Fried my radio

If you were talking on the radio, with the antenna all full of water and shorted out, then YES you probably fried the radio because of high SWR...

If all you did was turn on the radio and it started going goofy, then I doubt the antenna had anything to do with it, unless somehow a power source from the battery came into the radio threw the coax...sorta like lightning striking the antenna and sending a power surge to the radio.

 

Check and see if water may have somehow dripped down inside the radio...May have to take the covers off and see if it's wet inside...maybe water ran down the coax and got in the radio... Since it didn't go batty until after you washed the truck, it sounds like water is the culprit, But just having a antenna full of water shouldn't hurt the radio unless you were talking on it at the time.

 

Exactly right, I dont say that very often.

dead short on the antenna will not hurt it unless you transmit, the other option maybe someone with a very large amp very close keyed up.

SWR is simplt telling you that the rf generated by your finals is not making out of the antenna, and is traveling back into the finals of your radio looking for a ground. And this can be duplicated by 500+ watts being transmitted to close to you. I had a guy key up a big amp when they he was passing me, my radio was off, it still lite up and smoke came rolling out of it, dont know how big his amp was, but I guess you could say big enough.

SO it is actually possible that you did nothing wrong and still lost it.

Good news finals & protection diodes in a cobra are cheep to buy.

Hope you have a better New Year.

 

If it were me...I would toss the antenna. If water got in it once...It will most likely do it again...As for the radio, if you like it, it maybe worth taking to a shop and having it checked out to see what the problem is...If they want more than 50 bucks to look at it, if it were me I would just buy a new one...Cobra 29's are not that expencive, you can find them new for around $100 or less.

Before hooking a new one up tho, I would double check everything to find out what happened to the first one so it don't happen again.

One thing you said about the coax running in threw the door tho is a RED FLAG....Running the coax in threw the door jam can pinch the coax and cause a short. I would try and find a different way to run the coax inside so nothing is crushing it.

 

For I think it was 89.00 on Amazon you can replace it, If you do not work on them yourself I would give it a proper burial. Just replace antenna and coax at the same time. Francis 5.5 work well.