freecell,
since you seem to have some insight here, would you mind applying the principles you layed out to some specific examples of what to do in my situation?
here is my setup, maybe you can tell me where the "loop antenna" is being formed:
radio is not mounted to any metal.
radio power positive is to positive terminal of battery.
negative is to negative terminal of battery.
coax from radio goes to input of amp.
amp is not mounted to any metal.
amp power is connected to positive and negative terminals of the battery.
coax from amp goes to input of low pass filter which is screwed to body of vehicle.
coax from low pass filter goes to antenna (wilson 1000) which is mounted on the center of the roof, hard mounted to the body of the vehicle.
now, maybe the low pass filter is the problem?
i put it in line because without it, SWR was 3 to 1.
SWR was the same when tried with different amp.
low pass inline, SWR went to 1.5 to 1.
SWR into amp has always been about 1.5 to 1.
one question that comes to mind is, even if i took the low pass filter out of line, wouldnt the amp still have two connections to ground?
one from the negative terminal of the battery, and one from the shield of the coax going to the antenna?
dont see any way around this if antenna is hard mounted.
thanks for any help you can offer.
PS- i too would like to join the portal. how can i?
LC
