What antenna for what cb

There are many causes for poor reception on a cb radio one cause may be poor or poorly assembled antenna, a good antenna should be of highest gain and put up as high as possible ,An omnidirectional antenna or Ground plane will hear moderately well
in all directions but a directional antenna or Yagi will hear great only in the direction it is turned you will certainly have to decide what you or your homeowners association will allow.
Also and finally The sun is a major factor in communications Propagation sometimes no mater what your setup the reception is terrible.

you have a bad coax or antenna

You didn't include the make / model CB you have, so I can only offer general suggestions. If these do not work, please provided the missing info.

Start out by locating and setting the the Volume to a position between 1/4 and 1/2 way clockwise, the Squelch to fully counter-clockwise and the "RF Gain" to fully clockwise to "MAX".

Check the position of the "PA / CB" switch and set to CB. When set to PA, both receive and transmit audio is sent directly to an outdoor speaker (instead of through the transmitter and antenna for reception by other radios). The PA speaker is usually connected to a jack at the rear of the radio. When the PA / CB switch is selected, the internal speaker is silenced even if there is no PA speaker connected.

At this point, you should hear static or voices (with an antenna connected). Do not attempt to transmit without a properly tuned antenna connected. If no sound is heard, there's something else wrong.

location of the antenna is every thing.the other thing to check is you swr.If your swr is to high your reception will be poor

First try getting a good antenna. I don't know what you have BUT STAY AWAY FROM "RUBBER DUCKY" ANTENNA'S!!!
Check your SWR's!
Make sure the RF Gain is maxed
Make sure the SQUELCH is all the way to the left
"WILDCAT" IN LAURELVILLE OHIO
35 YEARS OF CB FUN!!!

Hi, my name is John. As long as your SWR is not over a two, and the antenna are the same length and grounded good, it should be the same end result, no difference.........hope this was very helpful.Rate this solution on the four thumbs-up.......John

It mostly depends on your antenna location and how far away you are from other radios. The receive gain can be turned up in most radios. I do it here all day long. dodgem250.com

yes that could be ythe problem if u have an external antenna, my comment was based on a more common built in antenna..

Reception has little to do with grounding. The ground plan is for transmitting. As long as the coax is connected and is in good standing, it should receive fine regardless of grounding.

There are a few reasons you may have bad reception.

1. Turn the RF GAIN all the way up. This is your receive sensitivity.
   
2. Squelch is too high. It should only be turned up enough to cut out the background noise.
3. Poor antenna. If the antenna is cheap, and not made well, this could be the problem.
4. Not enough of the antenna above the vehicle. It needs to be at least 60% of the antenna above the vehicle.

Hope this helps!

get your swr checked by a cb shop. 90% of all cb problems are a poorly or not tuned antenna.