JMoss

Hey Guys, need some help here. I've installed Cobra 19 Ultra III In my JK and my wife's TJ, both are mounted on the Spare tire carrier, and both have 2' Firesticks that sit just above the soft tops. We don't have hard tops on either jeeps. My problem/question here is we are only getting about 1/4 mile of range when we try to talk to each other.

I have grounded the antenna's but I'm not 100% sure the grounds are right so I wanted to get some opinions. On the TJ I just grounded the tailgate to the chassi, by scraping the paint off inside the plasic cover on the tailgate and using a self tapping screw mounted the ground wire in there. Then did basically the same just inside the tub under the carpet.

On the JK I ran the ground wire to the mount and then ran it inside down to one of the torx screws holding down a tie down point in the trunk.

IN regards to grounding, do I ground the mount or will grounding out the tailgate get the job done.

With us only having soft tops, shouldn't the 2' firesticks be enough to get at least a mile or two in range?

Angry_Fisherman

did you tune the antenna at all? What was your SWR reading with the meter hooked up?

arjeeper

You may need to ground directly to the frame versus the body. For a tailgate mount, ensure a clean metal path exists between the antenna mount and vehicle frame. You might need to "bond" or connect the tailgate to the body and then the same body panel to the chassis. This is the challenge o the tailgate mount.

That said, I also wonder what your antenna SWR is sitting at. you should definitely get a little meter and ensure your antenna is "tuned" or matched to your feedline and radio.