More junk from Bob's CB shop.

My advice to new guys to the hobby, do your homework before you go to these shops. Tell them what you want. Watch them install, or better yet do it yourself.

I posted a while back, I went back to return some junk to Bob's, and little did I know, I still had junk, junk coax.

When John reran the coax to the passenger side, the final bit was connecting to the radio. The SWRs shot through the roof. He claimed it was a loose connection where the antenna and radio connects. His brilliant fix, was to add more junk. Shurman has a video about 'more junk'. This guy John, I am pissed right now because it could have destroyed my radios. Good thing my finals didn't blow, in my Stryker or the 959. But I sent the radio cross country for nothing.

The problem, the outer metal ring at the end of the coax has to touch the metal backing to make full connection. When it doesn't, swrs climb with added power, and the volume decreases. I know there is a technical term for this but I can't recall. But I know that this is NOT how it should behave. I remember testing the line with my multimeter for continuity, and it passed. But I didn't check the threaded end to the metal nose before the ring. How was I to know to do that?

Here are the pictures. I'll be better off with truck stop coax until I can get to DTB. John had twice to make good, he failed both times.

 

You see how those are different from mine in that the only metal is the connector? When my connector is not touching the metal at the end of the cable there isn't a proper connection. Why I don't know. But when I loosened the connection so that the two metal pieces touch, the swrs stay flat even at full power.

 

My cable is shorted this per video.

 

Adding more junk!

 

I have been looking for NMO studs to do just that, but have not been able to find ones for big truck.

The cables with nmo ends that screw right into the antennas don't look sturdy enough for high winds on a perch.

 

Isn't the fitting soldered to the radio?