I just finished setting up my new cb ( Cobra 29LX ). I wired it up directly to the battery and I used an RG8x coax to wire it to the antenna. I used a fiberglass antenna and made my own mount to mount it to the tailgate. Now I grounded it all with a 10 gauge wire from the mount and bolted near the pillar in the back on the passenger side. I made sure to scrape off enough paint with a Dremel so the whole connector touches bare metal. Now the problem is my cb is telling me : " Antenna Warning" I checked the SWR and it's telling me that it's at 1.3. But I get zero reception. Only the weather channels work but barely. Now I'm thinking the problem is either with the mount or the antenna but thats just a guess. I'm hoping someone can shed some light on my problem. I don't want to start cutting the antenna too much and ruin it.

 

Do you have the nylon spacer on the antenna mount to isolate the ground from the antenna to the mount?

 

What I have on looks like a small plastic washer... Is that it?

 

Yup........

 

Yup its there between the mount and the antenna

 

Yes. But it is flanged to isolate the ground from your mounting bracket

 

What do you mean?

 

The nylon spacer has a step down flange that fits into your antenna bracket so that the sides of the antenna mount doesn't touch the bracket.

 

I still dont quite understand.. :s I went out and took a pic. This is how it stands at the moment

 

Spacer looks O.K. to me. If you have an ohm meter handy, you can check to make sure it is not shorted. Remove the Coax from the back of the radio and ohm the center pin to the outer shield. It should have no resistance measured with an ohm meter. Second question, how did you check the SWR?