I'm interested in getting into ham and cb both. I have a uv5r i'm playing around with (not transmitting) while I work on the lisence aspect.

For now though I'm also working on cb because it never hurts to have extra options and cb is more practical when you want to communicate with the more "general public"

I just put a uniden pc78ltd in my trailblazer with a 4' fire stik fs antenna which I took down a featureless gravel road and tuned this morning. I got it where the swr doesn't even move off the peg on channel 1 or 40.

I also have a cobra hh33 ht I picked up on ebay for $25 that I intend to keep in the truck mostly as a loaner for car to car communication with friends for things like hunting or fishing.

I was thinking though that the rubber duckie antenna sucks, so would I be better off getting a wilson lil wil or similar antenna to use with the HT?
If I tuned it on my vehicle, would it be "close enough" if it were transfered to a friends vehicle used in conjunction with the same transcever?
I can't imagine it would throw it off enough to be in the dangerous zone for swr, or that it would function worse than the rubber duckie would inside a vehicle, would it?

I'd like it to be good for at least a mile or 2

I forgot to add that after tuning I was immediately pickig up some guy complaining about his wife in texas and a truck wash on I40 advertising (I40 is 700 miles away)

It's not worth the trouble. At best you'll put a few milliwatts out. Stay with the ham HT.

The problem is that my friends have zero interest in getting into ham or installing a cb.

I have tried frs/gmrs radios for car 2 car in the past and know that the commercial radios are useless. Not to mention the rarely discussed legal issues with gmrs.
A cb HT with even the rubber duckie has to be better than those

I would take the time to get the license for ham technician and general.  11 meter band is dead if you follow the rules (5w max) and the people you will encounter will be much different than amateurs in the ham bands.  Most of the people you are hearing on the cb are running a linear which is not legal.  Not to mention the zoo you will encounter.. Propagation is always available on hf in the general portion band areas.  Not to take any of the positive momentum you have on learning either mode, but you will be entering into radio that literally has hundreds of modes that you can use..   Cb will be voice only..   IM me if you want to touch base and we can chew the fat..  It may be a little while for me to reply as i am not on all the time... The hobby really is surprising..   Keep learning, if you have not heard this before, after you get your license you will have learned a little bit from the questions you reviewed.  The real learning starts when you get on the air..  Check out this podcast..    

HAMRADIO360   See if you can find something to help you

You can learn allot from this podcast,  I was a new ham when I ran into their 7th episode.  I got caught up quickly and been faithful listener ever since.    

Prosise

Thanks man!  OP-As to your questions re: tuning on your car and passing off, yeah-it'll work the same (more than likely)
CB is a good tool, but it's apples/oranges when it comes to Ham Radio.  Stick around, you can learn a lot here (I did/do)!
Nothing wrong with using what your buddies are willing to use, and with Ham you can make even moar friends on the air!

my start here page can help!

good luck and welcome to the best Ham Radio forum on the Net!

I was also hearing some talk loud and clear today on my old cb gear. Sounded like one was over 100 miles away and another on the east coast. When I set it up I wasnt expecting any action at all but had something on most channels. Was running an old cobra and a k40 sitting in a chair in the driveway lol.

Don't place too much faith in CB for distance communications. There will be sporadic long-haul openings, but with Solar Cycle #24 on the downhill slide, communications is going strictly local for several years.

Like mentioned, the long distance (DX) signals you hear on CB are sporadic right now as the sun isn't active with sunspots.

It will (I hope) come back in a few years and  DX signals will get better.

The antenna swapping will be just fine. Tune it up on the roof of a vehicle and swap from roof to roof is a non issue.

CB antennas are pretty broad banded and you shouldn't see much difference in SWR from roof to roof.

I think CB is a great tool to comm with other non-ham folks in your group. Some people just have no interest

in becoming hams and the CB is there to fill that role.

ETA -- I use listen to channel 6 on the CB to see how propagation is doing.

It's not.

CB frequency is substantially lower, so the antenna is minuscule in terms of wavelength, along with ground plane/counterpoise so efficiency is nonexistent.

Get a GMRS license and put a mobile in your vehicle with an outside antenna, your range to a cheap loaner GMRS HT should be reasonable.

Or get two cheap HT's and use one of the no-license MURS frequencies.

Welcome to the wonders of Sporadic E layer propagation (aka "E-skip").

^^^^ This^^^^^ and all of the above mentioned by other members.

A GMRS will give you a much greater range than a small HT CB. A hand held GMRS or even FRS radio will have a more efficient antenna than a CB. You'd me much better off loaning a FRS/GMRS radio and having a base GMRS/FRS radio with an external antenna on your vehicle.
Two vehicles, equipped with 4 watts (legal limit) CB radios will have an average comms range of only several miles at best or a lot less in a city with lots of obstructions. If one of the vehicles is using an HT CB, the range will probably drop to less than 1/4 mile simply because the HT antenna will radiate less than 1% of power. It will be sufficient if you are following each other but that's about it.
Adding an external antenna to your HT will greatly increase the range. Antenna's SWR will vary very little if you move it to another vehicle as long as it's mounted on the center of the roof. This can be an issue with some Jeep Wranglers or other vehicles with plastic roofs. The antenna will need a good ground plane to operate properly. A magnet mounted antenna has no direct contact with the roof but the thin aluminum foil on the bottom of the antenna provides capacitive coupling with the roof that somewhat acts like a direct connection to the roof.
Also, don't discount a MURS option. It's not well known but MURS radios require no license.

HAM option is the best. Start with the HAMRADIO360. Cale (SCWolverine) does a great job explaining a lot of things not covered in the ham study manual. He is not opinionated nor biased. He is not very heavy on advertising either.  He brings people to his podcast who are experts in certain areas and they discuss the subject in great details. Heck, I've been an active ham for over 30 years and I learned a lot from his podcast. You will learn too and it's free.

We were headed back on a work trip when I saw a CB HT at loves for $39. I grabbed it and tossed it in the cup holder for lols and traffic updates.

It worked fine but man AM sounds bad after always using FM. It's a great tool for the tool box, but I prefer a dual band HT.

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