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Mobile Antenna Tuning Advise. Not happy so far

Charlie Brown

Charlie Brown

certifiable
Dec 18, 2010
344
66
38
Tennessee
www.pedalsteelman.com
Ok so i pucked my truck and ran 12' of 213.. The antenna would only tune to 1.3 so I changed the coax to 18ft of 213 same deal 1.3 I tried a wilson 2000 trucker and an original audio king. tried various shaft lengths as well.

The antenna is in the middle of the cab of the truck mounted thru the roof. Ball mount type mount. MFJ says 1.3 and i have exhausted all means. Never in my 20+ years has it been so hard to tune out an antenna.

SOmeone hit me back with the magic cure.. Thanx

Charlie B**Jump_im**
 

Nobody on the other end is going to notice the difference either. As long as you have good rx/tx and have no other issues, 1.3 is good to go. And what kind of antenna is it? I see you mention a wilson but thought you said that was a secondary antenna if not mistaken. Just curious, and what type of vehicle is it? I am just curious. And also did you make sure to have a good contact surface on the underside of the vehicle, if possible sand any paint off where the mount comes in on the underside of the roof. May help if you haven't already done this. But 1.3 is fine, even with a good amp and coax for jumpers, your swr should not change. Also bond as many parts of the vehicle together as possible. Like the doors and exhaust. These small things may help but are not necessary with the reading you have unless you are OCD about your swr. As long as you don't have a lot of reflect, a 1.3 swr is good and will work fine. Good luck and god bless. Hope some of this helps. Do some reading if you can about antenna systems, it really helps when you understand what is going on with your system. I am no genius, far from it, I just have learned by trial and error a lot of the time, nowadays I have a lot more patience and research things a lot more. Anyway hope you have happy holiday and get your swr where YOU want them. It's all up to you, but 1.3 swr is not bad.
 
As was stated above 1.3:1 SWR is fine. You can have a 2:1 SWR and improve it to 1:1 SWR and you and those you talk to would never know the difference.

Further, changing the length of your coax and still getting the same SWR is a good thing. If the SWR actually changed noticeably you would have another problem with the setup you would have to deal with.

Don't fret over 1.3:1 SWR, it is a good enough match to keep your radio happy with room to spare, and that is all SWR measurements are good for anyway...


The DB
 
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Lil'Yeshua said:
Ground your radio's case to the vehicle
Click to expand...

Please don't. You create a ground loop.

I'm with everyone else. Its perfectly fine, leave it alone and as has already been mentioned, the fact you can change the length of coax and see no difference in the SWR indicates you've installed it properly and its got a good ground.

People are too obsessed with 1:1 SWR. On some antennas having 1:1 SWR over a wide range is actually an indication of how poor it is.
 
A 50 ohm dummy load will give you very close to 1:1 SWR, but it would make a very poor antenna. I've never been able to understand the obsession with "1:1".
 
Why not?

1. Unnecessary compared to 1.3:1
2. End the frustration he's having
3. Start talking instead of tuning
4. Offset a psycho-medical condition known as OCD putting operator on the road to mental health
5. If it ain't broke don't fix it

To name a few.
 
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