Today we’ll learn how to build a CB Base Antenna. Let’s Start….
Materials Needed
- 103 inches of no. 6 bare copper wire
- 1 round electrical box with 1/2 inch ko’s
- 4 – 1/2 inch EMT compression connectors, not set screw or die cast
- 1 inch EMT connector
- 3/4 inch PVC electrical box with cover
- Conduits
- 1 – 1/2 inch PVC x 10 feet
- 4 – 1/2 inch EMT x 10 feet each
- 1 – 1 inch EMT x 10 feet
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Assembling your CB Base Antenna
- Place the 1 inch EMT connector through the center hole of your round electrical box. This will require you to make the initial hole larger. When putting this in, put it in in the reverse manner that you normally would. Put the 4 1/2 inch connectors through the 4 holes in the sides of the box.
- Cut your length of copper wire to 103 inches.
- Run the copper wire inside of the 10 ft. length of PVC conduit and seal the end with a cap. On the other end, or the bell end, secure the PVC electrical box with glue. The bell end will match the 3/4 inch opening to the box, allowing a tight seal. You may have to adjust the length of the copper wire when tuning your antenna, but the maximum length needed should be 103 inches.
- Drill 2 holes in the bottom of the PVC electrical box, diagonal from each other. These will be for the coax in and ground out.
- The PVC mast will slip down inside of the 1 inch EMT connector in the round electrical box.
- Bend the end of the 4 EMT conduits to a 45-degree angle, to ensure proper reception.
- Connect the 4 EMT conduits into the 4 connectors in the round electrical box. When doing this make sure to connect the end with the 45-degree angle to the connectors and have the antenna conduit angled downward.
With these things mounted and your co-ax cable and ground properly wired, you will be ready to try and pick up the signal with your new CB base antenna.
Thanks myradiolab.com for your Great instructions. I never thought a radio antenna could be so easy & cheap.
I didn’t have the whole list of materials right now but I’ll definitely try this at this Sunday.
Great read very helpful
will post next update on Sunday.
When it comes to liars, commercial antenna companies are great at it. They will swear there’s is the best, and come up with all kinds of numbers to prove it. When you spend 100-200 bucks on an omni-directional antenna, you will continually convince yourself the money was well spent. In the 1/4 wave vertical vs the 5/8 wave, the latter has some improvement on keeping a lower angle of radiation for working mobiles and it puts a bit more power on the horizon for skip, but this 1/4 wave ground plane when it comes to omni-directional, is the classic CB antenna, and when properly installed and fed, will work just as good as a high dollar whatever. Back in the 60’s, I had a $9.95 Lafayette ground plane at 40 feet, and it held its own against the very popular ‘Super Mag’. While I don’t have that in one piece anymore, I still use a basic groundplane and nothing else. This is a great construction article and you will be surprised and happy with the results. Only caveat is using the PVC vertical support, in some places, the hot summer sun may turn it into a ‘U’ shaped antenna instead of a vertical, but if you put a eyebolt in the top and hung it from a tree, that would fix that.