Anyone have any hints on monitoring CHP low band freqs? Antenna
recommendations? As of now I can barely hear their transmissions...

Believe it or not, I've heard ChPs on a hand held scanner, and I'm in
Arkansas.
The only advice I have is do a dogpile or google search for CHP
frequencies, then program them into a bank on your scanner. Lock out
all banks except for the one with the CHP frequencies and hook it up
to a voice activated recorder for a day or so, or overnight.