r62ewa

I have a wooden boat and have mounted to a thin piece of galvanized metal a 4' NGP Firestik antenna. I have the 18' of cable connected and everything is nice and tight and I use an Astatic SWR meter for testing the SWR.

My antenna has the tuneable tip and each time I make adjustments I always return the tip cover as is required. I have the SWR meter and my 75-822 Midland handheld CB radio all hooked up in-line correctly. I test in my boat out in the open water with nothing around. I can get an acceptable SWR reading of 1.5:1 on channel 1 but then channel 40 has an SWR of over 3:1. I make the necessary adjustments and then of course the SWR on channel 1 goes up subsequent to the SWR on channel 40 going down.

So here's the results I get. On channel 1 the best I can get is 2.5:1 and I channel 40 it is the same thing (at least I have been able to get the SWR identical on both these channels ). On channel 20 my SWR is 2:1 and on channel 16 it is roughly 1.7:1 or so. I use my CB on channels 10 through 20 most often, with channel 16 the main channel.

So my question, is running my CB with these SWR readings satisfactory. I know with an SWR of 3:1 there is definitely something wrong but where I have it below 3:1 on channels 1&40 and have 2:1 or better on my useable channels shouldn't that be okay with no adverse affects to my radio?

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to try and elliminate any questions that might arise as to my set up and testing method.

AkitaDog

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like your lacking a sufficient ground plane. A thin strip of metal does not make a good ground plane.
Make sure not to coil the excess cable this too can cause high SWR's.

An SWR below 2 is quite acceptable, having it be 2 or below at the high and low end would be best.

I would do what Gnarly said "Tune it for the channel that you use most often." and you should be fine.

r62ewa

Thanks guys. AkitaDog, as far as a ground plane I am fine, I have a Firestik No-ground-plane antenna that is made for vehicles without the sufficient metal to create a good ground plane, the coaxial cable creates the ground plane for me.

I'm sure I can get my SWR lower on my usable channels but that will mean hitting an SWR on the higher channels that are 3:1 or so, but I guess that's okay as long as I am not operating on those channels with the higher SWR?

Thanks again!!