CaveDog21 wrote:
<snip>sorry to be a pest with all the questions but what about grounding? I've heard some people talk about this (a while back before I even cared about this stuff). Should I run a wire from my mount to ground if the mount isn't attached to something that is ground? sorry if that sounds confusing.
As long as your SWR is acceptable, don't run a wire from the mount to the vehicle.
When people talk about a ground plane or no-ground plane antenna, they are not talking about an electrical ground. What they are referring to is whether or not there is a horizontal surface (e.g., the ground) from which the radio wave radiation can be reflected. This is different from an electrical ground.
The key is your SWR reading on the antenna. If you have good SWR, don't worry about an electrical ground. In fact, that can make it worse. I know, I tried. With an SWR of 1.3 and no electrical grounding, I tried adding the electrical ground, That pushed my SWR up to the top of meter where, if is used it that way, I would most likely have burnt out the transmitter.
k_enn