CB and Antenna

A CB radio is a practical tool when off-road. To be clear, a CB radio is not for emergencies. When you are 'out there' with no cell phone reception, you will not get help through a call on the CB radio. The range is a few kilometers at best. It depends very much on the equipment and terrain. It is important that you have a reliable device to call for help. The SPOT X is one of them.
The CB radio is a great tool to communicate within a group of off-roaders. We have somewhat different needs. Up to now, we had to yell instructions through the forest between the driver, my wife, and the cameraman, me. Now it is time to fix this dilemma with a 2nd CB radio.

Several years ago, we bought the Midland 75-822 CB radio. It is compact when used in the Jeep and fully mobile with the battery pack attached. For us to communicate, we need a second, small and cheap CB radio permanently mounted in the Jeep. We had the Midland CB radio connected to the car power and the antenna cable extended to the spare tire. We got the Jeep JK mounting bracket and it worked well for many years. The Wilson FLEX-4 antenna did the job. This is a 4 foot antenna extending almost 2 feet above the Jeep. We keep the Jeep in the garage during the winter months with the antenna bent down most of the time. And here is where the story starts.

The antenna broke
The Wilson FLEX broke after relocating the antenna to the newly installed Tailgate Platform. No big surprise, the bent antenna is exposed to -20 in winter and the full heat in summer. The fiberglass core broke just above the socket. The antenna is about $40 and considered a wear and tear item. The stud and cable are still ok.
Before we go any further, we have a few antenna basics to explain the relocation. The Wilson FLEX or the Firestik, another popular antenna for Jeeps, have a fibreglass core and a wire spiraling around the core in a very specific arrangement. This is the receiver/transmitter wire. The antenna has to be grounded to the Jeep chassis. The ground cable is isolated from the antenna cable and they should never touch during operation. If they do, your reception will be really, really bad. To prevent this from happening, the stud has an isolated core where the antenna connects, and the Wilson FLEX has a black ground cable to the Jeep chassis. More about the stud later.

New CB radio
The broken antenna, the new spare tire platform, the overhead panel and the need of a second CB radio were plenty of reasons to get a cheap CB. We got the Uniden PRO505XL for less than $60 at Radioworld. The same place we got the Midland CB radio from. The Uniden PRO505XL is a bare-bones radio. It has the 40 channels and you can communicate. Exactly what we were looking for. The reception is ok within the confine of the CB specifications. If you don't have line of sight, you won't get a radio signal. You may stand around a bend only 100 meters away and you don't get reception. But if you are on the other side of a valley 2 km away, it is open air and line of sight. Our new setup mostly worked, unless one of us was hiding behind a bend.

Antenna principles
The longer an antenna, the better the reception.
The higher up the antenna, the better the reception.
The quality is also an issue, but considering the application (off-road), the choice is small.
The antenna needs a metal surface to bounce the radio waves.

A popular mounting point is the spare tire bracket. In this setup, the Jeep roof is about 30 inches above the socket and only 18 inches of our 4 foot antenna extend above the Jeep. This is not a great placement. A longer antenna would improve reception.

This is the reason we moved the antenna to the Tailgate Platform above the spare tire. Now the antenna mount is 12 inches below the roof and 36 inches extend above the Jeep. We have a roof cargo platform, this would be a better place to mount the antenna, but the antenna cable is not in place and the platform is not properly grounded.
The roof platform and the Tailgate Platform are not permanently installed. When we remove them, the antenna will be back on the spare tire bracket. The antenna cable is long enough.

Another option is a metal tube mounted on the bumper, with the CB antenna on top extending as much as you like above the Jeep roof. We often noticed them with a cell phone booster.
The CB antenna could be mounted in the front of the Jeep, but this is not our preference. It casts a shadow from the off-road lights and may interfere with the limb lifter. On top of that, the wiggling rod is a distraction and looks bad in pictures and videos.

