Re: CB radios - antennas

[Curt Cleavinger <rcleavin@domain.elided>]

This thread happened at a good time. First, my input:
  I've been using a Cobra 18 Ultra that I bought reconditioned 
from the Cobra website for $30 (http://www.cobraelec.com/cb1.html), 
and I've been very happy with it. The main reasons I chose the 
18 were because it's cheap, and because it has a front-firing 
speaker so I can hear it over the wind noise of a soft top (up or 
down) at 75 mph. It's time to buy another CB (for the Travelall)
and I'll probably just get another Cobra 18 - unless someone wants
to convince me that it's worth the extra $$ for something else.
Most of the opinions I've heard/read claim that the radio is far
less critical to performance than the antenna (and how well the
two are matched to get a low SWR) - does anyone agree/disagree
with this?

Now for the question(s):
 I've been using a magnet-mount antenna that I put on the hood.
This seems to work pretty well, but I'd like to permanently
mount an antenna on the Scout (with the magnet-mount, the antenna
wire tends to get in the way, and the magnet rubs the paint off). Where is the best place to mount an antenna on a vehicle with a 
soft top? The best place to get a decent ground plane seems like 
the middle of the hood, but that would look pretty silly, and 
could get in the way when you open the hood. The best thought 
I've come up with so far is to mount it in the same place as the 
radio antenna, except on the opposite side - on top of the driver's
side fender. I was thinking of a ball mount with a spring 
(drilling a hole through the top of the fender) to mount it. 
Anybody have a better idea? Should I just forget about ground 
plane, and get a NGP antenna and just mount it wherever? Also, 
on antenna selection, I was thinking of a Firestick-type of about 
3 or 4 feet (I don't want it to be too high, or it'll take a 
beating on trees, my garage door, etc.). Opinions?

Thanks,
  Curt
   rcleavin@domain.elided  San Diego, CA
   Binder Bunch: http://www.off-road.com/~jweed/binder.htm
   Scouts West: http://www.scoutswest.com
    .===============.   __/  \        __
    ||             ||  / / ^  \  /\__/  \      __
 []_||_____________||_[]    ^  \/   / ^  \__  /^ \
  \/-----------------\/  ^ /    \ V    \ /  \/  ^ \
  ||( )| | | | | |( )|| /    /^\ \ \   /  ^ /   __________
  | ----------------- |     / ^ \  ^\  /   ____/__|__|____\
 [/\_@@_==/MMM\==_@@_/\]     /   ^\       | _          _   |
 [[_______|=s=|_______]]                  `' `--------' `--'
 [/</]   \_/       [\>\]                   `-'        `-'
 [/>/]             [\<\] '75 Scout II     '75 Travelall 150