Do HAMs require a different type of antenna or can I use a Firestik? This is all so different to me- I just installed an SSB radio on my sailboat, using the backstay as a 65' antenna!
I'll elaborate a little.
Different radio services operate on different ranges of frequencies. Antennas are designed to be resonant, or to be some specific fraction of the wavelength of each frequency range. Higher freqs need shorter antennas, because the wavelength is shorter.
Shortwave like on your boat is actually a pretty long wavelength, it was just shorter than everything else being used at the time, so it was considered "short." AM broadcast radio is even longer. CB is at the top of the shortwave band. FM is way higher than that.
That said, there are ways to make an antenna electrically "longer" by adding a coil, for instance. That's the knobby thing you see on some CB antennas. It's also why you can find CB antennas from very short, for a handheld CB, with a coil inside to make it seem longer to the radio to about 8' long, which is your old school tall whip antenna that is a 1/4 wave based on its length alone.
Firestick makes Ham antennas, too, IIRC. If not very similar antennas to CB ones like the Firestick are available. They look similar, but the different coils make them act differently. The Firestick and many other antennas allow the antenna to be tuned for the lowest SWR. SWR represents the power reflected back into the transmitter, which you want to minimize or it will damage the transmitter. Sometimes you simply cut the antenna tip. The Firestick has a small screw in the tip that you turn to adjust the coil instead.
Many people tune for the center of the antenna's freq coverage to be Channel 19, which is the common road/trucker's channel. It's also about halfway between the lowest and highest channels, 1 and 40, so gives pretty good performance across the CB range. You can also tune to another channel if you'll be using it a lot. However, if you tune to 40, performance on channel 1 may suffer.
