I agree 100 percent Kale. Some people have the belief that if the match is perfect, pure resistance, 0 reactance, there signal will some how be launched in some superior way from the next guy! It simply is not the case. It’s next to impossible to detect the difference from a 1.0 match to a 1.4 or 1.5 swr at the receiver. It doesn’t matter if you have 2 watts or 20,000. A 1.5 swr equals 4% reflected power, at 2 to 1 reflected is up to 11%, and at 3 to 1 = 25%. A four percent loss of power is like a couple zeros behind the decimal in dBs, practically nothing.
As people are finding out, steel does not make a good antenna. It’s just not that good of a conductor at rf. It’s not good to use for amplifier chassis either, it causes arcing in the presence of strong rf. If you ever want to see exactly where the major losses are in an all steel whip (one or two piece) dump about 10 or 20 kilos into one for about 15 to 30 seconds! Do it in the dark at night for best effect! To be safe stand at least 8-10ft. back!!
Lone Wolf. The pipe on back of the pickup like that is a classic way to mount the antenna. I used that back in the ‘70’s, and its still good today. I never had problems with it. If you already added ground straps in the correct way it should work. You may have a special case?? It can also be a false reading; most transistor amps won’t show low swr regardless of what you do with certain antennas. I have seen it rise up as high as 2 to 1 or more and was normal with some amps.
A word on the MFJ antenna analyzers - they work well for what they are, I know, I have 3 of them. I do all kinds of tricks with mine, but no two give the exact same reading. They are not a Lab Standard piece of gear, the readings are not written in stone, and they are sensitive to external rf. The best way to fine-tune the antenna is with a Bird type meter and low power slug in reverse using a barefoot radio (6-10watts), or just any good swr meter and barefoot rig.
Wolf
