Jeep Wrangler TJ Antenna Mount

[Mr Mac]

Yesterday I was sitting in the driveway listening to some skip shooters and decided to try and reach out to someone who might hear me and respond. I tried several times to get any response and nothing. It was like I wasn't transmitting at all. I decided to look at my SWR and it was still in the 1.6:1 range on 38 which is pretty much where it has been from day one. I called a friend who lives a mile or so away and asked him to get on his radio and see how well I was transmitting to him and he told me I was there but fairly faint. His signal to me was a strong seven on the meter...something is amiss!

I decided to go back through my my install with a fine tooth comb and that included getting out the MM and verifying continuity between the SO239 and the body ground. Nada!

I have a Teraflex tail light mount for the antenna and when you install it you have to remove paint from both the body of the Jeep and the mounting bracket wherever it touches the body or the shield portion of the coax/PL259. I thought I had done a pretty good job when I first installed it. Again, wrong!

I took a steel wire cup brush to the bracket again and made sure I was looking at bare steel and then tested it to the point where the SO239 was screwed in and still no continuity. Hit it again with a smaller wire wheel and, voilà! Put it all back together and rechecked my SWR and readjusted the Firefly and now I'm sitting right near 1:1 on all channels!

I called my friend back on his radio and he said I was hitting him at a solid S9! Hello Skip Land! Got a few people to respond to me after all was said and done!



So, for anyone else with this kind of setup, make sure you get a good ground between all the parts for the best results!

Mac

[MDYoungblood]

If you see that it starting to get rusty or corroding clean it up again and put a thin film of NO-OX-ID A-Special conductive grease on the mating surfaces. You could put a dab on the connector too just watch that you don't short the center pin with it.

3's

Greg

[Mr Mac]

Thanks for the info on that, Greg! I'll be sure to do that!

Mac

[fourbyfour]

If I read this right, you sanded the bracket where the cable connects to the stud/mount. And sanded where the mount connects to the jeep?

I have 08 with spare tire mount. I sanded where i connected my ground wire to the mount and also where I connected my ground wire to the inside of the swing gate. I did NOT sand where I connected the cable to the mount/stud. I'll have to do that.

thanks for the information!