Mic cord getting hot

[undertaker]

There is a special ground spot on fords. That is where my ground is works just fine.. and yes they are aluminum!!!

 

[Duckodb]

There is a special ground spot on fords. That is where my ground is works just fine.. and yes they are aluminum!!!

This is a 2016 f-250 with a Reading utility bed, i don’t think it’s aluminum but idk for sure like i said ive always had Chevrolets and always had a cb back to teenage Highschool days with an 82 short wheel base 2wd Silverado. I just got everything with the 29 back exactly like i had it and with the 3’ wilson silverload it’s at a 1.4 on 1 and a 1.5 on 40 when I flip that other box on it slightly rises. I’ve got a ground wire running from the antenna mount down to a bolt on the frame with the antennas wire hooked to it. So why in the hell that other radio wanted to be cantankerous idk but I’ll have to study up on fords more before I try another one. I suppose it’s possible if it’s power cord wasn’t grounded properly and it was biting me through the mic maybe that was contributing to the high swr?

 

[undertaker]

If you run an amp your swr should be 1.3 or less.. check the amp websites…there is a place for the ground under the hood on the right hand side..

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Just a note but if it is RF causing the issue, the item affected will NOT feel hot to the touch when the RF is NOT radiating, however as soon as the RF starts to fly that item will INSTANTLY feel hot. RF burns do not occur from thermal heating but rather from the RF literally sizzling and cooking the flesh. Having spent 22 years in commercial AM/FM broadcasting I can attest to that fact. I have had more than my fair share of RF burns. My "favourite" was the time I accidentally touched the hot side of a lighting choke for the tower lights on a 10K am transmitter site. For a brief moment, I resonated at 960 KHz. That one took a looong time to heal.

 

[AudioShockwav]

I once had a SS whip on a headache rack that caused rf inside the cab.
Even though the rack was securely bolted the truck, solving the issue required a 6 gauge ground from the rack right to the frame of the truck.

73
Jeff

 

[Duckodb]

I finally got my issues straight. I got a replacement radio and grounded it to the frame where the battery grounds. First I tried a Wilson 5000 magnetic mount on top of the cab and even after running a 4 gauge ground wire from under both sides of the cab to the frame the best I could get was around a 2 swr on both 1 and 40. So I found one of these Kalibur mounts made for the Ford F-250s left front fender, ran a ground wire from it to a ground spot on the firewall and got a Hustler HQ27B 55” antenna and now have swr of about 1.3 on 1 and 40 and basically a flat 1.0 on 20. No more getting burnt or shocked. I think I may have trimmed about an inch or inch and a half off the top whip to get it down where it needed to be but pretty simple once the mount was in the right place.