hey does the "jumper wire" between my swr meter and radio need to be a certain length

WA4GCH · Nov 18, 2011

jessejamesdallas said: ↑

if your buddy grabbing the coax made your swr meter read lower that should tell ya something!

I'm willing to bet your antenna mount is not getting the ground it needs...if it's mounted on the mirror bracket that wouldn't surprise me, some of these new mirror brackets just don't get a good ground...you can try running ground straps off the mirror bracket to a good grounding point like the firewall or frame and see if that helps.

Using old coax like mike5511 was saying works just fine, but usually what i do is strip off the outer jacket of the coax, then pull the center conductor wire out, then flatten the braid and put a little solder on the ends, then attach that using self tapping screws...but either way would work.

On my work van i originally wanted to mount my antenna on the mirror brackets, but no mater what i tried i could never get a decent ground...ended up fabricating a fender mount under the hood and mounted the antenna that way, and it worked perfect!

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neat idea !

this_is_nascar · Nov 18, 2011

KE5WDP said: ↑

There is loss but on a mobile, you can't even tell the difference. I prefer to use just enough because I don't have anymore room for chords. So I use 3ft jumpers and 9 and 12ft runs. With multiple radios and such, it gets cluddered pretty fast.
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A loss of what?

mike5511 · Nov 19, 2011

fgb3 said: ↑

I'm running a wilson 5000 off a mount I made on the bottom of the mirror. I just saw one almost like the one I made but its stainless steel I think I'm gonna try that. I had ok ground with just 1 wire to the bolt the batteries are grounded with before on 2009 but this new one just won't work. I'm not sure if antenna is to close to truck or what but ill figure something out before I put my new one in here that's for sure. Thanks for the tips maybe ill try bonding see what that does. I noticed that wy buddy was standing next to the truck on the ground. He grabbed the black part and swrs went to 1.3lol I just gotta talk him into running next to me. Thanks again
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Leaning the antenna forward away from the door helped my SWR, but if you lean too far, you start losing signal strength. I think about 18 - 22 degrees is about as far they say you should lean one. The fact your sWR changed when your friend grabbed it means you have a grounding problem. Not a electrical ground problem but a RF ground problem. Means you need to do more bonding between the antenna and the frame.

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