Grounding the antenna? Questions. . .

Tell me. . . . How do you ground an antenna?


And, is it really important?

(Of course, I assume that when people are talking about 'grounding' or 'make sure you have a good ground,' they are talking about the antenna, right? Because what else would you ground?)

I have used magnetic mount antennas with good success for a long time. I have never had them grounded. I don't know if they ground themselves when you stick them on a painted surface, but I usually would put something underneath to protect the paint anyway, so they were never actually touching the car.


The main reason that I ask is that I use a through the glass (cell look-alike) antenna on a Jeep that I take through the woods. I had a bumper mounted whip, but it would catch on everything, and ended up breaking in about a month. I know that the through-the-glass setup isn't the greatest, but it works good for what I need it for, communicating to other trucks in our group, usually short range.

My question is, am I able to ground this type of antenna? How would I go about doing that? And, would it increase my performance at all? Would it help to lower my SWR? With an external meter, my SWR is slightly above 2:1, that was as low as I could get it.


Sorry for the long post, and thank you if you can help me!!!

 

Everyone says that the TTG antennas are completely junk. And although my SWR is relitively high (2-2.5) it still gets me out a mile or so, in the woods here in hilly PA.

So I'm pretty pleased with the performance.