Yes it is "a lot of metal whipping around". It's just a matter of how well you want your system to perform. BTW...they do make a 102" fiberglass antenna as well, at least they used to anyway as I still have one from way back when. They aren't near as heavy as the stainless, but there again they won't work quite as well as the stainless either.

 

BTW......the "old" Wilson 1000, when it came out was almost as good as the 102" ss whip.....we did a lot of comparing. I "heard" that Wilson changed hands some time ago and is not as good quality as they used to be. Again, this is what I "heard".

 

I might add, if you're running with a stainless steel 102", like I am; a heavy duty spring and tennis ball is required/recommended along with a study mount.

As for the actual antenna; like AK4Dave mentioned, bigger is better. If you think of the antenna as a fishing net, the bigger the net the more fish you'll catch. In the case of the antenna, more metal exposed means more signal being received.

The smaller antennas use electrical tricks so the radio can still work with it. Even the 102" plus a spring is only 1/4 of the wavelength required on CB. If the antenna could be bigger still, the performance would be better.

But this is where usability comes into play. I can hardly drive around town as it is, let alone with something bigger. Drive-throughs and underground parking are out for me. That's where the smaller antennas are useful.

It's a trade off. If you just need an antenna to talk to your buddies on the trail for when you get stuck, then get a smaller antenna. If you want all out performance, go large.

And above all, have fun!

 

And those "tricks" as you say, unless they are of VERY high quality, (Hi Q) are known to be quite lossy...

 

i mounted my 102 to the back side of my plate bracket it was easy i allso added a backing plate inside of the bracket .

then cliped it to gutter on my hard top and made a canves strap with velcro to holed it with top off to roll bar

 

Can you post some pics?

 

CB is on 27odd MHZ, depending on channel. This frequency is 11 meters in actual physical wavelength. 102" is optimal for 11meters because it's 1/4 wavelength. Radio signals have physical characteristics, and this length is phsyically appealing. There's more to it but that's the straight up easily understood. Here's the math;


234 divided by 27 = 8.6~ and 102" is 8.5 feet.

Antenna manufacturers will do funny tricks to electrically lengthen short antennas, like coils/windings/traps, etc.
I wheel with a 30" stubby because I live in a city so i need to garage it, but I have a good mount that's out of the damage line and who says I can't have more than one antenna? To be honest the 30" stubby is fine for short range.

http://www.radiomods.co.nz/radiomath.html