2020 Cascadia Skipshooter Installation

Ok. I'm not sure where that part ended up since I wasn't using it in my second picture. (In the first picture, I clearly had the connections all wrong.) I'll have to look for it; perhaps it ended up my toolbox. I wonder if the new heavy-duty stud I bought from RCR (delivered yesterday but I'm not home) came with one. Thanks, Night Stalker. I'll follow-up in a few days.

 

I'm on my way home this weekend to try again with the new coax and stud I ordered from RCR. In the mean time, I've been studying a bit. Here's what I learned; experienced folks shall be bored with the following but I'm hoping it'll help those as new as I am. Feel free to politely correct any misunderstandings.

Antennas are like boats in the water near a dock/pier. If you push off the boat (transmit) without securing the boat to the dock (grounding the antenna), the boat will just push away from the dock and you'll fall into the water (your transmission will falter and you'll have high SWR readings). If you tied the boat down to the dock (grounded the antenna to the metal body of your vehicle), then your boat has something to hold on to and push against you so you'll make it to the dock (antenna will have something to reflect off of to get your signal "out there"). The bigger the rope you use to tie up that boat (the more grounded your antenna is to your vehicle and the more metal the vehicle is), the better the boat is able to push against you (the better the antenna will be able to transmit your signal).

Let's say your vehicle's body is made of metal but each metal body part is separated by insulating (non-conductive) parts like plastic/nylon and fiberglass. Let's also say your antenna mount is connected to the roof your car. Because your car's major body parts are separated, all your antenna has to ground to (the size of the rope in the boat analogy) is the roof.

But if you could somehow connect those components together, you'd increase the amount of metal (size of the rope) the antenna can use; the more grounded your antenna will be, and theoretically, better SWR readings should result.

Enter the concept of bonding your vehicle's major components together using braided ground straps.

It was previously recommended to me that I use braided ground straps on my driver's side door. Unfortunately, my entire truck is made of fibreglass except for the obvious metal components like the frame, engine block, etc. etc.

I called Pat (owner of RCR) and spoke with him about his suggestions in this scenario. At the end of the discussion, we decided that the best course of action for me at this point would be to do the following:

1. Get home and try out the new stuff since I have already bought it.
2. Check SWR readings.
3. If bad SWR readings, consider switching to either a dual 7-foot Skipshooter setup or a single no-ground plane, top-loaded antenna like a 4' Firestick version they sell.

Apparently, dual antenna systems are good for fiberglass vehicles because the antennas (somehow) act as grounds for each other. (Don't ask me how that works because I don't know...yet.) You also don't do dual no-ground plane setups because that is not a thing. Only single-antenna no-ground plane. Don't ask me why that is either, cause I don't know yet.

I'd like to know if there is a third option: improve the SWR readings by bonding what metal I do have together? If so, which components should I try bonding together considering that I learned that braided ground straps need to be as short as possible and wide as possible.

Additionally, if my truck body is all fiberglass, how is the antenna mount grounding the antenna? What's it grounding to?

Thanks!

 

Well, the good news is that for the 30 minutes or so where I did have a good connection in my first attempt, my SWR reading on the built-in meter was 1.25 just like with the stock antenna. My external SWR meter agrees with my internal one, so I suspect that I would have had 1.25 on the external as well while using the Skipshooter. I'll find out for sure this weekend. I really don't want to have to change up everything. I'm fairly confident that this will work out okay since @rabbiporkchop had this exact setup once. (At least, I think it was him.)

Thanks for the suggestions, Night Stalker.

Do you have any advice as to the questions I posed in my last post? Here they are again for convenience:

Considering that most of my truck is fiberglass, would it be feasible to think I could improve SWR readings and cut out noise by bonding what metal I do have together? If so, which components should I try bonding together? I ask this because I learned that braided ground straps need to be as short as possible and as wide as possible, but what metal parts I do have are probably not close together. Suggestions here?

And then: Since my truck body is all fiberglass, how is the antenna mount grounded to begin with? What's it grounding to exactly?