The CB Radios Channel

Professional truck drivers are the group that likely makes the most consistent use of CB radios.  A necessary piece of equipment for every driver, the CB acts as a source of highway communication as well as provides crucial weather and road updates.

Large trucks tend to use center and top loaded CB antennas almost exclusively.  Top loaded fiberglass antennas are the simpler and cheaper antenna.  However, they aren’t well suited for high-wattage applications.  In these instances, a center loaded antenna would be a better choice.   Performance will vary based on a number of factors, but in most instances a quality center-loaded antenna, such as the Wilson 2000 CB antenna, will outperform similar fiberglass antennas.

Nearly all truck antennas are mounted on the rear-view mirrors in a co-phased (i.e. dual antenna) installation.  It’s best if the antenna coil is above the roof of the cab, but this is not always possible.  Co-phased antennas improve the antennas performance, generally in a direction parallel to the road.  For best performance, it’s important to have the antennas separated by at least 8-9 feet, which shouldn’t be an issue for most large trucks.  The antennas should be mounted as high and as far out on the mirror arms as possible to maximize their distance from each other, as well as their vertical height.

Many trucks come with pre-wired CB cabling already installed in the vehicle.  While extremely convenient, the cable used is often of poor quality and contains little RF shielding.  If you’re experiencing significant interference or electrical noise using factory installed CB coax, you should strongly consider replacing the stock coax cable with high quality shielded CB coax for Belden, Firestik or another reputable brand.

We’ve assembled a number of CB antenna and radio kits to meet the needs of professional drivers.  All kits include quality CB components to ensure years or strong performance and care free maintenance.   If you’re in need of a new CB radio or antenna for your truck, make sure to check out our custom CB Radio Semi Truck Packages.