Dick Dastardly
Drat, Double Drat, and Triple Drat!
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I hate to correct such a good post (but you know I’m gonna ) but actually the ground has nothing to do with the SWR’s, a good ground will improve your ears by taking out all of the background noise and interference caused by all of today’s electronics and fiberglass trucks. I could get excellent SWR’s by moving the antenna around like you said but I usually had to run a ground wire from the bracket down to the frame to clear out all of the noise...especially on those T2000’s!!
As long as your SWR’s are below a 3.0 on the meter, a barefoot radio will be fine. If you plan to add “fire to the wire” then you’ll want at least 1.8 or lower. Agreed, 18’ of coax is optimal but as long as you use increments of 3’ you’ll be fine. I ran dual antennas on the T2000’s with 6’ of coax from each (because that’s all I needed), a ground wire on both sides, and could “walk the dog and kick the cat”, c’mon!! Agreed, the built in meters on the radio were very unreliable...I always used a Dosy TR-1000 myself.
No worries. It's been years since I've run one on a regular basis, and my memory ain't what it used to be, but keep in mind that there is a difference between the ground plane and an electrical ground. Your antenna needs both.
The mount your antenna is connected to needs to have a good ground to the vehicle chassis. For metal mounts (mirror mounts, side mounts, 3 way mounts, etc) this is done through metal to metal contact. Running a grounding strap from the mount to the chassis like you said works too.
The Francis antennas used to be adjustable for SWR without the need to trim didn't they? I know most fiberglass can be trimmed at the tip, but it was permanent for that particular vehicle once it was set.