I am trying to tune my antenna to average out the swf. I have a 4 foot Wilson flex, mounted to the spare and grounded to the sub mount. I have tested it through the complete adj. range and the best I can get is ch1- reads about .5 and ch20 and 40 are 2.25. I know I still need to shorten the antenna but the adj is all the way to the bottom...
Any thought???

 

Are you using an external swr meter or one that is built in to your cb. I have heard the internal ones are not very accurate.

 

I was just using the one built in.

 

Is the knob on the end of the tuning whip all the way down? If not sometimes I take just enough off to get it to sit all the way in. You can also try with the whip out and just the cap on it to see it works that way. The numbers may not always be accurate but it usually should still indicate a balance between 1 and 40.

 

I started my tune with the ant at the top and worked it all the way to the bottom in 1/8 steps testing all the way Down. I made sure it wouldn't go down any further....
I have the ant mount grounded to the tub and the ant ground going to the mount. Could this be causing any issues?

 

Grounding is good if done properly. What I was asking is when the whip bottoms out can you still see the shaft? If so try it without the whip and see if 1 goes higher than 40. If so you can take a little off the shaft of the whip. I use a bench grinder. One of my Wilson's tunes the best on my son's TJ with the whip removed.

 

Oh, ya there is probably 3/16 of the shaft left. I was wondering if I should do that, but didn't want to go messin with it. I will give that a shot, and Thanks for the tip!!

 

Well I did two things just now when I got home.

1 disconnected what I first thought was a ground wire coming out of the bottom of the antenna.
It made a night and day differance. Swf was still off on ch 40 at 2.25 ch1 and 20 were right on.

2 pulled the adjustment part of the ant right out.

Perfect. Shows 1 across the board on ch1,20,40

It's amazing I can actually hear what people are saying. And clearly too! Lol

However I would like to use an actual meter and not the one built in to check it out. But I am happy!

There is so much info on this sight it's enoughyour u in melt down. Grounding, location, mounting, wiring, tuning, testing u name it. Hours of reading. But thanks for the tip smitty it was a huge help and the guy somewhere on here that said don't use that little wire.

 

Good deal. I didnt know you used the pigtail. Most people to don't read the back of the package that tells you that it is only for no ground plane installs. I cut them off as soon as it comes out of the package.

 

Ya that was my mistake, when I see a black wire my first instinct is to ground it out. Read the instructions lol. Lesson learned....