I have a Galaxy 55 radio connected to a cool tech CB antenna mount and Firestick Firefly antenna. I also have an old Radio Shack external SWR meter. When I installed the radio and connected the SWR meter, I noticed that the meter was reading a high (3.0 or greater) level across the entire CB band width. I took my multi tester and checked the coax, coax connectors, and antenna ground and it all checked out ok. When I have the SWR meter connected and I key the microphone, the transmit power meter on the radio will barely go up. If I test the radio without the SWR meter inline, the transmit power meter on the radio will shoot up, and when I speak into the microphone the needle will swing greatly indicating to me that the radio is transmitting the way it should. Do you experts on here think I could have a bad SWR meter? I find it ironic that when the meter is hooked up inline, the transmit meter on the radio barely moves, but when the meter is unhooked the transmit meter on the radio will shoot up to full power and swing even more while modulating. Is there a way to check the SWR meter? I have tried at least four different radios with the SWR meter and it has reacted the same with all of them. Any advice you can give me on this is greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!

 

any chance you have the SWR meter connected backwards?

 

Are there any switches on the meter? Some have high/low power switch. Have you confirmed good transmit and receive using a radio check?

 

The meter is hooked up correctly, that was one of the first things I checked.

 

I checked the switches to ensure they were on the correct settings. Without the meter hooked up, this afternoon I did a radio check and talked to guy on a base station 15 miles away. That is why I believe the meter is not telling me the truth, if I had an SWR reading of 3.0:1, there is no way I could transmit that distance. The person I talked to even commented on how good my radio sounded.

 

Sounds like a bad meter to me. But possibly one way to tell......I say possibly because I don't know if the antenna you have is adjustable or not. If it is, go ahead and mark where you have it set now so you can put it back to the same spot after. Then move the adjustment and see what the meter does. If you can adjust the antenna quite a bit longer or shorter, and the meter needle doesn't move at all then you'll pretty much know it's no good.

 

I've seen this in a movie. It's a bad flux capacitor.

 

What are you talking about? It's obviously an interflanged reticulation unit on the inverse capacitance side of his SWR meter.

If it was the flux capacitor, he'd be seeing an SWR of 0.2.

 

You're both wrong...obviously the system is suffering a cascade effect from an amnion particle beam!

 

If the DX55 is an "export" radio it may be putting out much more than the typical 4-12 watts of your average CB radio. Since this is a RS meter we are talking about it may not be calibrated for the amount of power your pushing through it.