My favourite Mobile CB in days gone by, was my Superstar. It shared internals with the Cobra. Using a half wave antenna at home. I used to talk to Italy, Brazil, and the US east coast. In the truck I still managed to chat to and from Italy, with a centre loaded mobile antenna.
Good CB propagation is ruled by sun cycles, and when activity is low, so is chat. It runs on an 11 year cycle if I remember rightly. So not too long to wait ;)