AK4Dave

Sorry, that was me. A stinger usually refers to the antenna "whip" so to speak. I forgot, and believe that the Firesticks have a wire wrapped around fiberglass, so that really doesn't apply to you. Some antennas may have vertical wire tip that sticks out above the fiberglass, this would be the "stinger". Or the whole antenna may be one long "whip" antenna, like a 102" stainless steel whip, where again, the whole thing would be the "stinger". It just basically means the radiating part of the antenna.

Well, it looks like you own that firestick now...........meaning now that you cut it you can't take it back if it was indeed just a bad antenna.........which does happen. Looks like you really didn't do anything by cutting it.....ie, better ontop now but worse on the bottom. That's why I said check everything else before you cut. I don't know what the Francis antenna was like, but it could have been that the Firestick just wasn't that compatible with that particular mount. All I can say now is, other than a different mount or coax, try moving your ground and see what happens.

wwiifirearms

At this point I wasn't too worried about trying to return the antenna. It is hardly worth the drive back to the shop to argue over returning a $25 item.

I don't think the antenna is bad anyway, because I also bought a 3 foot Firestik I was going to put on my wife's jeep, and it is getting similar SWR readings when I put it on my mount.

The Francis was a solid fiberglass antenna with a wire running through the core, not wrapped. I honestly think it was poorly grounded and somehow improving the ground is making the SWR worse. This is the part that really confuses me.

Why do my SWR readings get better when I use the powder coated mount with very little (if any) ground?

-wwiifirearms

wwiifirearms

Channel 1 = SWR 2.9
Channel 20 = SWR 3.2

FYI, I am using the built in SWR meter in the radio. I am not sure how exact these are b/c the scale is so small, but I would say +/- 0.1

Thanks again to all for the help.

-wwiifirearms

edwin907

You need to verify that SWR meter reading.
I'm running a Firestick 3' on the CoolTec mount and get SWR of 1.4 or less from channel 1 through 40. My mount has the additional ground wire to the bumper bracket bolt, and when this got loose, SWR readings skyrocketed.
I did have to mess around with the tunable tip a little bit till I found the sweet spot.

wwiifirearms

I added an additional ground just to make sure, but it had no effect.

I did note a strange thing. The mount attaches to the spare tire carrier and when I remove the spare tire the SWR reading go even higher 3.2 on channel 1 and 4+ on channel 40. Put the spare back on and they are back to around 2.9 and 3.2.

I think my next move is to re-solder the connector on the coax that I soldered on in the original install. It tests OK for connectivity, but maybe the connection isn't good enough.

After, that I think I'll need to plan the long drive to the CB shop. Either way I'll update the post just in case you are interested.

Still open to ideas. I do appreciate everyone's input.
-wwiifirearms

wwiifirearms

Channel 1 SWR is now 1.1
Chanel 40 SWR isnow 1.5

It seems the main issue was just that this Antenna was Really, Really, Really... LONG. Also might have had a weak connection at one end of the coax.

I re-soldered the coax connector and shortened the coax by 1" in the process. This resulted in Channel 1 SWR = 2.3 and Channel 40 SWR = 3.0.
Still not very good.

I started trimming the Antenna 1/4 loop at a time. SWR started dropping on both channels. After taking off about 5 loops (about 5 inches of wire), all Channels were 1.5 and under. Probably could take off more for peak performance on 19, but since our off road group uses Channels 4 and 8 I am leaving it here.

Many, Many, Many THANKS to all who helped out on this. I learned a ton and was able to slowly eliminate causes until it worked.
-wwiifirearms