Need tips on how to best setup everything for optimal performance

I have no experience with Clays, but I really haven't read any bad reviews either. He can't be too bad if he's using an antenna analyzer. I see I'm late with this post, did you get your antenna checked out by him?

 

Not yet.Will probably do it the next time I’m home.I did run 10 awg power wire directly to the battery with a fuse and also 10 awg ground wire to the metal housing around the cubby hole.The Stryker has a built in SWR meter and something built into it that doesn’t allow it to transmit when the SWR is high.Showing 1.2 on 19 and 1.0 on 1 and 40.Tried it out last night and made contact with a station in Portland,Oregon.

 

Gnd wire in what houseing....Electrical and rf grounds are totally different....Power wire to battery with fuse as you said and either electrically ground radio near base of ant or battery....Not sure why near base of radio though..

Lotsa rf bonding as pointed out....Usually from one side of door hinge to cab side..cab side to firewall area then chassie on both doors..Two on the back cab shock mounts..Be sure to use a multi meter to know if your connected..On ohms setting it should be all 000000,anything else means resistence or no connection..Like nightstalkers said,keepem short as possible..

 

Hang on a second. I agree what everything you said except for this.

I've owned tons of multimeters, and the ONLY ones I could zero out were the old analog ones. EVERY digital meter I've ever owned, even my 150 dollar Fluke, doesn't go to all 0's when ohm'd out. It will show .1 or sometimes .2.

So my instructions to the OP are to short your meter leads with it set to OHM and read it. Whatever number it shows is 0 ohms for YOUR meter.

 

Well zero smero...If your meter shows one or two ohms when you do your start up test then thats the zero..Your VERY litteral there bub..

 

I am because YOU told him to keep going until he hit all zeros. If he didn't check his meter first, he might have a direct short to ground with 0 ohms of actual resistance but his meter shows .2 and he might continue to try to find where the resistance is coming from when it's not really there.

When you tell someone to do something until they reach an EXACT measurement on a meter, then you MUST use literal directions to obtain that.

 

Interesting topic. I agreed with drivingmissdaisy. But after thinking about it, I thought I would check it out with my 2 digital meters. I know in the past that it seemed like my digital meters didn't zero out in ohms. I assumed that the resistance in the cables was the reason. Well I just tested my old $130 Micronta digital meter and it showed 1.1 ohms with the cables shorted. Then I checked my newer $40 digital meter, it would show .3, .2, .1, then .0 ohms. I thought that was interesting that the ohms would drop. I guess the meter maybe calibrating the resistance of the cables until it finally reached zero?? It didn't matter if the meters were in auto or manual, or if the meters were in mega ohms, or manual setting meter to .X ohms. So in conclusion according to my 2 meters, you both are correct, and I learned something new.

 

Sorry I couldn't get the second meter posted. I'm still trying to get things figured out on this forum.

 

Rather than worry about what the numbers are on the meter, if your meter has an "audible" setting to "beep" when a direct short is detected, that would be easiest. That way you don't even have to try to see the meter, just listen for the beep.