Crazy high SWR

I have FOUR radios. ALL have the high SWR reading.
I am using an external meter.
I have not tried another vehicle, but I will today as a compadre of mine is in town and I can access his set up.

I tried to do all of the common sense things before I posted here so I wouldn't get scolded as a doofus (lol)...

The ground was my last resort but it was dark and I was aggravated so I pulled the plug til the morrow hoping rest would bring fresh perspective.

I just thought I'd float this here bc most of you fellas might see if missed something obvious.

It HAS to be a ground. What gets me is it had no problem previously.

Perhaps my steer tires are worn down too much and the lack of rubber tread contacting the road has affected the ground plane???

That was sarcasm.

 

@Ridgeline.. it's possible there may have been something done with the mirror. Hard to tell. I missed one trip in it and they let someone use it. They could have tree'd the antenna, or banged the mirror, or they could have serviced the mirror. I do know the mirror was worked at the Freightliner shop when the power switch went out and was replaced. It's possible they screwed up the ground then because SOMETIMES now the switch works intermittently...

I just checked my radios in my buddies truck and the swr is at a 1.2 in his unit and the radios are working just fine.

Now to get to running a ground strap.

I heard Rabbi say "shorter is better" so I'm hoping that the door jamb to the post will suffice.

I will post the outcome.

Thank you.

 

@Ridgeline..

Still baffled.
*Ran the ground strap. No change.
*re-wired an entirely new power supply with new heat shrink fittings, etc, to ensure good connections. No change.

Took the radio straight back to my buddies truck and hooked it up.... 1.2

I give up. I don't know what to do.

Everything is new.

Everything has been checked multiple times.

I just don't get it.

May try running the antenna to the passenger side, but idk if I have enough coax to reach that far... only use enough for the application.

Thanks for trying.

 

Ok.. finally.

On a whim , and with the advice of a friend , I hooked the meter to the really cheap garbage built-in coax and roof antenna from the factory.... the worst of the worst.... and the SWR dropped immediately.

That told me that SOMEHOW I had been able to have a bad coax... purchase a bad replacement... and then purchase another equally bad replacement all in the span of 2 days. WOW.

So... I went to the store and purchased a length of 97% shielded Wilson brand truck stop coax and rechecked and the SWR was at 2 and 2.4 on 1/40.
(It had been pegging my meter that reads,to 5)

Now I'm in the ballpark. I just need to tune this antenna to hopefully get it down to a 1.2 range if I can.

Thanks for everyone's advice... I was going nuts. I knew it had to be something I was looking directly at as I had changed it all at least once.

@Ridgeline