I put a radio in our Van and it shows good SWR when the cable is all outside the vehicle but when tucked away or routed it show the SWR sky Rockit. I even put the Antenna on our Lumina and left the radio in the Van and talked on it whith no troubles. Then I put the Antenna back on the Van and they Sky Rockited once again/ There so bad that the radio squeels and stays Keyed up at times :shock: ... now I do have an Amp inline and it really wigs out with that on. The antenna is a Wilson 5000 I thought it was needing a rebuild so thats exactly what it got. I cleaned all metal serfaces and added new coax that showed it was not the problem. This same setup (2950 Texas Star 400 and Wilson 5000) Have been used in other vehicles without a lick of problems. I tried a different Amp aswell and it does the same..I tried different power sources and now Im straight off the battery and that didnt help, Where the hell is this ground Loop coming from??? This setup works fine in the house with Both Amps) I am having trouble with in the vehicle. Is this a bad chassis ground on the Van?? I was fed up and snapping at this so figured I better let it alone and should ask this question out here, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON :!: :!: :?: :?:
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Problem with SWR
- Thread starter TonyV225
- Start date
You're gonna love this.
First, find an empty 5 gallon bucket. Clean bucket. Take bucket to Radio Shack, or your local electronic parts store. Fill half of bucket with ceramic caps for by-passing. Fill rest of bucket with torroids. Go home with bucket. (Guessed where this is going?) Change to work clothes. Assemble every tool you and your neighbors own. Start by-passing things. Torroids on all cabling in the van (ALL of it). Quit when the radio stops acting funny, or, when bucket is empty. Change into 'street' clothes. Go back to step 3 and repeat as necessary.
Told you you'd love it. Have fun...
- 'Doc
First, find an empty 5 gallon bucket. Clean bucket. Take bucket to Radio Shack, or your local electronic parts store. Fill half of bucket with ceramic caps for by-passing. Fill rest of bucket with torroids. Go home with bucket. (Guessed where this is going?) Change to work clothes. Assemble every tool you and your neighbors own. Start by-passing things. Torroids on all cabling in the van (ALL of it). Quit when the radio stops acting funny, or, when bucket is empty. Change into 'street' clothes. Go back to step 3 and repeat as necessary.
Told you you'd love it. Have fun...
- 'Doc
lords
Active Member
TonyV225, did you ground that TS400 to the body from a screw on it?
did you try to put the amp out of the van and leave the rest in to test it yet?
did you try to put the amp out of the van and leave the rest in to test it yet?
wow. :shock: this is a strange problem your having.swr is fine when coax is outside of van but terrible when its inside? choked coax is out of the question since you said you routed it.is there maybe some things in your van thats giving you maybe alot of rf? how does your swr do when the coax is inside and your van is not running and hows it when its running with everything on?
i really don"t think (i think) its your grounding since the swr is good with coax outside but inside its bad.if its good out side the ant.mount is getting a good ground from van.maybe the coax has a bad spot in it when its being bent and wrapped around here and there but when its streched out like to another veicle the bad spot gets a connection.
try this,when the ant.is mounted to another veicle go every few inches and bend back and forth on coax while someone watches your swr.if you know someone that has a analyzer that would help alot.
i really don"t think (i think) its your grounding since the swr is good with coax outside but inside its bad.if its good out side the ant.mount is getting a good ground from van.maybe the coax has a bad spot in it when its being bent and wrapped around here and there but when its streched out like to another veicle the bad spot gets a connection.
try this,when the ant.is mounted to another veicle go every few inches and bend back and forth on coax while someone watches your swr.if you know someone that has a analyzer that would help alot.
This has all been testeed as I said the Antenna was rebuilt new Coax and all. It did this before rebuilding Antenna aswell which is why I rebuilt it. I am gonna mess whith it today for a bit. This is frustrating maybe Im just lucky but Ive never had a problem like this with an install usually if SWR were high it was simple basic adjustments :roll: ....
Classic symptoms of "insufficient ground plane". Try just hanging four pieces of wire off the antenna base (not the radiating part). Each about 9 or 10 feet long; one to the front, one to the rear, and one off to each side. It sounds like there IS no ground, and the RF is trying to use the outer surface of the coax, but the bends from installation are in just the worst possible places and its getting choked off. Then, when you take the stuff out of the van, the coax straightens out and the coax can work "better".
I'd guess you don't have a good metal-to-metal ground on the roof of the van, and/or the roof isn't making good metal-to-metal contact with the walls/chassis/frame.
Try that experiment with the four wires, though.
I'd guess you don't have a good metal-to-metal ground on the roof of the van, and/or the roof isn't making good metal-to-metal contact with the walls/chassis/frame.
Try that experiment with the four wires, though.
tried longer length jumpers and putting Amp farther away from radio and it was a no go and the feedback squeea just baffles me. I checked the SWR now and there excellent but when I key up with a long audio transmit it will throw a high pitch squeal and stay pegged until I unkey now it works great without the amplifier on :?
The van from hell !! I think Beetle pretty much summed it up. My better halfs Cavilier is totally useless when it comes to getting a match on a Wilson (at least where drilling a hole is concerned , it's just not going to happen) I spent hours with a a trunk and Magmount / grounding this and that and then some , best I could get was a 2.0 .....which was fine for just a radio , but where power was concerned , it just wasn't going to happen. Simple as that. It wasn't until her car and 15 some years of using Wilson's with all mounts, is that I just couldn't believe my eye's !! after all those years I finally found a car where I just couldn't get a flat match off a Wilson for the first and only time so far. Who in the hell knows what goes inside those paints nowadays ? But when it comes to Wilson 1000/5000s in any mounted style , it's very hard to miss with these antennas. I've matched them on refrigerators / stoves / washing machines / air conditioning units / metal trap doors / ect. ect. ect. but not a 2005 Chevy Cavilier ? !!! go figure I say !! Go figure !! I don't blame the antenna , it just had to be the freak'in paint on that puppy !!!
Hey Doc ........I think he said the problem was the radio he was using if I understood him correctly ........He said ..........
Ok I put one of my Yaesu FT-840 in the van and its all working but the radio I was actually Gonna post in the swap section so thats kinda Par. for the course :roll:
Ok I put one of my Yaesu FT-840 in the van and its all working but the radio I was actually Gonna post in the swap section so thats kinda Par. for the course :roll:
hey doc what kind of van is it some of the chevy vans are plastic and have some metal braceing running thru it my friend has a (dust buster) van pontiac and chevy makle one and they are plastic ( ie no ground plane for the antenna )
if so you will need to do this pull the headliner and run 8 12 gage wire's in a star patteren and ground them to the chassie or frame if you will.
what we did was used a 7 1/4 in saw blade drilled 8 holes in it and bolted the wires to it then spread them out if i remember right the center hole was the same size that of a wilson roof mount.
hope this helped ya
if so you will need to do this pull the headliner and run 8 12 gage wire's in a star patteren and ground them to the chassie or frame if you will.
what we did was used a 7 1/4 in saw blade drilled 8 holes in it and bolted the wires to it then spread them out if i remember right the center hole was the same size that of a wilson roof mount.
hope this helped ya
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