A bunch of people have been helping me here with this. I got my setup running,
but have a high SWR on the CB band. Here are the parameters:


My SWR is 1.5 on channel 1, and 3 on channel 40.


1. I have a a 6 foot Firestik in the attic. I am using 8 pieces of 10 gauge
wire, all 102" long, as a ground plane connected to the mounting stud.

2. The mounting stud and ground plane wires are not connected to earth ground.
There is no way I can get a ground rod into the frozen ground. Not at least for
a few weeks.

3. I am using 50' of LMR-400 coax. No shorts measured.

4. I have a RF choke/balun of about 8 turns, 8 inches round, about 2 inches
below the antenna and ground plane wires. I cannot get it any lower.

5. The radio is a HR-2510, and that is not grounded for the same reason as #2.


I did a frequency check to see where this antenna is tuned. It seems to be tuned
for 26.500-26.800 MHz. The SWR is a flat 1.2 across that band. It starts to
when I go below or above that band.

I wanted to know if there is anything I should do before I cut the wire on the
Firestik. Would grounding the ground plane or the radio to a ground rod help?

And suggestions are appeciated.

Vinnie S.