I use a dipole but I was 18 before I got into CB and I am really into mechanical, electrical, chemical understanding of everything I eat, drink, use, play with or need. In less then 6 months time after getting a CB I was building my own antenna's and other gear. Also I was around a lot of special forces personnel and even the Army Ranger's had a book on how to construct antenna's for field use and it was full of dipole designs.
The problem was that pre-1980's a lot of CB'er built dipole antena's and beer can antenna's etc....The 1980's had so much prosperity that a lot of people moved away from self sufficient means and moved into a world where you bought " the best most advanced gear". People had so much extra income that all kinds of people started manufacturing all kinds of things so now you could buy 10-20 different antenna from all kinds of different companies.we do not have People stoped making their own gear and just started buying their gear. We saw the same thing happen in food all of a sudden you could buy all these boxed cake, cookie and other baked good mix's where before all men and women had to buy the raw ingredients, find a recipe and make their own stuff from scratch.
So today we have a lot less variety in many area's of out lives. For instance the number of companies making CB radios has dropped a lot. The number of domestic instrument manufactures has likewise dropped. So as variety drops and prices climb compared to the cost of living you see a return to more self made things. The internet has made it easy to find information on constructing how built antenna's and we are seeing a return to people making more of their own things from raw materials again.
I think more and more people are starting to see that what you can buy is not always better than what you can make. Looking better does not equal better performance.
I used a 102 inch whip for almost 10 years and when I tried Firestick, K40, Wilson 5000 antenna's I was disappointed because none of them matched the performance I had been getting from a cheap RadioShack 102 inch SS whip from the 1990's. They cost more and where prettier but that was it.
So when I decided to get back into 2way radio I was not going to drop big money on a Imax2000 or Laser 500 Beams. In fact I found the the wire and PVC I used in my garage. I had to buy the connectors. I had to buy the raw materials to make my 1:1 Balun. I have less then $20 into my 11 meter dipole and that is counting the cost of the materials for the dipole and the balun. It functions as well as other peoples A99 or Imax 2000. My dipole is in my attic so it is not in the weather and it is the ultimate in stealth!
My dipole is not going to replace a nice set of beams but it is at least as good as omni-direction ground plane! I have owned a A99 and built beams in the past.
Any time you have differing polarity then the stations you are talking to you will have some loss. You can run a dipole vertically it is just not practical for most of us. That said few mobiles have truly vertical polarity it is almost always some compromise.
If you do not need a 1:1 Balun and had to purchase your dipole you can find pre-made 11 meter dipoles as cheap as $16 on ebay. They are not quite as pretty and sophisticated as what you can build for yourself but $16 is far cheaper then any other base station antenna.
If you talk a lot of skip and are into DX'ing t dipole is about as good as it get's!
