Bad CB coax cable?

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Gilaguy23

TJ Enthusiast
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Sep 21, 2021
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A'holeville
Man am I getting frustrated here and some of you are very competent in CB's and comm's so my question. I have a fairly new Midland 101LWX, Firestick 4' antenna and using a Firestick "fire ring" coax. I cannot get close to acceptable SWR reads and Ive relocated the antenna twice. The Fire ring is mounted on the bottom of the mount,sholder up into the mount hole as well. Ive ground off any coatings to bright metal and have good connections. Im using a Astatic PDC1 meter to tune. Set the switches,key the mic and set the meter needle to the "set" position,all the way to the red #10 area. Flip down the FWD/REF and I get 6'es on the swr give or take, on CH #1 or CH#40.
Tuning the antenna yields some change but nowhere close to 2's. Understanding Grounds are critical I cannot understand this part. With the Fire ring cable on the work bench and the CB end removed (RFU501) and looking at clean separated inner and outer copper I can OHM the cable from the center metal ring on the fire ring end, which touches the ground/mount, and get O ohms touching either the outer braided copper or the finer inner wires. This in a nut shell is grounding out both inner and outer parts of the coax. Can this be correct??
Please steer me in the right direction here.
 
They shouldn't be shorted. Are you sure the antenna part is assembled correctly? It's possible they screwed up when the connector was put on, it wouldn't be the first time that happened. With the antenna end assembly totally disassembled there should not be continuity between the outer ground and center pin at the radio end. If there is the cable is bad.
 
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With the antenna mounted on the side rear of the jeep on its mount, yes, I used an spring because without it the body panel flexed when the antenna whipped around extensively and I believe the body would crack around the mount eventually. However Ive tried it with and without in both places Ive had the antenna mounted with similar SWR results.
 
pagrey said:
They shouldn't be shorted. Are you sure the antenna part is assembled correctly? It's possible they screwed up when the connector was put on, it wouldn't be the first time that happened. With the antenna end assembly totally disassembled there should not be continuity between the outer ground and center pin at the radio end. If there is the cable is bad.
Click to expand...
The "fire ring end if factory sealed and you cannot see internally what going on. That said the radio end needs to be assembled by the user. Its came with the bare coax cable and the PL259 end you assemble and solder the center cable to the center pin. Before and after its stripped and installed into the end by me the same takes place which is continuity between the center pin and the outer braided conductor.
antenna mount.jpg
 
Sure enough I found the bad spot. factory defect or, I dont know. It looked like it melted the inner cable sheath but that spot is nowhere heat. Thank You Pagrey for the support. ;)
 
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