Little Tweaks

Antenna. Your antenna is the most important part of your setup and needs to be setup properly. You can have a $1000 antenna with a $10 radio and sound like a $1000, you have a $10 antenna and a $1000 radio and sound like $10. I see your running a wilson 1000 mag mount thats a good antenna just make sure its setup with a proper swr.

Stock radios are exactly that stock. They are built on a production line. They will not TX/RX to their true capabilites stock. A simple peak/tune/alignment from a good tech for $20-$30 and you'll be amazed at the difference. It's well worth it.

 

your best bets for better recieve and transmit is to make swure every thing is grounded. and with a mag mount it is a very poor ground to the antenna base and there fore doesn't really form a good ground plane. You need to ground the Radio case to a good chasis ground IE the frame not the body. If you ground to the body run flat braided ground straps to the frame in as many places as possable and make sure use flat braided grounds not round wire they only duplicate an antenna and will draw noise and interfearance into the radio system. Once you get it all grounded then take your radio to a tech and have it aligned properly not peaked and tuned and hacked on. If he doesn't have a system monitor then doen't waste your money and it will cost you more like 100 to 150 to have a radio completely aligned properly to the exact specs and tolerances that it should have. If all the tech has is a watt metter and a screw driver run like hell he is a butcher and there are a ton of them out there that pray on the driver and call them selves tech's and all they can do is read a book that tells them you turn this screw and cut this and the radio will put out more and modulate better more like splatter all over the place and sound like ####.

 

There is no way to ground a Mag mount they were designed to be a portable antenna to be use for temp installs not to be used full time. Change mounts and it will work better. And yes you need to ground the case to the frame as well. This cuts down on noise from out side conditions.

 

Mag mounts are fine for a permanent use. They create their own ground plane from the roof of the vehicle.. Just run a good ground cable from your radio chassis and you'll be fine. No need to run a ground from the coax and mic jacks.

 

I used the finger-tightened radio mounting-to-the-bracket 'bolts' to ground the radio's chassis. Those bolts tighten into the chassis holes. I used a star, locking washer between the radio's case and the ground strap. I attached the other end of the strap to a bolt in the front of the passenger's seat that bolts the seat to the truck's body.