Antenna parts
To connect the CB radio with the antenna, you need a cable and brackets to mount the antenna. When you explain your vendor what you need, they will help you with the parts. We went to Radioworld in Toronto for our CB radio equipment, the Garmin camera and GPS as well. They are very knowledgeable and well equipped.
The picture shows the parts needed for the setup. It is important that the Stud is correctly isolated from the chassis with the nylon washer. Our stud has a brassy core and a chrome mantle. The brassy core transmits the antenna signal, the chrome mantle is the ground. As we mentioned above, they should never connect. The nut tightens the stud to the frame. Make sure this part never touches the chassis. We will use a spring in place of the nut to give the antenna more flex in winter. We hope to prolong the life of the antenna.

Ready to go
Once you connected all the pieces, you are ready to go. The CB radio will work and you can talk with your off-road buddies. The system is likely not tuned to its optimal setting, but it won't be a critical issue and carry the signal within the convoy. Talk to Radioworld to get the equipment installed and tuned for optimal performance. It is a fine balance between mounting point, length of antenna and tuning.

CB Channels and lingo
When you go with a group, agree on the channel before you start. Channel 4 seems to be a popular choice for off-roading. You may collide with another group on that channel.
Don't use the following channels:
Channel 9, it is for emergencies.
Channel 10, 17, 19, 21 are often used by truckers.
Channel 13 and 14 are for marine/RVers.

That leaves all the other channels. You will find a free one. If you have a scan feature in your CB, let it scan when you're on the highway. You will likely hear about an accident ahead of time. The truckers communicate the location and possible detours in real-time. Unless you have pertinent information about the accident or detour, don't reply. If I remember correctly, most of the chatter here in Ontario was on channel 30.

The etiquette on CB is not cast in stone. There is a lot of history with the terms.
I had to read the communication study guide for my Canadian Drone Pilot Certificate. Section 8 of the requirements is about Radiotelephony. The aeronautical radio terminology makes sense. It is short and clear. When you call anybody out there, you would say:
ALL STATIONS, ALL STATIONS, ALL STATIONS
THIS IS
JEEP BLACK
Meaning: First you address the other party(ies). If you know their name or call sign, you would say JEEP HELVETIA
THIS IS
Your name, starting with the vehicle make or model and a short identification. Ours is black so JEEP BLACK is a good handle.
Then you broadcast the message like I HAVE 50 TIMBITS TO SHARE
followed by OUT
You have the choice of OUT (no response is expected) or OVER (expect a response). When you go with a group, feel free to ask for the lingo and make sure you really have 50 Timbits left.

We will use the CB to send instructions between the camera and the driver. It will be informal after the first message to see if the channel is available. That would be something like this:
ALL STATIONS
THIS IS
JEEP BLACK
ANYBODY LISTENING ON CHANNEL 26 (or TWO SIX)
OVER
If there is no response, then that is where we'll talk. If there is a response, the message would be
ALL STATIONS
THIS IS
JEEP BLACK
THANK YOU, CHANGING CHANNEL TO 34 (or THREE FOUR)
OUT
There may be a CB jargon for this, but this version will do just fine. When we searched for instructions, there is too much info out there.
When you get rude replies, don't answer. Don't take sides when others have an argument. We spent over 7 hours on Hwy 11 with nothing to do except listening to the CB chatter. Well, if you have kids in the Jeep, bad idea.
One more thing, once the official handle JEEP BLACK was used and understood, the short version BLACK may be used. In aeronautics, they use the airplane model followed by the markings. In followup conversations they abbreviate the name to the unique part of the call sign.

What is your call sign?
If your Jeep has a name, that's the one.
You may prefer your website or YouTube channel name. Abbreviate a long name and use the Phonetic Alphabet. Our website is STDI COM and so is the license plate. But the call sign SIERRA TANGO DELTA INDIA sounds more dramatic

The SWR meter (Geek chapter)
The standing wave ratio (SWR) meter can optimise the antenna settings. If you don't know what we're talking about, just ignore this paragraph. The Wilson and Firestik have a 'Tunable-Tip'. You can find the best setting with the SWR meter. The improvement is minimal. More important, the SWR meter will tell you if there is a problem with the equipment. A Ohm meter may give you the same answer. So don't run out and buy a SWR meter, spend the money to have it installed or tuned.