Antenna Tuning

Antenna tuning seems to me a common issue around here. I personally have never been very good at it and when I have been able to get a good SWR reading, I attribute it more to luck than me actually knowing what I am doing. To be honest I don't even know where my cheap old SWR meter is right now.

I am an OTR truck driver and up until about 3 weeks ago I was driving a 2012 Peterbilt. Using the factory antennas and coax, I had very good SWR readings (relying only on the built in SWR meters in the 3 different radios I used in that truck) and I was able to transmit and receive very well.

Now I am in a 2012 FL Cascadia and unfortunately my luck did not follow me to this truck. Something is definitely loose somewhere in the system, sometimes the meters show a decent reading, the next time they won't even calibrate and then later on they will calibrate and then peg the needle in SWR mode. Needless to say, my radio is useless with this current set up, so I just leave it off or just listen only when I need to. My time is this truck may be short lived, but if I do get another truck soon, it also will be a Cascadia and my question will be the same.

So here's the question:

Where can I go to get my antenna set up properly by someone who knows what they are doing?

I understand that I can buy a meter and do it myself, but like I said, I have had no luck in the past and honestly don't feel like driving myself crazy messing with it.

I have been using cb's for 20 years and I have always sucked at antenna tuning and I ready to just pay someone to do it right because I'm done with it.

I am willing to do all the grunt work, running the coax, bolting on the mount, etc, but I really would like someone to do the actual tuning and help me to make sure I have everything grounded properly and whatever else needs to be done.

If anyone knows where I can get this done, please let me know.

I'm totally open to whatever antenna, mount, coax combo is going to work best. I just need to know who to call to talk to about what I need to buy and where to route myself to get this all set up.

Thanks.

 

One of those brackets that use two of the mirror bolts was what I was looking at, preferably the black one so I can just put a stud mount right on that as opposed to bolting another bracket to the perch on the silver one.

Yes, I know the factory stuff is junk and I have know intentions of using anything that is already there.

I have no problem running the new coax and mounting the bracket/mount and antenna and stuff, its the tuning and making sure everything is grounded properly that I suck at. Trust me, I just end up wanting to break everything when I can't get it right after hours of messing around.

So what I'm really searching for is advice on the best combination for this truck so I can get all the right stuff the first time, which I can and will set up myself. I just want no part of the tuning and would rather find a trusted person (expert?) and just pay them to do all the fine tuning so I don't have to kill any innocent bystanders in the process.

 

I just found my old cheapo SWR meter so I guess I'm going to head out to the shop and see what else I can find to try to cobble together temporarily until I decide what to hook up permanently.

I've got a threaded perch mount, a couple of Wilson 2000's, a short whip predator 10k and I think a decent piece of coax all tucked away somewhere. I don't think that anything I have will work very well on this truck with the mirror mounting bolts being so low though, but anything is better than what's in there now.

I'm going to keep doing research and just order all new stuff that will work well on this truck before I head out on Friday and do a good installation next time I come home.

Please keep any advise coming to help me out.

Thanks.