Well I just use a cell phone.  LOL Just kidding.  I should check and see if my dad has any of those around still.  WHen I was a kid we all had handles and everthing.  I am not even gonna say what mine was.

Kevin  

oh c'mon now, you started it now finish it! lol  

btw cell phones are great, but...  cb's are cool!!  

where I wheel the only thing the cell phone is good for is pics!  

well maybe i'll get an invite someday  

i put my antennas where it can radiat out in a 360 deg pattern, that way its less directional,unidirectional if i may. The radiation patterns would be directional if for ex, right mirror on the pickup it would have a "shadow" of less reception where the cab is blocking the signal,anything that is in the way of the lower powered signal will make it less effective in that plane. so you would have less rx/tx in the left direction of the truck. Some antennas have a stinger,a ball ish thing on the bottom of the unit,ex,a K40,or a Wilson 5000 style, these can have extentions that would raise the unit up to and level with the cab top of your wagon.this is a good compromise to mounting the antenna where it wont be effective. this is just optimising the set up.  

wow i didnt realize there was so much that went into the set up of cb's. thanx for the tip naughty.  

here's something that I got hit over the head with yesterday in a discussion about Cb's which goes against my experience with the radio's in the trucks and vehicles, either it's a whole lot of BS or I've got it all wrong, I've even made some calls to several shops and the shop that does all my radio work that's beyond my capabilities, they say the same thing I've said all along about antenna length and even have proved the output and clarity differences, I have no valid responce to this other than just shut my mouth until find something that proves otherwise besides my word or what I apparently think I know....and my set ups work a whole lot better than most with no fooling around.........not sure why I'm even posting it, If it's true I'm dead wrong....how about it Jason, you've kept quiet about this subject and have mentioned you have a hamm...so in order to get a licence to operate it you know a few things the general public doesn't....right?


http://www.stu-offroad.com/misc/myth-1.htm  

wow! that really makes you think about how many times we have fallen for that kind of crap. thanx mud! you da man.  

right or wrong it's a convincing opinion, sure the short coax works with poor transmission and reciever sound quality (static noise) along with limited distance, even though it can score a satisfactory reading.....in my experience. I have never been called a ditto head as I get my hands dirty an am not afraid of being wrong, or to go against popular belief. prove it works as good or better, show me how, and I change my tunes.  

Hope i didnt wiz anyone off, jus going of my personal experience,in the directinality of the antennas and where i put them.i mounted one in the middle of my cab to get the best ground plane,but it whacked everything. the k40 type i mounted to the rail of my bed w/ an extension to raise it up to the level of my cab top,getting a little better reception in the forward direction,i am a bit of a tweek ,playing round with my junk,but there is always so much more to learn, so if ime wrong ,set me right! that just means i'll be that much closer to right.!  

mudb8 thats a lot to digest,the article i mean,thats why i ike radios w/ a swr meter,my 29/148 and galaxy99 ,let me optimise my standing wave ratio,all i know ,the lower the betta.  

yep, It's a lot of BS when a user can use a 18' and a 9' in the same place both with a good readings and the 18' massivly outperforms the short coax in distance and sound quality. what works on a calculator and a piece of paper doesn't always work in the field.  

i'm still debateing that all in one compact deal. just wanna clear out the space under my dash and get some heat over to the passenger side. chopper, you got one, you say i can use the coax i got now. do they have extra jacks for an external speaker and a pa speaker? just curious, because the radio i have in there now is set up that way.