grounding question cobra 19

What ground are you talking about? RF ground or D.C. ground?

 

Radio is getting ground threw the coax...Think I would check SWR...could be threw the roof.

 

Grounded via coaxial cable. Not good. Needs a dc ground to radio itself.

 

DC ground doesn't guarantee RF ground. You know that, Rabbi!

 

you need both.

 

Technically not on a magnet antenna, granted we know he isn't running one.

 

Stolen from the ARRL page on grounding...
4. How do mobile HF operators get RF grounds? For obvious reasons, the 8-foot buried pole won't work.

In a typical HF setup, the car is capacitively coupled to the ground, so the antenna is something sort of like a cross between a lopsided vertical dipole (with the whip being one side and the car the other) and a vertical with elevated radial system.

With a magnet mount, you get capacitive coupling between the antenna and the surface on which it's mounted. In other mounting scenarios, it's still the same theory. That's why it's sometimes necessary to run an RF ground wire to the body of the vehicle.