[pknowles]

I want to get a CB antenna for my trip to Nationals this year. Right now I have a hand held CB with a 6" antenna mounted on the CB. I'm going to keep the hand held because from what I have read there is little performance difference between a hand held and a professional radio, other then tunability. The performance is in the antenna. I'm thinking about getting a magnetic mounted antenna that I can put on the roof of the truck.

Questions:
1. What have you guys used and what to you recommend?
2. I know a longer antenna should perform better then a short one for CB freqancies, but how tall can I go? My truck roof is about 6 feet 2" high off the ground.

I'm willing to spend $50 if I can get something good. If it makes a big difference in performance I can go a little more.

[John_D.]

Both of my handhelds came with short magnetic mount antennas. (couple of feet tall)

Putting it on the roof gives it a good flat metal bottom (ground plane) that's needed for a good signal, so you're way ahead right there. Also with it on top of the truck, it's higher than most of the near obstructions, so you're good there too. Definitely won't need a big whip antenna up there... (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Beyond that, you could always get a swr meter and tune the length, but unless you're going for distance records, that's probably overkill.