smittycm

I'm thinking that your antenna placement will primarily effect the range you get out of your transmissions and not how well you're able to tune your cb. Double check the placement of that plastic washer on your antenna stud and make absolutely sure that the lower part of the stud isn't touching the inside of the mount. That was my problem initially and was causing horrible SWR readings.

There are some awesome guides online to walk you through troubleshooting using continuity tests in various spots to find the short. If you're getting bad SWR readings, then 90% of the time it seems to be a bad ground or a short somewhere. I used a $5 multimeter from Harbor Freight to find my short and it literally took about 10 minutes.

Also, I noticed a huge difference when I went with quality components. Not sure what coaxial wire you're using, or what antenna, but I started off using the no-name stuff off the shelf of my local Fry's. I switched to a nice Wilson Flex 4' and Wilson coax and the difference was very noticeable.

The good thing is that once you get it dialed in you shouldn't have to fart with it again! Good luck!

CombatDiver

Make sure it's grounded good, that tends to help when experiencing similar problems like you have described.

Having a tuned antenna is crucial. It's likely that the antenna you bought isn't the problem since it is straight forward and those firesticks tend to be tuned already.. It's even less likely the feedline is responsible. The best way to rule them out is set them up outside of the vehicle and test them. Only changing one piece of any part of the transmitting and receiving stations to narrow it down if it is a component like the antenna that is causing this. Once the system is determined to be working properly go ahead and mount it to the vehicle.

2climbbig

I agree, it is a bit of a crap shoot about combinations of antenna with cb radio and length of cabling. But, I disagree a bit on reception vs broadcast. Take your antenna for your garage door/gate opener which is nothing but a piece of wire cut to a specific length. Cut a new one one inch shorter and install it. Then see what your range is. it will suck! This happened to me. My gate antenna got caught on my ladder and I ripped it from the box. I broke the wire about an inch from the box. I removed it and put the remaining wire back on the box and my range was cut by more than half. I had to get another wire and put it in. I guessed how much wire was lost and it took 3 times before I got it right. I had thrown away the remaining wire so I did not have the exact length. I don't see this being any different.

jnabird333

The problem with the garage door/gate analogy is both ends are broadcasting and receiving. It's tough to say what end suffered from the poor antenna and if it was due to poor reception or broadcast.

2climbbig

Crap... really. I did not know that my gate opener broadcasted. I just assumed it only received. I click the button on my remote and the bloody thing opens. I know you have to set the right frequency, but I did not know it was a request/response type of set up. Huh. Learning something new every day

2climbbig

Ok, I don't know what type of gate opener you have, but mine is purely a transmitter. I just opened it up to take a peak. There is no receiver on it.

BrowniesJK

Guys, just wanted to thank all of you for the help. Finally had a chance to rework my setup yesterday and tested it out last night. Couple of miles range and it sounds great. The issue was all ground related. I played with different coiling of the coax and really didn't see a difference in SWR so take that for what it's worth. Thanks again. This forum has always come through

sea bass

I don't know much - but it could be something as simple as your settings. Are you familiar with the settings in your radios? Specifically rf gain? I wasn't when I first got my 520 and was having similar issues.

mattfl

See BrowniesJK post right above yours, we got it all worked out

sea bass

Ha! I didn't catch that - glad you got it all worked out.