Yea or Nea for window mount antenna

[NonHyphenated American]

I've been pondering the idea of running a CB and GMRS radio. I have some road trips in mind for next year and want an extra layer of communication. The CB I am looking at is the Midland 75-822 and GMRS is one of the Midlands, MXT575 or MXT275 with a ghost antenna. In my research I found the window antenna idea interesting for the CB antenna mount, so I don't have to run a bunch of cables through the firewall. However, I'm not too keen putting the inside window mount on the back window defroster as it will be held on with adhesive and would damage the defroster wires if I were to pull it off. Could the glass CB mount be put in the top corner of the passenger side of the windshield and be effective for the CB? If push comes to shove, I may just go with an external antenna, probably a Firestick. All this communication stuff is new to me.

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[Radio Guy]

A window antenna base must be far away from heater wires in the glass or it will try to couple the RF to the heater wires along with the whip. The tuning box on the inside and mounting foot on the antenna base make a capacitor through the glass to couple RF.

VHF/UHF window antennas can work ok when installed right but CB versions are not very efficient being rather short and with no ground plane to work against. I've installed quite a few, especially when they first came out in the 1970s from the Avanti company. A window mount GMRS antenna mounted up high should work better than a cowl mount pud antenna and a CB type will at least let you communicate with people in your off roading party but its not going to get you 20mi down the highway.

 

[Yossarian]

Window CB Antennas are not known to be the best setup for transmitting and receiving signals. I considered one for my Jeep, but overall, this type of antenna did not have good reviews.

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