insanitylivz
Member
Ok. Just got back into CB's for 4 wheeling purposes. I forgot how much I loved using one when I was a kid and my Uncle would get a layover for a few days. Man, I would sleep in his cab talking on his CB to distant lands. Those were the days before automatic log books and GPS, the ones I consider the good old ones.
But I digress. I had this little 19 mounted on the front driver fender of my Durango with a pro-comm cut to tune 3' whip. Needless to say I couldn't get swr under 2.5 My buddy upgraded his rig and let me use his Firestik FS4 3' Tuneable tip and we got in the high ones. 1.8 on 1 and right at 2 on 20. Checked the grounding and everything was good on the multi meter so we chalked it up to antenna too small and I ordered a Wilson 305-4FD Silver Load.
Silver load got here today and we were completely unable to get it out of the high 2's. Checked continuity and it was fine, nothing in the way, all was as should be. I decided to hook up the jumper cable of the Wilson to a ground because the packaging recommends doing this if you are too high to drop "20 channels". I connected it to a grounding strap to my frame by soldering another length of strap to the washer of the Wilson jumper cable. Swr shot to 3's grounded to the main grounding strap on the firewall. I unhooked the wire from the strap and just randomly left it hanging and when I got in the truck my buddy said to check my readings now. I was hitting 1.3 on 1 and 1.8 on 20 rolling about perfect on 20. After antenna adjustments I got below 1.5 on 1 and 40.We played around with it for a while and realized that for some reason, lengthening the cable on the Wilson but NOT grounding it to anything, just taping it off and sticking it under the hook under plastic not touching anything conductive was the key.
Why? I want to understand why lengthening that cable and not connecting it to a ground worked, but connecting it to a ground as instructed before and after being l;lengthened killed my swr. My grounds are fine on the mount, everything is in order. Someone who understands this stuff enlighten me please. Thank you.
But I digress. I had this little 19 mounted on the front driver fender of my Durango with a pro-comm cut to tune 3' whip. Needless to say I couldn't get swr under 2.5 My buddy upgraded his rig and let me use his Firestik FS4 3' Tuneable tip and we got in the high ones. 1.8 on 1 and right at 2 on 20. Checked the grounding and everything was good on the multi meter so we chalked it up to antenna too small and I ordered a Wilson 305-4FD Silver Load.
Silver load got here today and we were completely unable to get it out of the high 2's. Checked continuity and it was fine, nothing in the way, all was as should be. I decided to hook up the jumper cable of the Wilson to a ground because the packaging recommends doing this if you are too high to drop "20 channels". I connected it to a grounding strap to my frame by soldering another length of strap to the washer of the Wilson jumper cable. Swr shot to 3's grounded to the main grounding strap on the firewall. I unhooked the wire from the strap and just randomly left it hanging and when I got in the truck my buddy said to check my readings now. I was hitting 1.3 on 1 and 1.8 on 20 rolling about perfect on 20. After antenna adjustments I got below 1.5 on 1 and 40.We played around with it for a while and realized that for some reason, lengthening the cable on the Wilson but NOT grounding it to anything, just taping it off and sticking it under the hook under plastic not touching anything conductive was the key.
Why? I want to understand why lengthening that cable and not connecting it to a ground worked, but connecting it to a ground as instructed before and after being l;lengthened killed my swr. My grounds are fine on the mount, everything is in order. Someone who understands this stuff enlighten me please. Thank you.