I have a collection of "hamsticks" ranging from 75m to 10m. After much frustration with grounding issues, coax loss, etc I came home with an MFJ analyzer yesterday from the local toy market (Hamfest). Ran new coax, took my mount apart and cleaned it, checked ground, etc. Using the MFJ I was able to tune the 75, 40, and 20m sticks down to 1 - 1.5 SWR but the 15 and 10m sticks refuse to tune below 2.5 - 2.6. I have the mount grounded to the tailgate and the gate grounded to the body. Excellent ground verified by a meter across the mount to body. Any suggestions?

 

I'm thinking about trying an MFJ-908 matching unit to extend the range of my screwdriver antenna. Have you considered something like that?

 

Is your radio MARS modded to where you can tune to anywhere in the bands other than just general HAM band coverage? If not then it is usually a real easy mod to enable this. You should find it online. If you can go anywhere, then you should be able to find exactly where they are resonant. This will at least tell you if they are just too long or too short for the mobile "JK" application.

Also, I think I would try to take the JK totally out of the picture and see what you get. Do have an extra mount, say a mag mount, where you can take both 10 and 15 meter sticks and mount them somewhere else? Or maybe even drive a rod in the ground and mount them to it. This will tell you for sure if the antennas act the same elsewhere, or if it's just when mounted to the JK. Oh and don't be surprised that you may have got a couple bad antennas.......it does happen. Now with your MFJ, if you can find where they are resonant, and if it ends up being not even in the 15 or 10 meter bands, then HAM Sticks should replace them for you.
Good Luck....

 

My 706 has the MARS mod so it will tune outside the Ham bands and the MFJ will pinpoint the resonant freq of any antenna plus read SWR both digitally and analog. I messed around with different tips etc and finally got both down close to 1.5. I'm in the process of wiring up the old CJ so it'll be interesting to see if I get drastically different readings on it.

 

Good deal......glad you are gettin' her all dialed in. Curious if you found where they were resonant before you tried the different tips? That MFJ is a handy tool.....no?

Not to cahnge the subject but......just looked at your "my project JK" again. We seem to have a bit more in common. I too have an old CJ5. My old beat up work horse. A 72' w/ a 78' body on it....manual 3 speed w/ 304, leaf over axle lift. Where it's sitting now (tranny out) it also has a canoe on top. And yes, I too used to duck hunt a lot. Have a yellow lab now that I hope to get out to the blind this fall.
73 & Good DX...

 

Small world... or maybe it's just a Jeep thing!

 

Probably a little of both....