Grounding issue with CB?

[jharrisliberty]

Just bought a new cb and the SWR readings are way too high. The only thing that I can come up with is that it is a grounding issue. I have my antenna on the driver side where the hood closes. See pictures below. My first thought is to move it somewhere else on the jeep. I am wondering if there is a fix for where the antenna is right now or if I should just move it? And if I move it where should I put it?

 

[CzarKJ]

Is the bolt that connects it into proper metal? If not run a wire to bare metal.

 

[jharrisliberty]

Where would be a good place to ground it to proper metal?

 

[jharrisliberty]

And which bolt are you talking about?

 

[profdlp]

What antenna do you have?

 

[LibertyTC]

Looks Like a fiberglass Wilson, what was the SWR reading?
Is the Coax factory with new PL-259's?

 

[jharrisliberty]

The 4' cut to tune firestick

 

[profdlp]

Where would be a good place to ground it to proper metal?

Anywhere on the chassis should work. If you have a nice clean hole it might help to scrape a little paint off around it to get to bare metal.

And which bolt are you talking about?

I'm guessing the bolt (or screws) for the mounting bracket. Which bracket are you using?

The 4' cut to tune firestick

I have a 4' tunable tip Firestik (and a 5' version for the highway). As I recall I had to move it nearly to the extreme end of the range to get a good reading. I'm not sure what to tell you to try with yours. Just don't end up like the old carpenter who cut a board twice only to find out it was still too short. :Insane:

 

[jharrisliberty]

Looks Like a fiberglass Wilson, what was the SWR reading?
Is the Coax factory with new PL-259's?

The first reading was about 8.5 on channel 40 and about 6.5 on channel one. I swapped the location of the plastic isolator and the new reading is 3.2 on channel 40 and 2.8 on channel 1. The coax was separate from everything else.

 

[jharrisliberty]

Anywhere on the chassis should work. If you have a nice clean hole it might help to scrape a little paint off around it to get to bare metal.


I'm guessing the bolt (or screws) for the mounting bracket. Which bracket are you using?


I have a 4' tunable tip Firestik (and a 5' version for the highway). As I recall I had to move it nearly to the extreme end of the range to get a good reading. I'm not sure what to tell you to try with yours. Just don't end up like the old carpenter who cut a board twice only to find out it was still too short. :Insane:

I think I almost have a good ground on it as the SWR reading has gotten better. I will try scraping a little paint off to get a better ground. I am using the firestick dodge truck hood mount. I actually saw it on the forum from a ways back.

I also recently added a firestick spring to add height to the antenna.

I don't think I would trim it till I get the SWR reading at least around 1.5 or lower. I would rather not be like that crazy carpenter. That sounds expensive. :gr_grin:

 

[Adam Roby]

The truck itself acts as part of the antenna, so mounting location can affect how the signals are received. Here is an example from another Jeep forum.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[LibertyTC]

Yup also effects transmit.
A center mounted roof antenna is always best, but not always practical.
If it just for talking to other close rigs, no big deal, but SSB skip you want a good ground plane /center mount.
Swr will drop too in a center mount, much better signal reflection.

 

[jharrisliberty]

The truck itself acts as part of the antenna, so mounting location can affect how the signals are received. Here is an example from another Jeep forum.

You must be registered for see images attach

Would this make a big difference on the SWR reading? I put my CB antenna where it is cause I saw that there were several others on the forum that had there's in the same location I put mine.

 

[jharrisliberty]

Ok so update on the problem I was having with the cb. It is fixed now. I think I might have been getting some interference from some things around me when I was calibrating it. I am getting a reading of about 1.20 on channel one and about 1.09 on channel 40. So it's a good thing that I didn't cut or trim my antenna cause it would technically need to be lengthened first.