Hey Guys and Gals!

I was wondering, I have noticed that a lot of people with JK's seem to favor the Firestik antenna for their rigs, but I see older TJ/YJ/CJ guys local to me that are running big antennas, like 7-8'.

From some of my searching, I see that people have referred to them, but I was wondering if anyone was running one? I imagine you would have to bend it down to the side or over the front when your trail riding, but the rest of the time it wouldn't be a huge deal...

So lets see some big antennas, and the pros / cons of running one with your CB in your Jeep...

 

Are those antennas that the CJ/YJ guys are running just straight stainless steel whips? That's been the "classic" CB antenna for quite some time. It works very well if you tune it properly, ground it properly, and mount it properly. It's also very resistant to trail damage if you mount it on a spring.

The problem is that properly mounting one of those antennas will probably entail drilling a good sized hole in your Jeep's body to put a ball mount on. Also, those big whips tend to "whip" around on the trail when you're going through brush or over obstacles. It can be hazardous for bystanders.

WeGo4X4 is quite correct about the "load" concept...except that the load on a 1/4 wave CB whip is spread evenly along the entire antenna because it's not wound anywhere.

I run a 4 foot Wilson "flex" CB antenna and have been very happy with it's performance. It will probably never equal a big 1/4 wave stainless steel whip, but it works just fine out to a mile or two (enough for most trail groups), and doesn't try to poke out the eyes of the people standing next to my rig.

If you feel that you're going to need to reach out more than 2 miles or so on a regular basis, also look at HAM radio. It will give you a lot more range than CB can.

 

On my CJ I ran the 108" stainless whip. The looks kind of went with that vehicle. Currently I run a 3' Firestik II on the Teraflex mount. It looks good on the JK's. It only sticks up above the roof about a foot and gets good reception. Granted, it's not as good as the whip on the CJ was but it still picks up CB's a few miles away. I had a 4' Firestik first but it was too tall for my liking. I kept hitting things like trees, drive thru signs, parking garages, etc. so I switched. I honestly can't tell the difference in reception between the 3 and 4 foot antennas. The SWR is nearly the same as well.

Whichever way you go, make sure to tune it or you will be buying a new CB soon!