Polak187:

You must be extremely young if you don't know about CB's.

You have gotten great answers for the technical aspects, so I will give you something that has help me with my VHF radio that we used before cell phones became so cheap and compact.

Use the longest CB antenna you feel comfortable with that has a base mounted coil and a magnetic base so that you can mount it on your vehicles highest point. The larger (in flat area) the metal radiating surface it is mounted on, the better your transmission, but not necessarily your reception. If you can allow the antenna to stand upright, it will give you better performance than antennas that are bowed over for clearance considerations like some vehicles that mount them on the front bumper and bend them over and tie them down to the back bumper.

They sell good used CB's at my local Goodwill store for $3.00 to $10.00 so you can get into them cheap if you buy one at such a store or at a yard sale.

Bountyhunter