"Vinnie S." wrote in message
...
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.

This may seem overly simplistic or stupid, but try removing the plastic cap
on the end of the antenna. It affected my SWR on one I had. I can't remember
which way, but I do remember it made a difference.