Hey all,

It seems that I am having troubles finding any information on this topic since CB radios seemed to have died off in the last few years. To make a long story short, my father and I both own what we call "Hot Rods" (he has a 69 nova with a 400 sbc and I have an 83 Z28 with a blown 305)


When he was my age he used to talk to his friend's via CB. Now with the convenience of cell phones and bluetooth the market is kind of stuck in the early 2000's. What I'd like to do is have a cb to chat with him without the obnoxious antenna. I know, I just mentioned bluetooth but I think half the fun of these cars is feeling like you're in a time capsule. I have a few ideas on how this could work but it seems no one has asked these questions it over a decade. Here's my train of thought;


1) A fake "CB" that works like a bluetooth communicator that motorcyclists use

2) A way to connect an external bluetooth reciever/transmitter to the CB radio

3) A CB microphone that connects to my head unit

4) The possibility of using a 2-way radio (although I've read come concerning things about the legality of using a 2 way radio signal)

5) The effectiveness of those low profile cb antennas

6) Depending on the plausability, soldering my own bluetooth chip into the board


I am open to any and all suggestions, though I don't expect any materials. My only goal is to have a separate radio for receiving and transmitting to my dad's car, retaining the CB style microphone while avoiding the large antenna on the back of either car.

 

The short answer is no, there is no easy way to use a CB radio without it's required antenna.

The long answer;

A CB radio must have an appropriate antenna attached to transmit or the "Final RF output transistor(s) will be destroyed. An electronic savvy person could use a "dummy load" to properly load the RF circuit without an antenna, this is commonly done during service/testing where it's desired to allow no RF emission. You'd then need to properly decouple the audio signal from the RF carrier and feed the audio to your bluetooth device, not an easy task for a novice electronic hobbyist because if you get it wrong and don't filter out all of the RF the RF will smoke your bluetooth device. There are so called "hidden" CB antennas, some make use of the car's regular radio antenna but they are a huge compromise, they do not put out a good strong signal like a purpose built CB antenna does. Another possibility is to get your "no code technician" FCC ham radio license, this will allow using radios of much higher frequency than a regular CB, the higher frequency radios use a MUCH smaller antenna than a CB does.