floating ground

Some antennas don't need a ground like a 1/2 wave end fed.

That dosn't meen that they work BETTER than a antenna needing a ground return but CAN work without one. Sounds like this is what your fighting and you should NOT need that ground wire.

 

I was wondering about that floating ground, too. I just picked up a Cobra 29 and i figured I'd upgrade the antennas to 5 ft Wilson 1000s but when I hooked everything up on this '05 Volvo and shortened the tips as much as possible the SWRs were reading way up in the 5 to 7 range. I thought maybe I needed a good ground.

 

A GROUNDPLANE is needed for ANY antenna OTHER that a 1/2 wave a TRUE 1/2 wave... sounds like your right !

If your using a wip no matter who makes it and it ( like firestick/Hamstick ) is a standard wound wip to make it look like a 1/4 wave you have to have a 1/4 wave ground return ...... I just looked this " floating ground " up and it is a 1/4 wave Ground plane kit ..... When I first saw this post I assumed it was a antenna like the ones used in boats that are 1/2 wave endfed and did not require a ground .... my fault i should have known better .....

A wip ( no matter again who makes it ) requires a ground return at the antenna feed point this is hooked to the coax SHEILD .....

NO antenna other than a 1/2 wave end fed will work without this ground be it a kit or a wire run to the truck frame ..... and your SWR will stink without it ...... and like the wip it too must be tuned ......


This antenna is a 1/4 wave base antenna if you look wou will see the 1/4 wave groundplane 8 of them at the bottom ....

 

The short answer is yes, the Wilson floating ground can help when there are no other options, or no other practical options, to get your antenna tuned in. It basically operates as a counterpoise to your main radiating element (the antenna). Just follow the instructions that come with the kit. I've used similar kits, both commercial and home-made, to tune in mobile systems in situations where other options were either impossible, or highly impractical.

 

What about those little radial ground plane kits? Would those be of any help on a fiberglass truck?

 

Those little radial kits have nothing to do with ground. All they do is add some capacitance to the bottom of the antenna. Sometimes they can help with getting a better impedence match or better SWR, but it has nothing to do with ground. Often, they can make things worse, as I've seen many times.

 

That's what I was afraid of. If they worked I'd expect to see them on all kinds of trucks, but I can't recall ever seeing them on somebody's mirror. Thanks.