Cb antenna location

[Louie559]

hey all! so i have question, i have a cb antenna it’s about very little higher then my roof, i want to put it on my hood, my question is that going to work well or would i need a longer antenna?

 

[RoarinRow]

hey all! so i have question, i have a cb antenna it’s about very little higher then my roof, i want to put it on my hood, my question is that going to work well or would i need a longer antenna?

I have a hood channel mount and gets a very good SWR reading.

 

[NSAdv]

hey all! so i have question, i have a cb antenna it’s about very little higher then my roof, i want to put it on my hood, my question is that going to work well or would i need a longer antenna?

My father had an old set of dual-phase antennas attached to his side mirrors and they worked fine. No issues what so ever

 

[BluegrassOverlander]

The best thing to do is try it out in that location a number of times. Change or upgrade only if you start feeling it would improve things.

 

[Louie559]

sounds good thanks yall for the comments, ill check it out and see what happens appreciate it

 

[Louie559]

@RoarinRow thats where i was thinking of putting mine as well, somewhere in that general area

 

[RoarinRow]

@RoarinRow thats where i was thinking of putting mine as well, somewhere in that general area

Got it from Amazon called a hood/trunk channel mount.

 

[El-Dracho]

The best thing to do is try it out in that location a number of times. Change or upgrade only if you start feeling it would improve things.

Agree. Would try the intended location first before upgrading. Have my CB antenna near the a pillar, the SWR reading is not very good but ok. This is caused by the nearby rollcage and snorkel. So it really depends on the rig and other mods.

 

[OverlandZJ]

I have a hood channel mount and gets a very good SWR reading.

View attachment 165239

I'm using the same mount and firering coax with steel whip antenna.. works well.

 

[Louie559]

thank you all for the help, i’ll post a picture as soon as i find the right spot. appreciate you all thank you

 

[M Rose]

I’m going to jump in here... just because you have great SWR readings doesn’t mean your signal is coming in (or going out) very well. The hood is a poor location when trying to reach someone behind you because your vehicle acts as a reflector and reflects the signal to the front of you... the same happens in reverse when mounted on the rear bumper and the antenna doesn’t clear the roof line... the best place for a CB antenna is on the center of the roof, or if running a full 1/4 wave antenna then where at least half the antenna is above the roof line.

 

[El-Dracho]

Form my experiences it is always a kind of trade of with the mounting psition. Form a technical point of view of course it is a very good position to have the antenna in the middle of the roof. But this is for my purposes a no go as the rig is already 2.3m high and more is not feasible while overlanding (low archways in nice old-towns, overhead lines, trees and so on), in the middle of a desert of course no problem.

 

[Prerunner1982]

Front fender mount should work fine, not great but decent.
I would suggest running some braided ground straps from the hood to the body if your vehicle does not currently have any. This can help with RFI and it adds the hood to the overall ground plane.

 

[Prerunner1982]

I run my CB antenna on a fender mount as well, mainly due to the fact the roof is occupied and it's the least of the comms so I wasn't as concerned about it.
SWR is somewhere around 1.0-1.1 and it works fine for what it is.

 

[OverlandZJ]

I only use the CB for running in a group, not trying to communicate beyond line of sight typically. Honestly, i probably would not have one these days if not for the weather channel.

 

[Dlnuckolls]

I used the Teraflex hinge mount on my Wrangler with a 5’ firestik antenna and get a 1.0-1.1 SWR and can talk about 3 miles. So that seems like a decent location.

 

[persquank]

hey all! so i have question, i have a cb antenna it’s about very little higher then my roof, i want to put it on my hood, my question is that going to work well or would i need a longer antenna?

I have a 2' CB antenna attached to a ditch light bracket above my fender. It is roughly the same height as my cars radio antenna which means it will fit in my garage. But I swap it out for a longer 4' one if I'm going on an adventure.

I only use the CB for running in a group, not trying to communicate beyond line of sight typically. Honestly, i probably would not have one these days if not for the weather channel.

If I'm highway driving, I'll leave the CB on scan mode just in case there's any chatter about traffic incidents.