Make CB base antenna from mobile antenna

February 6, 1995

Especially for cottages a cheap CB base station antenna that won’t be tempting to steal is appealing. This implies a simple mobile antenna repurposed for base station use. Be sure the antenna is well away from power lines.

A mobile antenna near the roof peak using half a mirror mount can screw into the metal eaves for groundplane. Height above average terrain is the most important factor in CB base station range. Depending on favorable terrain, base-base comms range on CB is over 30 miles, legally. With beam antennas and rule bending base-base CB range can be over 50 miles in quiet conditions.

A mobile antenna on the roof will blow over and perform poorly without a magnetic surface to attach to. Instead, take a mirror mount with lags drilled into the eaves with a 102" whip. This setup provides better than 1.2:1 SWR across the 40 CB channels and isn’t terribly conspicuous as to “hey there’s expensive CB stuff inside!”

A cottage CB radio gives a heads up when a group is coming back from town or an adventure at one of the lakes–we should get a good 30 minutes’ driving time range base-mobile assuming SSB CB radio. This gives some peace of mind in case of a breakdown–not that anyone listens to channel 9, but that home base or another base station can be reached on the local channel.