Sudden SWR spike

Any ideas as to what can cause off the charts SWR inside a radio?

I tried about five different antennas (from "Lil' Will" to a 1/8 wave 102"), some various lengths of coax & rolling back the mic/power all the way.

On my new meter they're all pegged out, tried the old one & it ranges from 5-10, lowest I could get bordered on 3 but rose quickly.

This is a mobile set up as a base, I'm pretty much limited to a magnet mount atop an a/c unit (not currently on, just plugged in for some form of grounding)roughly 15' away. There is brick separating the two but I'm not too sure that makes a difference as I get skip from 3k miles away on an indoor antenna.

 

Wish I could, the landlord would probably impale me with it.

 

That Tram should do the trick, thanks! I could probably get away with putting a direct tv or space internet sticker on it, guy likely won't figure out.


I've been trying to find one from what I'm guessing was made in the 80s, nostalgia purposes as it was my first setup. It was roughly 20' - 25' of fiberglass & baby blue of all colors.

Granted I was using it during the peak of sun cycle 22 when I could reach Denver from CT with some regularity on a radio shack handheld at night but that thing was nicely made.

That was a surefire way to get made fun of in high school, carrying around a cb

 

Oh jeez, yea that'll do it! Cool that she supported the hobby though.

I got and still do get the "breaker breaker" jabs but comes with the territory I suppose.
Oddly enough when girls came over they were thrilled to use the base station. Give them a silly handle & suddenly that became their nickname.

My parents were not happy with my new hobby from day one freshman year. A classmate sold me my first rig for $20 (a tuned up rs variant radio, micronta supply, turner +3, swr meter & the fiberglass mast....talk about a deal!). My dad showed up from work, "Get that off of the property!"
Words were exchanged, in the end I prevailed.

Downside was the random trespassers cutting my coax & the weirdos offering some free extra equipment that they didn't need (showed up with nothing but themselves, being in their 40s-50s trying to get in the house....made me stop giving my 20) freaked me out but there were more nice folks than weirdos so nearly 30 years later still keying away.

 

It was hard to believe even when seeing it with my own eyes, could've been excitement over a new experience & all the lights.

I may have mentioned it before but one took the handle "corn nugget", saw her years later & wanted to get right back on the radio with the same name. Her husband was kinda shocked to say the least.

Absolutely The deals that popped up as people started going with "unlimited nights & weekends starting at 23:00" were fantastic.
The best was one that I couldn't take full advantage of as I completely filled my car & could only make one run. Back when bargain news/cl listings could still be trusted, I saw an ad that said "CB/HAM radios $25."

He didn't mean each, he meant everything in his entire collection filling every nook & cranny of his home, from base to unopened handheld "help" models, all variety of antenna/mounts & coax, boxes of mics.

Had I known what to really look for at the time (in my naivety I assumed Cobra was tops), the superstars & rangers, etc would have come with me. Didn't even know about SSB then.

Also turned down the HAMs as I didn't know you could run one unlicensed providing you didn't transmit.

Such a good deal that I'm still kicking myself Odds of finding something like that again, man if it happens a second time I might actually buy a lottery ticket with that sort of luck!