2 Way radio...want to add an external antenna?

Question

I WOULD LIKE TO ADD AN EXTERNAL ANTENNA TO 1 OF MY COBRA 2-WAY RADIOS AND HAVE TRIED DIFFERENT THINGS BUT NONE WORK GOOD....ANY IDEAS ON WHAT I CAN MAKE OR BUY THAT WILL DO A GOOD JOB...I HAVE GOOD RADIOS BUT THEY DO NOT TRANSMIT/RECEIVE THRU TRAILERS VERY WELL

Answer 1

What kind of Cobra 2-way radios are they? If they are FRS, stop right there. External antennas on FRS radios are illegal; thats why none have antenna connectors on them. There were some made that the radio was built into the base of a magnet mount and the controls were operated remotely but of course that would require replacing your radios ;-) You could also consider buying MURS radios which are license free and permit external antennas.

If you are talking about Cobra 2-way CB radios, make sure you use a properly tuned CB antenna. It should be checked for SWR to make sure your signal is going out and not being reflected back into the radio which among poor output you also have to worry about ruining your radio as well! A mobile antenna will work good outside as long as it is placed on a metal surface that can be used as a ground plane. The more metal and the closer to the centre of it you can get the better. If you make a true earth ground to it, even better. If you can, put up a nice CB vertical and get it up as high as you can. This will increase your range tremendously. The best you could do would be a beam, such as a cubicle quad or a yagi but you'd have to have a tower and a rotor for one of them, however they're the best you can possibly do for CB and work great when the skip rolls in.