Do I need an antenna for my CB radio to get reception?
by David Harvey VK2DMH on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 | 2 Comments
A newbie CBer has asked this question, he said:
Do I need an antenna for my CB radio to be able to get some radio reception on the CB band? Also, can I get any CB radio reception if I keep my antenna inside the car?
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Yes, you need an antenna.
If you leave the antenna inside the car, the transmit and receive capabilities will be greatly reduced, but it will work.
Mounting the antenna outside on the metal body shapes the radio wave form during transmit, but does essentially nothing for reception.
I ran my antenna inside my trunk for awhile, and while the SWR was 2.5:1, I could hear truckers from about 1 mile away.
Forget transmitting on an antenna that is inside your car. The previous commenter, Vic J, may have gotten away with it but he was just lucky that he didn’t burn his CB radio’s finals (the transmitter circuit’s power output transistors). That would have been an expensive repair.
Receiving, and I mean only receiving, on a bad antenna is not dangerous, however you may not hear very much. The metal body of your car will shield (block out) many of the available signals. If you want to do this anyway, then I suggest you disconnect your CB’s microphone; it will prevent you from accidentally pressing the transmit switch on the side of the microphone.
Most mobile 2-way radio antennas actually rely on the car body to act as a counterpoise (or ground plane). This becomes the ‘other half’ of your antenna system. So if half your antenna is in the wrong place or disconnected or both, you won’t get good results when you try to use your CB radio.
There are times when police or other agencies may want hidden antennas in their vehicles. Some years ago here in Australia, before cellphones were in common use, the Sydney C.I.B. (state police Criminal Investigation Branch – the old 21-Division) used to have their small UHF antennas inside the back window of their unmarked cars. The antennas were mounted in the boot/trunk of the cars, and stuck up through the parcel shelf underneath the back window and under the glass… not outside. The radios worked fine at reaching the radio repeaters throughout the city. The antennas were never noticed by ordinary folk who weren’t into radios.
But as for you and your question; I reckon you’ll be better off buying yourself a real CB antenna, even just a magnetic mount type two-way radio antenna. Then you can always transmit as well if you decide you want to.