6" 102 Whip Spring

[659]

Does anyone know if there is a vendor that sells 6" heavy duty pot belly SS springs for a 102 inch whip? All I can find are 4" springs.

Thank you,

Harry

[295 antenna]

Have you tried our sponsors ?

[Grinder74]

4 inch should work fine. Do you have to have 6?

[659]

With a 4" spring I'm getting SWR's of 1.8 on 40 and 1.7 on 1. I removed the 4" spring and the the SWR's jumped to 2 and 2.1. I'm trying to get to a total length of 108". Right now with the whip at 102 and the 4 inch spring I'm at 106. I really would like to get the SWR's a bit lower, below 1.5 if possible.

[MDYoungblood]

You could use a stud and nut to increase the length. I personally don’t care for springs, the whip has enough flex, I’d look into a riser.

3’s

Greg

[659]

When you say riser what do you mean exactly?

[nosaj]

Just an obvious, was this a used 102 in whip you aquired? If so actually measure it it may have been modified. Just want to make sure you'd measured and not just adding numbers without verifying.
If it's new, could be connections or your mounting also since there is a fair little bit of work to removing an tightening things there.
If it was me just for grins I'd start with a dummy load making sure the cable is not adding some swr in there via a dodgy connector.

nosaj
N1EBC

[659]

Antenna and cable are new. I will check with a dummy load and see what we get. Thank you.

[nosaj]

New doesn't always mean good.

nosaj
N1EBC

[659]

This is true.

[MDYoungblood]

When you say riser what do you mean exactly?

It is a spacer to increase the antenna length,
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This one uses the whip with the ferrule (screw end) removed, other type has threaded ends.

3's

Greg

[659]

Thank you.

[443 Arizona]

a swivel ball will give you about 2 inches and you can usually find them with the springs

[659]

I checked the coax with a dummy load. SWR's are flat. The antenna is on a 2018 F250 that is all aluminum. The antenna is mounted in the stake bed hole at the passenger side rear. The mount is a Breedlove quick connect. I had 1-8 guage ground wire running from the mount to the steel frame. I added a second 8 guage ground wire tonight. I have not had a chance to recheck the SWR's.Would running a ground wire to the aluminum body help? Coax in 18' long. Thank you all for your help.

[Bluerunner]

Just temporarily black tape a bit of maybe 12 gauge wire to the tip of the antenna to extend it the 6" you want. Then check your swr to see if it will be worth the trouble to extend the whip. Trim the wire to get the swr you want, then measure how much longer the extension will need to be. Should be pretty close to the best length then.

[MDYoungblood]

Bonding (Grounding) the bed and body panels on a vehicle is highly recommended but since your Ford has the aluminum components I’d check with someone in the dealer service department about if there would be any problems with doing this. MY thought is a problem with electrolysis causing corrosion And the computer Information feedback system.

3’s

Greg

[banjo315]

a swivel ball will give you about 2 inches and you can usually find them with the springs

If this is true about the ball mount itself adding 2 inches, that is good. Can we confirm this? I basically came looking for answers to the same question as OP.

[Double J]

Yes, the ball and spring makes about 6"; I would ground the antenna to the frame, then take a ground from the frame to battery