NGP (No Ground Plane)
No Ground Plane (NGP) Antennas:
If you try to use standard ground-based CB equipment with a vehicle or in a situation that requires a "no ground plane" antenna, you'll likely experience both high SWR levels and extremely poor performance. Wondering what a ground plane is? Check out our article in our Help Center!
Vehicles that require NGP equipment:
- Have a fiberglass shell or coating over much or all of the vehicle
- Have little or no metallic chassis for the antenna to be grounded to
Vehicles that should use NGP products:
- Motor homes and large fiberglass coaches
- Camper shells where the antenna is mounted directly to the fiberglass (instead of the vehicle)
- Boats
- Motorcycles with little or no ground plane
'No ground plane" (NGP) CB antennas with NGP coax were specifically designed to solve the problems associated with the lack of ground plane (counterpoise). This normally occurs on vehicles constructed of plastic, fiberglass, and wood. This includes, but is not limited to, motorhomes, boats, automobiles and 18-wheeler trucks. Ground plane problems typically show up in the form of high standing wave ratio (SWR) and poor performance. The isolated ground plane that is built into NGP antennas can also eliminate problems on metal base vehicles that lack the sufficient ground plane for proper operation. This could be due to the size of available ground plane (ATV, bicycle, motorcycle, wheelchair, etc.), or because the operator chooses to mount the antenna in a location that is unable too properly take advantage of available ground plane. The versatility of these antenna goes way beyond the normal expected uses of a typical mobile antenna kit. Aside from vehicular installations, these kits can be mounted on a pack frame for hunting or Search and Rescue operations; Apartment dwellers can mount them on a balcony railing; or a temporary base station can set up in the forest using a tree for a tower.
Popular NGP Antenna Kits:
FGX648 Firestik NGP Kit
LGXM2 Firestik NGP Kit
Additional note:
If you are putting together your own kit, make sure that you not only select a no ground antenna, but also the proper coax, such as the K8NGP. NGP Coax is essential. For more information regarding this, see our article on selecting the proper coax.
Use NGP coax cable for NGP antennas. Using no ground plane antenna cable for a traditional antenna (and vice versa) will give you high SWR problems. If you already have a NGP coax and need to extend it (possibly needing a KPL258X connector), you can do so by using RG8X coax but keep in mind that you will have some loss. Kalibur coax has 95% shield and is the coax we would recommend. Most of the NGP kits have specialized RG58 coax. If you cannot extend the coax for your NGP system or can't make an NGP setup work for you, you could install a metal plate to create a ground plane and use a standard antenna.
Wanting to put a CB antenna on a boat? Is the boat metal or fiberglass? If the boat is metal, you could use a standard antenna like the IC56 102" whip antenna. If fiberglass, you might consider the V1023 Marine CB Antenna. There are several other options too!
Please visit our Help Center for guidance in selecting the best equipment for your application.
Remember: CB Antennas need to be tuned to their application. This is VERY important! Tuning your antenna will help to optimize your antenna system performance and help to ensure that you won't potentially damage your CB radio. Here are some links to our Help Center to assist you with this:
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