Review on 🚗 Cobra HG A1000 18.5" Magnetic-Mount CB Antenna – Heavy-Duty Magnet, Ideal for Cars, SUVs, RVs | 100W Power Handling Capability by Ryan Turner

This antenna is pretty decent for the price. It actually works pretty well, I was able to talk up to 1.5 miles away on an open road (measured using Google Earth and two separate cars) and maybe receive 2-3 miles away (some trucks I could hear beforehand when driving them could even speak). if they were walking barefoot), so the performance is pretty decent. The build quality is very good, the plastic feels solid, the stylus is stainless steel and painted black, the antenna is flexible but has a foot and a medium-duty coil. The actual plastic base that you insert the antenna into also has a coil in addition to the coil visible on the antenna. This reduces the efficiency of this antenna to low operating ranges. The antenna is set to channel 1. I have two of these antennas and BOTH are set to channel 1 by default. You will need to cut about 1/2 inch off the antenna (good luck) before tuning the antenna to channel 20. However, setting it up is pretty easy. After tuning I got SWR values of 1.6 on channel 1, 1.8 on channel 40 and 1.2 on channel 20. The performance of this 1/8 inch SS pin is no laughing matter. Use bolt cutters. All right, bolt cutters. It actually damaged my cheaper bolt cutters and rendered them unusable. As for the power. This antenna should not be used with amplified CB radios or linear amplifiers. The base load coil (the one in the plastic at the very bottom, not the one visible on the pin) gets hot and you'll feel slightly warm to the touch after about 30 seconds of transmission. It may say 100 watts and it does it, but you won't really get that much radiated power because you lose half if not more of that power to thermal and dielectric losses due to the cheap base load coil. . If you go over 100 watts, play the game "If I want to short my antenna". I deduct two stars for the heating problem, even if I only used the CB, which wobbles a bit. Yes, you're better off with CB radios, which can pump around 18 watts and actually heat that antenna up pretty well. For fun I tested it with a 12 watt dead key and 50 watts and it got really hot. The thermometer read about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, with an ambient temperature of 55 degrees at night. you have been warned Aside from the fact that the baseload coil is strikingly cheap and probably can't handle 100 watts safely, the build quality is excellent, the plastic doesn't look cheap, the stylus feels solid, the coax is 18 feet, the RG-58 /U is flexible, the PL-259 connector at the end is of decent quality. Easy to set up, easy to use. The magnet also holds tight at 75 mph. Not ugly and easy to hide. Get a Wilson Little Wil if you can though, it can actually handle more power and doesn't get hot, plus it performs 200% better than this and only has an extra foot and a few inches of antenna length.