CB Antennea

[85_Ranger4x4]

Back when I got it years ago my K40 was supposed to be pretty good. I guess I have whapped it on enough stuff the tip is coming apart, anything better out there now around 4' in length?

 

[Dirtman]

The Wilson 1000 is 5 foot and for me gets the best range of anything short of a full 102" whip.

 

[4x4junkie]

×2, the Wilson 1000 is a good equivalent, with a bit better power handling capability than the K40 (has a lower loss coil). However it seems to have become exceedingly expensive over the years, and IMO is no longer a good value.

5' is about the minimum length you need on a 27MHz CB antenna to not have your output performance drop into the crapper.
My personal recommendation for a shorter-than-102-inch CB antenna is the Francis Hot-Rod CB-26 antenna. It's a 66" tall fiberglass antenna with a standard 3/8-24 threaded mount (so will require a separate magnetic-mount purchase if that's what you want). It's output is actually very slightly better than the Wilson in range tests I did many many years ago, but it still fell a little short of a 102" whip (no pun intended).

 

[Bill]

I think the helically-wound 4 and 5 foot antennas work better than the antennas with coils on the bottom. Both have loading coil losses, but the helically-wound antenna can be an electrical quarter wavelength while being physically shorter than a quarter wavelength, or so I've read. There is still some loss of efficiency from being shorter than the physical quarter wavelength, but you aren't going to notice that much of a difference day to day. The antennas with loading coils on the bottom have losses within the coil in addition to being physically short.

I think the antenna I was using was K40 helically-wound antenna similar to the Francis mentioned. It worked very well for me. I still have it buried in the Garage somewhere.