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HELP need good ground
http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=8995		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  raceinfan [ Sat May 27, 2006 9:38 pm ]
Post subject:  HELP need good ground
hey guy's I'm trying to ground my Firestik antenna it's on a mount thats attached to my spare tire carrier ,I have run a separate ground wire from the mount to 1 of the rear door hinge mounts but I'm still not getting a good swr reading where & how would be a good clean area to run this ground wire I've tried every which way with the tunable tip to get it close but it's still in the red,gotta have it ready by monday all I want to do is ground the antenna, it is on a spring mount also
Author:  corwyyn [ Sun May 28, 2006 1:48 am ]
Post subject: 
If you're going to the door side of the hinge it still may not have a good ground. I would suggest going to your local auto parts store and getting about a 10-12" ground strap, then going from the body side of the hinge across to the door side. That will help electrically 'bond' the two together and let you get a better ground. As for it being on a spring mount, if you have access to an ohm meter check to see if you have continuity across the spring - some of the better springs have a metal braid inside to give a better connection. If the spring is bad just do without (if you can).
Author:  raceinfan [ Sun May 28, 2006 4:07 pm ]
Post subject: 
is this correctly set up or is it too much distance between the antenna & wire
Image
Author:  Gringo Loco [ Sun May 28, 2006 6:27 pm ]
Post subject: 
Pete I think you can lose the extra piece between the mount and the spring, the washers look right. I was having problems with being in the red on all channels also. I switched to another coax(20' radioshack) and it seems to have corrected the problem.

Hope this helps
Author:  raceinfan [ Wed May 31, 2006 6:32 pm ]
Post subject: 
Thanks Gringo I had the same prob. as you, had to change the cable, all fixed now
Author:  meduncan [ Wed May 31, 2006 9:29 pm ]
Post subject: 
I'll add my two cents here. I just got done fixing my radio too. Did a check with an SWR and found that I was red across the board. Traced it back to a bad connection on the "fire ring" of the coax cable. After junking the cable and picking up a 20' coax and antenna stud from Radio Shack I'm now down to about 1.4 or 1.5 SWR reading.
Author:  Se7enLC [ Wed May 31, 2006 9:34 pm ]
Post subject: 
meduncan wrote:
I'll add my two cents here. I just got done fixing my radio too. Did a check with an SWR and found that I was red across the board. Traced it back to a bad connection on the "fire ring" of the coax cable. After junking the cable and picking up a 20' coax and antenna stud from Radio Shack I'm now down to about 1.4 or 1.5 SWR reading.


bad connection of the fire ring to the coax, or bad connection of the ring to the antenna itself?

The order of the nylon washers, metal washers, mount, ring, etc are very particular, and if you mess them up, it'll be like having no antenna at all, just a grounded loop of wire back to the receiver. Did you check continuity of the connector when you installed? I set the meter for continuity and make sure the center conductor of the cable conducts to the antenna metal (metal nut right below the fiberglass), the outer shield of the cable conducts to the mount, and there is no cross-conduction.
Author:  meduncan [ Thu Jun 01, 2006 8:25 am ]
Post subject: 
Yep, had the components installed properly and even double checked that to be sure. It was a bad connection from the coax to the fire ring. The actual wire inside appeared to be frayed or otherwise broken because if I put a slight bend in the cable one way (at the flex point right near the ring) the SWR dropped to normal (around 1.5) but if I let go the SWR was above 3. I don't have anything to read continuity so the best I could do was go off the SWR meter reading.
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