The Rainman

Hi guys,

Need some advice as to a decent CB Antenna for my 2014 C7 Convertible. I did a forum search which gave me a ton of posts, but none that I could find that were actually about CB Antennas. I lead a lot of club drives and our standard GMRS pocket sized radios just aren't reaching to the back of the line. I've already tried and rejected the BTech GMRS Pro and so now, we're looking at CB's. I've got a couple of different radios....just looking for a decent antenna setup. I found this - but from the sound of it, they're no longer available. https://www.c6performance.net/catalo...-p-504867.html

I'm interested in seeing what ya'll know about the best way to hook up a good antenna that can be removed without a big hassle.

Thanks in advance

ZO6LIFE

Why not use your phones on conference call mode?

BWF07

I did not know people (besides truckers) were still using CB's. when we have a group of Corvettes, we simple use the cell phones.

The Rainman

Must be nice to be able to cruise areas of the country that have complete cell coverage. The North Georgia mountains where we go to play is not one of those areas - hence the radios. Does anyone have any actual information on CB antennas?

GS583

You might contact Walcott Radio. They are a premier CB shop that has seen it all after many years of business in the field. Truckers rely on them and they are extremely knowledgeable.
walcottradio.com.
They hooked me up with a proper antenna and a mount. I had to do a bit of adapting but pretty minor as it was a somewhat universal type mount. I'm pretty sure they can help you out.

The Rainman

Thanks for the tip - I'll definitely check them out. I appreciate the info.

calvins

The main problem you'll probably face is that the antenna's work on the premise of having a good ground plane and our cars are fiberglass, as you're well aware of. You can find "loaded" antennae but I've no idea how you'd mount it to the Vette. GL The other option, if you travel as a group, would be hand held FRS radios. They're only legal to two watts so the range would be very limited, especially in the mountains.

The Rainman

Yep...that's EXACTLY why we're trying out CB's - the handheld FRS/GMRS radios suck. They sound great when I'm talking to the car right behind me, but when I'm trying to reach the cars who are say - 10th in line, we start loosing communication. Supposedly one of the forum members - @KenHorse has a great solution for the CB antenna mount. I'm just trying to get more information on how to obtain one of these. I think it mounts to the license plate. He mentioned in an old thread from 2018 (now locked for some unknown reason) that one of their local club members is making these. Hopefully, that's still the case and I can get more information from him. He's got PM's turned off so I can't ask him directly. If anyone knows Ken, please ask him to reach out to me. I'd like to at least pick his brain about this. Thanks.

The Rainman

Myself and another member actually just did send back our B-Tech (Baofeng) "GMRS-PRO" radios that we bought to try out. Supposedly transmitting at 5 watts and with a ton of other features like Bluetooth wireless headsets - I thought this would be a great solution. Unfortunately, it was just a day of complete frustration. The range boost was only an extra 1/4 mile at BEST over our little Midland radios and the Bluetooth only worked about 1/2 the time. Very disappointing results. We just boxed them up and sent them back to Amazon.

westsdad

Firestick (brand name) antennas are probably the best for a Corvette as they are used a lot with fiberglass RV's that also lack a ground plane. The problem will be with mounting and getting the antenna above the rear of the car. Weight and length of the antenna (due to not needing a ground plane vehicle) plays into needing a sturdy mount.

The RV's will typically use a side mount that requires drilling two holes, so that option is out.

Here's a good mount that could be adapted for use on a custom license plate bracket if you can get one made:
https://www.rightchannelradios.com/p...b-mirror-mount

An option could be this 5W GMRS radio (in pre-order for a May release) that was tested in the Rockies and touts a 2 to 8 mile range in the mountains. GMRS licenses would be required. GMRS can use a repeater if available and can also use an external antenna.
https://rockytalkie.com/products/5-watt-radio

A good explanation of 2W FRS and 5W GMRS vs terrain:


Relaying front to back and back to front could extend the distance for FRS / GMRS / CB but would require some discipline/cooperation from your cluster of vehicles.

Another option, but very expensive, would be to use satellite phones (like Iridium).

The Rainman

Hey...thanks for the info. Yep, I already like Firestick's as I've got a couple different ones I use for the Jeep. They're great antennas and I love that tunable top. I'd pretty well already decided that I'd use one of those when I figure out how to get a plate mount made. I think that's probably going to be the best way to mount something that's not going to damage the car.

My club already uses the cheap FRS/GMRS radios that work - ok - for short distances. I recently tested some Baofeng (B-Tech) 5 watt GMRS radios that were HIGHLY disappointing. Aside from poor sound quality, the features they advertised barely worked sometimes and the range was maybe 1/4 mile better than the Midland's we had been using. We've been playing around with ideas that will work in our area and CB's usually have decent sound quality and reasonable reach. Hence why we're wanting to test this out. Relaying front to back is frustrating and dependent on too many variables.

Ha...satellite phones....yeah, that MIGHT work, but we drive Corvettes, not Ferrari's. I don't have that kind of money.

So, if the CB option doesn't work out all that well - we're also looking at this: https://rapidradios.com/products/rap...-walkie-talkie
It runs off the cell networks - apparently ALL of them. I've got AT&T and don't have service a lot of time in the mountains, but apparently these things operate off of any cell carrier - from what I gather - much like the old Nextel's did. You can set up a group of up to 200 people. I'm intrigued, but after the first year, it's a yearly cost of $50 per radio which is bound to go up at some point.

I am hopeful that this CB radio scenario will fill our needs and we can just go that route.

Gearhead Jim

For our first 15 years in the local Corvette club, we used a hardmounted CB with a L-shaped bracket that is held in place by the rear license plate and a Firestik antenna about 18" tall.
That worked fairly well, highway range about 1/2 mile in "average" conditions. Somewhat directional, range to the rear was moderately greater than to the front.

About 5 years ago our club switched to GMRS.
I've been using a Midland hand-held for that. It's range is about equal to the CB with a hardmounted antenna.

With either system, range is tremendously effected by local conditions (direction, cars, terrain, etc) and antenna choice- longer is better, higher is better. If comparing range of different systems, you need to keep everything else constant.
I'm not really satisfied with the GMRS handheld, some day I'll switch to a hardmounted GMRS with a good hardmounted antenna. One member of our club had a similar system mounted on the wing of his C7 ZR1, his range was outstanding but it was expensive, ugly, and took a lot of effort to install.

Best of luck to you.

fuzzy03cls

I have these. With extended antenna's. I get 5 mile ranges. Although FL is flat.

eboggs_jkvl

Wanna go over board? 5W, 10W or 40W?

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...post1589862556


Elmer

C5FORFUN2

Could probably make antenna mount that goes in the tow hook receiver.

Lux

https://www.ruggedradios.com/

https://www.pciraceradios.com/

These are the radios used in the Baja 1000. Either one can get you set up with radios to reach the back of your club cruise.