300-CB22B Black 3 Foot Hot Rod CB Antenna AM|FM Ready

I mean, it’s exactly what I ordered and seems to function just fine. I’ve been using it for two weeks now.

Quality & value! As advertised :)

Just what I ordered.. looks great, works great... absolutely perfect

Looks sleek as heck and performs very well. This is a good choice for any mobile installation.

Pros: This antenna is thin and sleek. Since the coil is internal, the antenna itself doesn't show any coil on the outside. It just looks like a thin, circular piece of black fiberglass. It doesn't catch very much wind. This antenna is fairly flexible. When installed in a hard mount with no shock spring, you can bend the top of the antenna 12-18" without feeling as though you're over-stressing the base. They did a pretty good job getting it tuned at the factory. Mine matched properly from the time I installed it without tuning. SWR readings on channels 1 and 40 read about 0.3 higher than the reading on ch. 19, which tells you something. This antenna has a relatively shallow SWR curve for a 3 foot antenna, a.k.a., this antenna is very broad-banded for a 3' antenna. Many of the 3 foot antennas I've tried have a steep SWR curve. They may read a 0.9 or higher SWR difference between the outside and middle channels, meaning that they are very narrow banded and designed to work within a small subset of frequencies. Not this one. Cons: There is no way to lengthen this antenna. Unlike the top-loaded wound fiberglass antennas, which you can scoot a few coils higher on the shaft to lengthen, this antenna is as long as it will ever be when you first get it. You can shorten the antenna if need be by removing the red cap and filing off the top of the antenna a little at a time with a steel rasp. This antenna has very poor reception on the weather band. If you don't have a radio with weather in it, this is obviously not a big concern for you. Other Notes: Since this antenna is continuously wound, the majority of its transmission power leaves out of the middle third of the antenna. That means that this antenna is ideal for installations that place the majority of it above roofline, like mirror mount semi trucks. If you're putting it somewhere below roofline, like hood mount installations on a pickup truck, you may be better off going with a top-loaded antenna. The Bottom Line: This antenna has good reception on CB frequencies for its length. I didn't have any problems transmitting and being heard with it. This is a fairly decent choice if you are running a CB without weather, and mounting your antenna high on the vehicle.

Worked out

I needed a 3 foot CB antenna for my vehicle and had high hopes for the Francis 300-CB22B antenna. My only concern was this antenna is factory pre-tuned and not field tuneable. The Francis 300-CB22B antenna is well constructed and has a quality feel. I've been a HAM operator for many years and keep a quality antenna analyzer on hand to maintain my antennas in top shape. But to my disappointment the Francis 300-CB22B antenna tested with a SWR of 2.8 @ 27.185 MHz or CB channel 20. I would have been okay if the SWR was below 2.0, but this antenna will be returned. I measured the antenna's resonant frequency at 26.430 MHz with a SWR of 1.78, which is below the CB band. YMMV.