Just installed new system, SWR is too high, please advise!

Interesting you mentioned that copper tape...Somone in my area was selling a bunch of it and i thought about grabbin a cpl rolls to do the same as you(on a fg hood of my truck)but i didnt find an answer if it helped or not.....

 

I would build a ground plane on the bottom (inside)of the sleeper, this would be a pain, you have to drop the headliner, use copper to build a (effectively) a ground p-lane similar to the roof of a faraday cage, that way you will have an effective ground plane. I run a HF radio in my tractor a Icon IC7300. Its in a W900 and I did go thru the pain in the butt of building a good ground plain surface, would do it again. I still use my antenna tuner between the radio and the Tarheel antenna.

 

It's simple really. It is either of these two things; you need a longer whip or a better ground.

 

That would be a hell of a gp cause each length of wire for said gp would be pretty long..
Bonding would be easier and still effective..

 

I had a girl in middle school tell me the same thing.

Still hurts to this day.

 

I had a friend HAM who has since passed away (seems the average age of a HAM operator is 142 years old) but he showed me his HF antenna. The #### thing was stretched across the entire yard through the trees. He could talk worldwide on that crazy looking contraption.

 

If you want to see crazy, I have a lightbulb as an antenna. I also use a simple dipole.

 

Crazy is when you see a huge antenna in your back yard that nasa traded in for the newer version...Then you look at the radio and see a ctrl board AGAIN like nasa traded in...