Confused!!! Ground plane/ No Gound plane C.B. antenna

Looking to get the Cali Raised CB bracket for tail gate application. Using Firestik FSii 4'. My question is: ground plane or no ground plane. Not sure what all that means...Help please

 

This just refers to if you have a ground plane (using the vehicle's metal body as the ground plane) or not. If you are installing in the rear corner of a mostly composite bed, you are probably better off going with a "no ground plane" setup in my option.

 

There's not enough metal back there for a good ground plane, so most likely, your SWR is going to be high, and all you'll hear is static. The only good place for a CB antenna on a Tacoma is right in the middle of the roof (as long as you don't have a moonroof). You might have slightly better luck using a hood ditch light bracket and mounting the whip up front. FFIW, most people use two-ways these days since the FFC now allows 2 watt units. If this kind of stuff is interesting for you, I'd hop on Youtube and look up basic CB theory and how SWR / ground planes work!

 

I tried a NGP setup off a rear tire on a swingout, and there was still too much metal in the bumper/body for that to work.

 

Were you using a NGP coax cable and appropriate mount? A NGP antenna should have worked fine in the setup you described.

 

FS4ii requires ground plane. If you don't/ can't have a ground plane you need a "no ground plane" antenna:

$106 FireStik FG4648-B Four Foot No-Ground Plane CB Antenna Kit, Black, 3 Way Mount, 100 Watts Power Rating, 28"es Length, Frequency Range 26-30MHz, Top Load Position, Fiberglass Antenna

https://www.amazon.com/FireStik-FG4648-B-No-ground-plane-antenna/dp/B000X3EOPG

Ground plane is essentially the other "half" of the antenna. The NGP antennas basically cancel out the reaction with capacitance/reactance to make your radio think the other half is there.

That said, short, loaded antennas suck for HF. A 102" whip on a ground plane will work much better. Physics and laws of EM radiation cannot be magically skirted.....

 

Yup, couldn't get the SWR lower than like ≈2.25, but who knows, I only tried tuning/troubleshooting that setup for a day or so. I've been running CBs since the 90s, but just use two-way these days. I do miss listening in on the interstate though.

 

While all this talk about having a ground plane is correct, and it does make for a better antenna, if you don't want one, just build it for no ground plane. It'll still work fine, it's not the best set up for radio performance, but it's not like it won't work. I wouldn't overthink it.