Sky high SWR issues...

WillMooseJaw

WillMooseJaw

New member
After troubleshooting pretty much everything I can think of with my CB I can't seem to get the SWR below 10...

After testing for a ground I have perfect continuity between the mount (rear tire carrier) and the battery ground terminal meaning that grounding is not an issue.

I have brand new coax routed from the dash through the passenger side footwell through the tailgate to the tire carrier. The coax isn't coiled, pinched, or broken anywhere.

The antenna (firestik) is mounted where the upper half is well above the hard top. The antenna is good (no short).

Not really sure where to go from there? Maybe the radio is the issue?
Any help would be appreciated!
 
Have a buddy you can swap radios with and check? That would rule it out as the source.
 
Isnt the firestick adjustable? Mine has the cap on top with adjustment bolt for fine tune.
I installed mine about a month ago but havnt checkrd the swr yet. I Ran an 18' cable.
 
I would definitely get it checked if you run with the swr high you run the risk of damaging your radio . Reply to Rebel

2011 JKU 3.5 R.E. Longarm lift.
 
WillMooseJaw said:
After troubleshooting pretty much everything I can think of with my CB I can't seem to get the SWR below 10...

After testing for a ground I have perfect continuity between the mount (rear tire carrier) and the battery ground terminal meaning that grounding is not an issue.!
Click to expand...

How did you conduct this test?
 
I tested the ground by running a wire from the ground terminal on the battery to the volt meter to the bottom of the antenna mount to make sure the tire carrier was grounded to the chassis properly. The meter read no interference at all. I have a buddy I could switch radios with to see if that changes things.
 
WillMooseJaw said:
I have a JKU so I have the 18' connected to a 9' extension to run through the tailgate.
Click to expand...

I personally don't have experience with spliced coax (extension), but have been told they can cause issues. On my set up 18' was plenty with the antenna mounted on the tire carrier. I ran my coax behind the factory roll bar padding. And if I remember correctly I had about a foot of excess, this is also on a bumper mount swing out carrier on a jksu.

2011 JKU 3.5 R.E. Longarm lift.
 
I used a female to female adapter for connecting the coax together so that shouldn't cause issues? I'll check tomorrow and see if there is continuity on the coax from end to end. Maybe the connector is shorting.
 
Make sure that the antennae mounting hardware has a good connection to whatever it is attached to. Sometimes you have to scrape off some paint or in my situation, I had some rust on the bracket which was keeping the ground from making a good contact. Do you have the plastic washer on the top side of the mount?
 
Yes. The plastic washer is there set up just like the diagram. I had to remove some of the powder coat to get a good connection on the bottom of the mount. But there is metal/metal contact between the tire carrier and the mount now.
 
If you're reading is that high, you are grounding out somewhere. Just to make sure, the hole which your antenna stud mount is goes through is wider in diameter than the stud correct? In other words, the stepped lip of the nylon washer does sit inside the hole, right? The threaded stud cannot make contact with mount and the nylon washer will help to prevent that.
 
I'm pretty sure the shoulder of the plastic washer does fit nicely into the hole. I'll test for system wide issues today to see exactly where I'm grounding out.
 
Had the same issue, I ran a nice sized ground wire from one of the bracket bolts- through the tail gate- and drilled a hole in the tub for the other end, making sure to scratch a lil paint away.
I went from reading 3+ down to 1.1

I also wasnt able to hear any talking on any of the channels, was another sign of bad grounding. The tail gate itself is not grounded well.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using WAYALIFE mobile app
 
I think I've found an issue. Using the cb end of the coax I tested for resistance between the barrel of the coax (ground) and the battery ground terminal. There was 0 resistance. But when I tested for resistance between the battery terminal and the pin of the coax, there was also continuity, where there is supposed to be 100% resistance. Coax may be the issue.
 
The coax was indeed the issue. It was grounding out somewhere in the cable. There was continuity between the center pin and the barrel of the coax. New coax cable fixed the problem and SWR is down to 1.2! Thanks for the help!
 
WillMooseJaw said:
The coax was indeed the issue. It was grounding out somewhere in the cable. There was continuity between the center pin and the barrel of the coax. New coax cable fixed the problem and SWR is down to 1.2! Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

That will do it. Good to see you figured it out.
 
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