Help - High SWR reading

[JKU87]

Need some help here. I mounted my Firestik to the tailgate of my JKU and ran a ground wire from the mount to the tub of the truck. My radio is a handheld Midland and when I went to tune everything the readings were in the red zone. Thoughts?


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[AlbanyTom]

Hard to say, but maybe your ground wire is too long. Ideally, the antenna mount is electrically connected to the body of the truck. If not, the wire from the mount to the truck body needs to be short, like 6" or so. If you have it mounted to a tailgate, with a long wire to the rest of the truck, I don't think it'll work well.

 

[1911]

Not enough ground plane available at that location. Try a half-wave antenna; they don't need much if any ground plane.

 

[93Cummins]

Make sure the center conductor and the shield are not shorted at the mount or the connector. Remove the antenna and put an ohm meter between the center conductor and ground. It should show open.

 

[BurbanAZ]

Like 93cummina said make sure that little piece of plastic is still in between the mount. I remember once I took that piece out because I thought it was just a spacer, had really high SWR readings until I realized, I put that piece back and it worked fine.

 

[rayra]

Make sure you assembled the mount pieces in the correct fashion, got the insulator where it needs to be.
as example:
http://www.firestik.com/Instl-Art/te-k-4a.gif

When you say 'tub' what are you referring to, the bed of the truck? rubber body mounts could be interfering with a good ground there, too.

 

[onetraveller]

If you still haven't gotten it to work well, grab a multimeter and work through the troubleshooting guides from this site. This is the best way to pinpoint where your problems are. I went through a similar exercise two months ago and discovered I had a bad cable.

http://www.rightchannelradios.com/blogs/learning-center

Mike

 

[JKU87]

Hey all. Sorry I haven't posted an update but it turns out I had a bad ground. I redid my ground wire to a new spot and now I'm reading 1.2 on channels 1 and 40. I used the radio out in the woods all weekend and it worked great. Thanks to all for the tips.


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[AlbanyTom]

Glad it's working, and thanks for the update!