how to read ohms on coax??

[northern35s]

You can use your tuner with most antennas I'd venture, so no reason why not with the hamsticks, however I'd look to borrow someone's analyser and make sure you get the antenna resonant first. The 10m hamstick is pretty much a 1/4WL antenna and will work very well indeed, the more loading you add to the antenna the less efficient they become, 20m being the breaking point, still reasonable efficiency.

Check out this mobile antenna shoot out and look what came second, but I doubt most people would drive around with this particular antenna installation:

2012 mobile shoot out

 

[bluestallion]

my install on my jeep would be like the gentleman that came in 10th place. I tried mounting it like this before with a 40m hamstick, but everytime would key, my airbag light would come on for some reason. but usually am on 10 and 20m when on hf.

 

[TonyV225]

I have a ldg z100 tuner. Can i use it with the hamsticks? I'd like to get sticks for 10 and 20 meters

You sure can, As a matter of fact one of the Yaesu Tuners I have is not a Yaesu I just remembered its actually an LDG AT-897 but connects to my Yaesu FT-897 just like the original matching bolt on Yaesu FC-30 and that LDG will tune just about anything.

 

[MudDuck442]

ground ground and more ground. When you think you have enough, take a break, realize you don't and do some more. Sure.. "ground" isn't the right term but for all intensive purposes let's use it because that is what everyone is familiar with. Use flat braid from some old coax or buy some and bond every part of the vehicle together. Especially hoods, trunk lids, everything and anything. It never hurts to do the engine block/alternator too to the frame and battery to prevent voltage drop. Every time I do this my RF problems go away. The tuner isn't a bad idea but keep in mind it's not really fixing anything and it just allows you radio to deliver full power output is all. Mobile HF setups are always a compromise at best so the general rule of thumb I follow is do the best you absolutely can. Ever figure out what running 300 watts into a hamstick on 40 meters in a mobile what the actual ERP is? I'll give you a hint..it's in the low double digits at best.

 

[KM3F]

Ham sticks wound for any specfic band provides a match against the vehichle metal mass.
Since each install provides different vehichle conditions, you need to try to tune the antenna first for a match at the radio.
Placing many grounds won't improve the basic lack of vehichle area to match against.
The radiator you use is only one half of a complete system.
The other half is the vehichle and what you have to work with providing the base of the antenna at it's connector is mounted to the body.
Loading is the second way to achive a match but introduces I squared R loss from the coil.
On small vehichles with no hard top, or fiber glass it's tough to get any antenna to match down.
A highly loaded and wound antenna is very narrow banded so the match won't stsy low very far each side of any low swr frequency set point.
If too much RF current is running on the body and wireing or the outside of the feedline, it can get into other systems.
Mobile antenna efficiencies are very low as it is.
Feedline impedance is set by the diameter of the center conductor, spacing to the shield and to some degree the insulation.
You can't measure it eaisly is except by feeding power through it to a flat load then doing the same with a known good peice of cable of the same kind.
If there is a difference in impedance it will show on the SWR meter at the power feed end, as a
reflected power ratio.
Good luck.