

Thats perfect for the metal roof, and a 108" whip. An antenna tuner may help as well.

 

[Aircargo]

had a mag mount on roof for months for scanner...tram. was pretty good. got a rooftop now tram maybe 14ft higher then mag mount was on roof on a pole.....

 

[BrownCow101]

Sorry for not replying for awhile. I’ve been pretty busy lately. I probably just aquired a 30 foot tv tower. Is an Antron or Solarcon still a good antenna to make a base station? If I get the tower I’ll be in full swing setting stuff up.