I dont believe that radio has a SWR meter! Most 25's dont! I would take it to a local Cb shop and have them hook it up to a standalone SWR meter and have them mess with it. Goodluck to ya

 

my mistake i have the Cobra NightWatch 29 WX NW ST 40-channel CB radio as soon as i read what i put i saw the mistake. i went to the website and copied the name and clicked the wrong one oopps. here is a pic of it.

 

Im not that familiar with your radio but you have checked to make sure there is not some kind of switch setting needed to measure SWR with the built in meter (im sure you checked this but want to eliminate as much as possible so we can troubleshoot)...your sure your grounded properly the bolts your talking about have a path to ground right? Im still thinking its your meter...

 

If you can put that other meter in line you mention it would help....compare the readings.

 

im going to try to hook up the inline meter today if I have time and will also try to take some pictures of my set-up and post them. There is a switch for the meter, click it all the way down to calibrate to check swr, click to the middle to get the swr reading, and click all the way up for the power reading. If i can get everything done plus take those pics before DA BEARS game comes on at 1pm I will post the pics and thanks for the help!

 

where i have it mounted

10 gauge wire for the ground on the bottom right bolt





this is where i grounded to the frame. I sanded the frame to bare metal attached the bolt and wire then sprayed flat black over it to prevent rusting

 

If you remove that ground wire does the SWR change at all? If not, I'd start looking at at the coax cable, it might be bad somewhere. Disconnect the coax from the radio, then test it to make sure there is no continuity between the center pin of the coax and the outside of the coax connector outer shell. If that's not it, then I'd suspect the SWR meter in the radio. Does the red antenna warning light come on when you transmit?

 

Did you put the other meter on? Wonder if that K40 is loading up properly....when you move the tuning whip do you see a difference? The coax should be suspect too like the other guys are saying...or have you already checked it/swapped it with a known good piece?

 

i dont think it has an antenna warning light but there is a green light that turns red when you key the mic but i dont know maybe its a warning light now that you mention it

 

Also high SWR's can be causd by looping the extra wire. It creates all kinds of weird stuff when you do that, sure it looks nice but it wreaks havoc on the SWR's. As far as the light, are you sure that just isnt an indicator that you are using the mic?