You just dropped a couple of Benjamin’s on a Stryker 655. You rush to your truck and are as excited as when you were 13 thinking about kissing Peggy Sue, well not that excited. You mount it in the bracket, plug everything in, key up and the dreaded SWR warning fills the meter and you ain’t got squat! You hear fine but that goddamn brand new radio isn’t transmitting. WTF!
First off, you’re welcome. I program them to shut down with an SWR of 2:1. Again, you’re welcome. If you never checked your antenna system (coax, stud and antenna), I just saved your ass.
Before you try to tune the antenna, do a visual inspection. If the PL 259 connector on either end of the coax is as messed up as your work boots, or hardly connected, replace it. Don’t try to stick the cable back in, that’s half assed and it won’t work. Check the stud. If it’s rusty, replace it. Make sure the nylon bushing is on top and clean the bottom of the bracket until it’s shiny metal. If the antenna mast is mangled, you can try to straighten it (good luck), and if it has a coil, take it off and shake it. If there’s water inside, replace it. If you have a fiberglass one and any of the coating is ripped, replace it.
One more thing with the coax. If you’re a cheap bastard and don’t want to replace it, you can test it. Take a DMM set on continuity and from the radio end touch the center pin and the outside sleeve. If the meter goes off (a short), the coax is shot. Now test center pin to center pin, we want continuity here, and outer sleeve to outer sleeve, also continuous. OR, replace it annually with the stud. It’s like changing your oil, just something that has to be done.
Now that you know the system is good, you can start to tune your antenna. On a 655, the SWR portion of the meter is on the bottom. You don’t have to calibrate or do anything else, just look at the meter.
- Go to channel 1, key up, and check the SWR reading.
- Go to channel 40, key up, and check the SWR reading.
- If it’s LOW on 1 and HIGH on 40, the antenna needs to be shorter.
- If it’s HIGH on 1 and LOW on 40, the antenna needs to be longer.
If this doesn’t work, call me and I’ll talk you through a different procedure. Just don’t waste my time and yours if you’re working with old shit like factory coax from 2008, okay?
Mark
Nbsr.online
