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Yes, I probably should have bought an analyzer as opposed to a tuner. But Im in close to 3 grand with these ranger radios, the "suggested" mobile antennas, the "Suggested" base antennas and everything else. Its maddening that I cant even get to the point of trying out the radio.  I strongly appreciate  the help Im getting on here. The latest post actually tells me how to run some tests on this antenna. I would not have known all that stuff. Im going at it tomorrow! I apologize for being ignorant. I have already made many mistakes while trying to jump into this hobby.  But it is what it is. I'm in a state of dis-belief that I probably could have built this simple di-pole setups with wire instead of buying these antennas. I also got too excited at a garage sale and bought a monsterous  yagi style directional beam. My wife keeps just shaking her head as I try a new blunder. Tomorrow I will post pictures of the antenna again after corrections. I will also try those tests DR Dx mentioned. I definitely wouldn't have been able to do these without instructions. And I'm sorry Greg T but I don't know what "Average Mode" is.  This isn't like when I was a kid. I was a Park Ranger and threw up a galaxy 99 with an antron antenna and a palomar 300 watt linear. I didn't have any issues right out the gate post! And nobody gave me a hard time about the amp because I was the only emergency responder up in the mountains at the time. Now my goal is to be able to find out how bad the disaster is when our power grid is down at the water district I work for.. Then I can make a responsible decision as to which emergency generators to shut down to lengthen water service to the public. It will take a ham radio to get this info quickly in that scenario. it is kind of spooky having this responsibility but it is there. If I can get this up and working, I can convince folks that this plan will work!