Francis 300-CB26B Black 5.5' Hot Rod CB Antenna

Installed the Francis CB 26 right out of the package with the recommended RG8X coax cable length, on my vehicle. Checked SWR. Perfect 1to1 match across entire CB Band. Great signal reports both receive and transmit from locals. The Francis CB whips have been the gold standard for many Decades. Their quality & performance are second to none!! If you want the Best mobile CB antenna stick "GET ONE"!!!!!

Works perfectly right out of the bow with a SWR of 1. Highly recommend it and when another is needed will purchase again.

PRODUCT AS DESCRIBED.NO ISSUES.NO PROBLEMS.

I drive a log truck and bought a set of these antennas to replace the cheap fiberglass ones that trucking companies use that break off the first branch they hit. (I hit a lot of branches.) These 5.5' antennas can take a hit. After several good blows, a couple hard enough to bend the mount, one finally started to split down the top. I read that if the caps on top aren't there it changes the SWR. Not true in my opinion. After the caps got ripped off and every time an antenna took a hit I checked the SWR and the reading was always excellent. I bought a new set and will glue the caps on and will go about my tree branch abusing way. Nice product Francis!

Here are my personal thoughts on this Antenna, from someone that has been into CB since the 70's. I guess that makes me on the Senior citizen side. Somewhere along the line in a far away galaxy Francis had a 8ft 1/4 wave fiberglass whip which was pretuned and a perfect match. Francis must have been sidetracked,they don't make this antenna anymore. I gave mine away like a dummy. Francis should bring it back. This 5.5 whip pre-tuned to what? If one reads the back of the package, it requires an Rg-58, 19 ft of coax. Good thing I didn't weave it, in and out of my vehicle, and left the old cable in place. With a ball mount on the side, the best I would get is an SWR 1.5. Want lower. This Antenna has to be cut, Not so on the RG58. I have RG8X already in place. Using a Rigexpert AA 35 Antenna Analyzer, I have this Antenna down to somewhere around 1.14 in that range. Using just an swr meter is not going to give one tht third number, Even though it reads 1.1 could could be closer to the 1.2 side, Best way to tune this antenna. Don't do it the Hillbilly way, back of a pick-up and a hacksaw, otherwise one will split the ends of the fiberglass. Use a mini-tube cutter, cut off 1/8-2/8 at a time check your SWR after each cut. There is another thin tube which the coil is wrapped around, if it still sticks out after cutting then give it a shot w/the hacksaw and the tip will be even. Put the cap back on the antennae when checking the SWR. When one gets the SWR down to the 1.1-1.2 range leave it alone, chances are if one makes another cut thinking the are going to get the SWR down to 1.0 one will probably wind up with an SWR that Starts going upward. This Antenna is only rated for 225 watts. Don't go throwing a Texas Star DX-350 on it. Stay between 100-200 watts max, unless one wants to empty their wallet replacing their Antenna and the possibility of repairing their radio.

SWR was alright, needed to cut 3/4th an inch off the top to get it closer to 1 SWR, fairly flexible but would recommend a spring given its wind drag.

Ordered this Francis antenna because my current antenna was causing high swr's simple because they weren't long enough to get out around the cab of my truck, the swr's were so high my cb would cancel transmit to protect the unit from damage. I swapped out to this antenna and BAMM without any trimming swr's coming in below 1.5! with some trimming I'm sure I can get them down closer to 1.2 if not lower! Francis has always been a good durable fiberglass antenna! I'm hoping the range will be impressive as well.. I do recommend this antenna!

The antenna works well. It was not pre-tuned for me had to trim about 1-1/4” in total. I do like the height for signal to reach over the top of the trailers I pull.

So I've been using this 5.5' Francis for a while now, and the results have been outstanding. 1st of, this is NOT very bendy. At 120+KMH the antenna was mostly vertical but swept back a bit. Nowhere near the 90 degrees that other "Bendy guy" reported. He must be reviewing a different antenna and just got confused. As for the transmit signal strength, I temporarily exchanged the Francis for a 102" SS whip (in the same mount) and the reported signal at 24 KM away with 4 watts out was almost identical.. The signal report was that the signal strength was mostly the same between the two, but the 102" SS provided louder modulation making it easier to hear me... I'll take that any day, as running the 102" on my roof mag mount is not a feasible solution. Because it's so easy to unscrew the antenna and screw in another in the Mag mount, I'd like to compare the Francis to a Skipshooter 6' and a Firestick 6' and see which is best. On a negative note, I found that if I mount the antenna on the roof of the car, I can hear a whistling noise from it, but not when mounted on the trunk... UPDATE: I changed to a radio with an analog meter, and now I can see a 1S unit difference in the Rx between the 102 and the 5.5' Francis. In addition I believe the 102 had a lower noise level which made the 102 a better choice, but still not a practical one given its length. To address the whistling noise, I wound a string around the antenna and then covered the string with electrical tape. No more noise...

On a stock 4 watt radio I am taling over 40 kilometers from my truck.

Aimer

It was tuned for channel 1 i assume. It was 1.78 on ch 1, ch 20 it was 2.5 and ch 40 it was 2.89. I ended up cutting an inch and an eighth off od it, now its got a 1.02 swr on the first 20 channels under 40 watts of power. And the last 20 are 1.13 under 40 watts. A great way to cut these is with a hack saw blade and be slow. Only taking 1/8" increments off. Take it slow and double check your readings. So far so good

Very good quality