Francis 4 ft hotrods on sale.

Have been a popular antenna in the trucking industry for decades, some will say the quality is not as good as in the past, but still good antennas for legal 4 watt radios. I currently have two of them on my T680 and they transmit and receive very good.

 

They do not have a tunable tip and usually the swr is acceptable as is on most installs.

 

Yes.

They are advertised as not needing to be tuned. And they do quite well for most situations, not needing tuning. just slap it on and go.

They do tend to be a bit long.. Probably intentional. You can take off the end cap and dig around in the fiberglass for a small wire, pull it out and trim it.. Easy to make shorter, hard to make longer. Usually not worth messing with.

 

those antenna must work well if MS talks all that skip on a 4' Hot Rod.
Not exactly sure why he chooses to run that antenna but I have several ideas. TDC of the roof sure helps but I'm thinking there's other reasons

 

The one he uses is 96 inches Long. Those are no longer made.

 

in several videos I've seen he clearly says it's a 4 foot Francis and even shows it. However he may have the longer 96" now. I've never seen one that long. I would try that. Funny thing though, an ex trucker friend of mine said he had talked a lot of skip on a 4 foot Francis. I kinda didn't believe him. Then i found his videos on YT DXing on a Francis. A 96" one I would definitely run.
Why is it all the better stuff is no longer made. Seems when RoadPro bought everyone out it all turned to junk. RoadPro was highly considered junk back in the 90s.
Thanks for the reply!

 

Francis antennas are a wide band antenna that work pretty well out of the box. They are not, as some people believe, a pre-tuned antenna. As a general rule they are not good with high power. Therefore, if you plan on using an amplifier, you should look elsewhere. Otherwise a solid antenna choice.