Bought a new galaxy dx98vhp had peked and tuned
Well it sounds to me like you may have a ground plane problem, or whomever "peaked" your radio may have messed with something they shouldn\'t have causing your poor reception. You can try trimming your antenna to get a better SWR, but you also might want to look at your antenna mounting. It may be in the wrong area of your vehicle. Where the antenna is mounted is very important, more so for recieving than transmitting. Is it a magnet mount or is it installed permanently? Where you position the antenna will affect it\'s performance as will the ground plane. If it\'s a magnet mount, it will work best on top of the vehicle roof in the middle of the roof, or in the middle of the trunk. The nearer to the edge of the vehicle, the more ground plane you lose. Where it\'s mounted and how it\'s grounded could even make it directional. Does the antenna have a coil? Is the coil right next to your back window? If so, you need to move it. Try different areas of the vehicle for performance. If your antenna is permanently mounted, it will not work well if it\'s mounted on a corner, or on the edge of a truck bed etc. Ground it with heavy wire to the frame of the vehicle and make sure that the area you make the ground has been cleaned of paint, rust, dirt etc. You want to see shiney bare metal, and when you find the right place to mount it, seal your ground with rubber undercoat spray to prevent rust from messing up your contact with the frame. Your antenna will always work best if mounted in the middle of the roof or trunk where it can use the sheet metal as a ground plane. As far as how far you can get out, that depends on how much power the radio puts out, and how clean your audio signal is. 1.4 swr is OK but it can be much better. If the power was "peaked" too high, your audio is going to suffer in clarity and overall quality. You\'re best off leaving the radio alone and getting an amplifier. Ten watts of ugly power is not going to sound anywhere near as good as 5 watts of clean power, and the extra 5 watts gets you very little extra distance if any at all. To increase an audio signal by 2db, the power of the transmitter needs to triple. For instance, if you are recieving a signal at 2db from a 100 watt radio, the power would have to increase to 300 watts to give you a 4db signal, and you know that a 4db signal isn\'t going to be a whole lot better than a 2db signal as far as being able to hear what is being said. So the difference between having 100 watts and 300 watts is only 2db. And heres where the cleaner audio is going to really pay off. A 6db signal with crappy audio will sound worse than a 4db signal with clean audio. So the radio with the clean audio will sound much better than the radio with twice or 3X the power with crappy audio. So you\'re really not getting much if anything by having your radio "peaked". You may have even ruined your radios audio if the guy doing it is a power freak and doesn\'t understand how good radio signals work, and he pushed your radio to it\'s limits. Get an amp and leave the radio alone. Have it put back to stock and get an amplifier (and don\'t have your amp "peaked")! You\'re better off with 5 watts of clean than 10 watts of dirty. Get your antenna situation fixed and try to get the SWR better and you should be good to go.
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