Uniden 980 SSB bad SWR 25’ Cascadia
•Driver side mirror mount
•Fiberglass 3’ antenna at ~45° tilt mostly clear of windshield
•brand new coax
I have had this CB for almost 4 months now and not once have I been able to use it.
I first tried with the stock antenna and got such high readings I just left it off for a few weeks until I got an antenna and coax mounted, and still got bad readings in a different way.
My SWR is not reading in a way for me to tune the antenna yet.
SWR is high on 1 and 40 using CB meter
I ordered a proper SWR meter and grounding strap
The shop said they never see guys use a grounding strap on their antenna and suggested the CB itself is the problem.
The CB turns on just fine and picks up weather, but fails each diag.
I almost have enough points for a Cobra LTD from loves, but I am still not convinced my Bearcat is the problem yet.
Does any of this look wrong already?
Having a working CB is still a great asset in 2026 but I cannot for the life of me figure out what the hell I’m doing wrong here.