You re-tuned each time you made a change?

Are you sure you ran your ground from your antenna ground to a Jeep ground? You can see how I connected and ran my ground here. When you tested with the latch open, the tailgate was still closed, right?

 

Yes, I did.

I'm assuming it's a valid ground. It is currently attached by bolt/ring terminal to one of the holes that used to secure the stock trailer hitch. (Dremelled to bare metal). In my previous grounding attempts in my original post I grounded to the exact same place in your writeup - now I remember where I got the idea from! I didn't try that today, because there was no SWR difference between there and the current frame attachment yesterday.

Yes, tailgate was closed. Really no movement in the closed position swingaway other than no longer contact with the tailgate

 

If you follow Project Jk's write up for their ground placement you should be good to go. You want your ground run to short as possible that might be your problem.

 

Also if you think your grounding through your latch assembly. I'm sure it is.

 

RRauzer - well, you’re getting about the same SWR as I get with my 3’ FireFly, and I know my setup is good for communicating in a group run. Hopefully the next time you’re out in a group you’ll get better results.