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firestik on roof grounding issue

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redneckcellphone

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my friend has a ford exploder (lol) and has the 5 foot firestik mound the roof. the swr is off the charts bad. i know that he would need a ground strap from the mount to a good ground but where is there a good ground? and what guage wire should he use?
 

KG4INW

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How's it actually mounted? The roof is the best ground plane (different from electrical ground) for mounting any mobile antenna.
 

KG4INW

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I assume that's a permanent mount so the next thing I'd check is the coax itself. Perhaps there might be a break somewhere. If that mount is on a luggage rack instead of through the actual roof, then that could be the problem.
 

reedeb

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Get something else besides a firestick. They never work right [mainly on Ford exploders, sorry I couldn't resist]
medium-smiley-035.gif
 

bryan_herbert

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If the needle is slamming to the far right its a coax or connector issue.

If it casually rises to a 3:1+ ratio its a grounding or tuning issue.
 

LtDoc

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The best way to check for a short is with an ohm meter/multimeter. Measure across the center pin and the connector body. If there's any resistance at all then there's a short in that feed line. That doesn't necessarily mean that the connector is shorted though, there can be a short somewhere else. The most likely place that "somewhere else" could be is at the antenna mount. So check both the connector at the radio end, and the antenna mount. The easiest way I know of doing that is by visually inspecting the mount to see if it's installed correctly. If it appears to be 'right', then an option would be to remove the connector at the radio end of that feed line and re-install a connector, making sure that it's done correctly. That's not exactly the easiest thing to do, so either find out how to do it or take it to someone who does know how to do it.
- 'Doc
 

JayMojave

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Hello Redneckcellpone: Thanks for the come back saying you got it fixed, good call. A lot of help is offered here and on other web sites, and many times we don't hear back from the original guy asking for help.

Good going and good luck with your radio.

Jay in the Mojave
 

w2xq

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Not in this case, but the shield on the end of the cable attached to the antenna can be broken under enough duress. As discussed above a VOM is your friend. You can also check continuity of both the inner conductor and the shield. I've seen inexpensive meters at Radio Shack, sometimes for less than $10. A digital display isn't necesssary, IMHO.
 
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