29 ltd swr peggin out in wrong direction?????

I run a 4300/300 connex and a little over 50' of braided copper wire for ground, from antenna mount to truck frame and from radio to truck frame,, annoying sometimes cause I can pick up people sometimes over 50 miles ahead.

 

needs to be low in cal , position only. don't worry about the reading in the other positions.
when switch is in S/RF , it reads incoming signals.

 

I didn't read all the posts real close. But, for what it's worth (FWIW) I have never been able to get a good SWR reading when mounting an antenna to a tool box!

 

I just now had a chance to look at pics and re-read your test procedure, Duck. I think you said you checked SWR with the switch at the bottom and the *top*.
The procedure is thusly: Set the switch to the bottom, or CAL position, hold the PTT switch, and turn the Calibrate knob (over on the right) until the needle rests on the "cal" mark. Then. without changing anything else, flip the SWR switch to the *middle* position, marked SWR, and read it. As Numb started to mention above, the very top position is where the switch typically sits during day-to-day ops, where it will show incoming signal strength on receive, and relative output power on transmit. It looks like he edited partway through, though, and missed the second step. If you never switch from "calibrate", you'll never let the meter calculate what's being reflected.
If you've got the toolbox and mount grounded, let's try that and check before changing anything else. At least that's what I'd do.
73,
Handlebar
p.s. And don't expect the world with being mounted to the toolbox, as was just mentioned, too. But at some point, when I can't get stuff perfect, I just kick the spool of wire off the roof, plug the loose end into my tuner, and get on the air.

 

how strange. What conditions could cause the meter to read more than at the CAL mark?

One note: If the SWR is wrong, and the S/RF function of the meter is selected, the RF output can either read too high or too low. Either way. But you say you have it in the CAL or SWR positions, not the S/RF position.



OK, so to recap, you put the meter switch to CAL, key it, and set the pointer to the CAL arrow. Then put the switch to SWR and it increases past that?

Under no circumstances should that happen unless:
1: the meter is bad/misadjusted (has anyone messed around inside the radio, is this adjustable?)
2: is connected backwards (unlikely because it is built in, but an external meter can do this).
3: what else?

This is very weird. Try an external meter and check it against your CB's meter function. Just to be sure it's working right.

About that tool box, you said it had rubber strips, but you added a wire. OK, well it might be best to check and make sure that is really a good solid connection to the bed or goodeneck. It's best to put one on each side as well but should not be absolutely necessary. Is the bed grounded well to the frame? Ought to be a couple straps underneath. Is the antenna bracket to the lid or body of the tool box. RF should not have to pass through a hinge.

The use of a wire all the way from a toolbox mount to a gooseneck asembly is a quite long ground wire. It's possibly a source of more trouble. RF ground has to be a short one.