Ok, here is what I have done today. I ran a larger copper wire #8 awg from the batt pos. and neg. and ran it across the front of the car, and down the driver side fender into the fire wall. Before the wires were #10 and ran dirrectly from the batt and across the under hood fuse box, and lots of wire harnesses on the pass. side and into the fire wall. I made up a new #4, fine stranded copper jumper and replaced the old # 4 factory jumper from the engine to the body by the engine mount. I have double checked everything on the car itself. All grounds are good. Now, for the antenna. I have ran mag. mount antennas before. With good luck I might add. However, I am unclear on how they can ground better than a trunk lip mount. The trunk lip antenna is grounded very well. Should it not be grounded? On these Hondas, the out skin on the deck lid is attached to the inner supports with glue. And the hinges use plastic washers. So, I figured that my best be would be to attach a ground to the antenna mount base where the set screws attach it to the lip, and back to the body of the car. I used a grinder and lightly buffed the paint off of both the inside of the lip, and the body of the car under the trunk where the deck speakers are. I think I noticed a slight change in noise level going down by either running the power wire to the opposite side of the engine comp., or by changing the ground strap on the engine. In either case, the 257 still has much more noise than the 2950.
Now, for the swr. Some of you I think were un-clear on what was going on. Me to, that is whay I asked????? Yes, I use a simple, in line swr meter. I tired a jumper that I had made, I think about 18" long, and one that I bought new. Both same results. No problems with the 2950 at all. But with the 257, that is where it gets funny. If the car is not running, I can cal. the swr meter just fine. When I key up on low power, it still reads higher than the 2950 does. BUT, if I start the engine, when the noise level get high in the radio, the meter will not come back down all the way. If I cal. the swr at that point, the needle moves arround, and stays about 1.3:1 without keying. And yes, the radio is powered up. So it is picking up something other than swr right. But, it DOES NOT DO THIS WITH THE 2950! I am out of ideas!!!!
Thanks
Shawn