2013 crap cadia and...

You should take an ohmmeter and check the DC resistance between your bracket and the body and your bracket to the battery and anything greater than 0 ohms is a problem that needs to be rectified before you can proceed any further.

 

You can get a good SWR reading on a dummy load...........just sayin'
If you'll do what I did, your problems will be over......and I posted pictures. (It is a long post, but you can just read post # 33 & 36 for the necessary information.)


http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/threads/cascadia-antenna-solutions.249124/

 

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When discussing antennas and SWR, please stop suggesting going from anything to the battery. When discussing SWR's what is needed is to check the antenna ground plane or counter poise. This calls for BONDING or interconnecting the large metal surfaces [door, cab frame and chassis] into one large antenna ground plane for RF [radio frequency] purposes. It has nothing to do with electrical grounding or the battery.
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When your SWR checked with an externa meter [not the meter in the radio] is 3 or above, the antenna ground plane should be checked and ,if necessary, fixed before using the radio or damage to the final amplification circuit of your radio can occur.

 

My next suggestion if he found a problem would have been to bond the different body components together using short pieces of braided ground strap. So the advice I gave regarding diagnosing a problem was 100% correct. I just never offered him the solution because he never followed through with the troubleshooting I suggested.

 

Prime example: the roof of my Chevy Tahoe was electrically isolated from dc ground as well as the frame of the vehicle.
Antenna wasn't tunable. Bonding cab to fenders and cab to frame solved the problem.

 

Checking SWR first is a common mistake that many people make. Unless the DC and Rf potential is equal you will be unable to make any antenna adjustments. Any reading you get will automatically be wrong and you will just be chasing your tail scratching your head trying to figure out why your adjustments do not seem to be getting you anywhere. You must always Use an ohmmeter to check DC ground and make sure the body of the vehicle and the antenna mounting surface are all tied together before you proceed to take any SWR measurements otherwise any measurements you take will often be incorrect once you discover a ground problem and that ground problem must be fixed before an accurate SWR reading can be taken. If your antenna is mounted on a mirror bracket on a big truck you must measure the DC resistance between the mirror bracket and the door skin. You should measure the DC resistance between the door skin and the cab of the truck if you see anything higher than 0 ohms you can use a six-inch braided ground strap to connect across the hinge and bond the door skin to the cab of the truck to make an electrical connection. Then you measure the ohms from the cab of the truck to the frame of the truck. Anything greater than 0 ohms you need to bond the body of the truck to the frame of the truck using the shortest braided ground strap possible. The battery should always be factored into the equation because if the path to battery ground is unable to handle the current necessary to run the equipment it will create problems and a voltage drop. All the different components of your truck should be bonded together using short little pieces of braided ground strap. Once you are 100% sure everything is tied together with an impedance of zero ohms, only then can you take accurate SWR measurements.

 

It's all about having a solid foundation upon which to attach an antenna and begin the tuning process

 

Go for the rail on the back of the cab that holds airline and electrical. Mine is there and i am a solid 1 on swr. Radio and on an external meter. No braided straps just attenna cable cb