Mag mount woes

[plumb bob]

Hi all, just joined.

I have a 7" mag mont with a 5' springer fitted to the centre of my roof, the prolem is taht the SWA just won't come down below 2.5 on any channel, even though I've adjusted the length etc.
I'm beginning to think there's a fault on something some where, any advice.
Rob

[stampman]

no springers pick mup reflection from the roof and will mainly read high but if its not in the red then ok

[plumb bob]

Hi, the SWA does go well into the red ( nearly 3) on the eu/ec band, but I'm more concerned about my lack of rx/tx as I just don't seem to have any range.

[stampman]

CHECK 1EC AND 40UK if higher on 40 uk shorten antenna

[plumb bob]

Yep, done all that, and no change.
I wondered if the body on my 4x4 isn't eathed well enough, and whether I should get another type of mount, and maybe try it on the bull bar, or rear bumper.

[fatfinger]

one word wilson1000

[plumb bob]

To be honest, I don't wanna spend £70 on another antenna, when there are so few people to talk to in my area, I just wanna get the gear I have working correctly ( and cheaply) so a new mount and some coax, is gonna cost £20 tops, and if the problem is lack of good earthing on the body, then a £70 wilson won't fix that problem, and I'll have wasted my money.
I should think that all antenna should be able to SWA down to at least 1.5, I'd be more than happy with that.

[stampman]

if its a 4x4 with a metal body then a small wilson ie the little will is more than capeable of doing the job and swring perfectly

[plumb bob]

Ok, I'll look into that, I wanted to get away from the mag mount anyway, and go for a fixed mount with a quick disconnect, I've just got to sort out a mount, I found this mount which will fit the rear tailgate of my Toyota, a lot of guys in the US use them; http://www.***********.com/product_info..

It looks like a very versatile mount, and it's stainless steel, the only thing is that it seems to come with a "firestick" mount, which I guess is different to the standard 3/8th mount we have here.

Any thoughts on this??

[stampman]

if there is a gutter on your vehical then use a sirio gutter mount from our sponsers make sure its a sirio as they are the best and strongest

[plumb bob]

Nope, no gutter on a surf, that's why I looked at the door jamb mount, as it will fit almost anywhere, but I will be looking to get a better performing antenna too.

[stampman]

in that case then the wilson mag will sort you out yes a lot bof money to spend but will last you a life time had one for 20 years asnd still going strong

[buzzbrittain]

This is the same problem that i have with my 72 bay camper. I posted a message last week with the same problem. I have tried a mag mount along with a gutter mount and 2 types of aerial and 2 different swr's and still can't get it out of the red. My power in transmitting is pretty bas as well, can only get out about 0.5 miles ( if im lucky) I would have thought with a solid metal camper i could get a signal to the moon? Can anyone advise or anyone with a rig fitted to a Bay VW?

[stampman]

mag mount or a mag mount use with a dv27 and it will swr with no problem at all dead easy just slide the top up and down till you get it right

[jdo330]

Very strange, I have a 5ft springer and can get my SWR to 1.2 on UK20, 1.5 on UK1 & UK40. Admittedly its body mounted in the centre of the roof but having said that I had a problem at the weekend so tried my mag to see where the fault was and it was still under 1.5 on UK ch20.

A friend of mine has the Trucker 80 on a mag mount and he also has a low SWR (1.4 UK ch20) and thats factory set (ie, we havent adjusted it at all).

Out of interest, do you have any spare coax either coiled up or worse kinked? This will throw your SWR out.

Hope you get it sorted, these antenna's can be well tuned (more so the 5ft version).

ATB, Jon.