Antenna warning light no matter what I do.

[Cantbuytime]

I have a cobra 29 with high watt mod. (1989 yr model). Had it all checked out yesterday. Was good to go. Put it in my 379 pete with single k40 on pass side mirror. Got a Bright red antenna warning light. Changed coax. Still antenna warning. New antenna bracket and adjust antenna. Still warning light. Weird thing is if some stands on pass step and touches the mirror bracket when I key up. No warning light. So I tried grounding the mirror bracket to cab. This didn't fix it either. Even tried 2 different antennas.

 

[w9cll]

You do have an SWR meter?

 

[Cantbuytime]

No sir

 

[sp5it]

Get one or go see someone have.

 

[w9cll]

No sir

Run don't walk and get one. You are frying your radio..

 

[Big Kahuna]

Definitely sounds like a grounding issue - as mentioned you need an SWR meter to see what's happening. If your SWR's are high the light will stay on until the issue is resolved or your radio dies from high SWR's.

Or stop a a shop and have them assist.

 

[Beetle]

A good dummy load would be helpful, AFTER you get the SWR meter.

 

[Grogan]

Does the Cobra 29 have a built in swr meter. I had a cobra 29 that I tuned ahd had to adjust the Pot for the Warning light. I also used a good meter,

 

[Big Kahuna]

Yes - I've seen many times that with a "tune" the SWR light will go on because the extra wattage or RF outside of the freq might be effecting it - however without knowing if his SWR is a problem I wouldn't touch that SWR light setting until I verified I didn't actually have a sky high SWR.

 

[Robb]

I know that the Galaxy radios AWI is greatly affected by shifts in temperatures - especially cold. IIRC, there is a Service Bulletin for the AWI system for Cobras on CB Tricks. Really needs to be tested with a 2:1 dummy load in cold conditions to see if that may be part of the issue:

http://www.cbtricks.com/radios/cobra/service_bulletins/graphics/tsb_10057.pdf

 

[Cantbuytime]

My swr meter doesn't read correctly. We grounded the mirror bracket to frame and adjusted the antenna again. No more warning light.Took very small movements to get it just right. Hope it stays this way.

 

[222DBFL]

Spend the money and get an SWR/Power meter. You truly need one. And a 3 foot coax jumper. You don't need an expensive one. You just need one. JMHO's.