I purchased one of the FJ kits from Walcott CB, and worked on getting it installed today. Installed would be a generous term at this point, but I got the mount and antenna up. Ran into two issues, and hopefully someone else with a CB can chime in on this.
First, SWR. I bought an SWR meter with the CB kit, so I could properly tune everything. I'm getting good readings at this point, about 1.5 on channels 1 and 40, so I'm happy now. But I ran into a ton of problems during install with bad grounding, and then the antenna seemed really sensitive to adjustment. I bought the hand adjustable Firestik with the screw in the top. In about 3/16 of an inch, I went from like a 3.5 at 40 down to a 1.5. Are the antennas supposed to be that sensitive, or do I still have some grounding gremlins? Grounding gave me a fit, I ended up putting NOALOX between the Boztec mount and the door hinge, because even after polishing both with a dremel, I kept running into what I think were grounding issues. Anyway, is 3/16 height difference really enough to throw the SWR off by that much?
Second question is about that same Walcott kit. It came with a pre-made 18' signal cable, so the ends aren't removable. I'm finding that it's pretty useless because it's too big to fit through harnesses or anything, so I may have to get something made up. Who in the Triad is good for that kind of work? I wouldn't mind running the cable myself, but putting the ends on is not something I'd do. All I do with solder is burn myself...