Poor SWR with 40m hamstick

[K0BG]

One thing I forgot.

The SWR goes down when you add a little inductive reactance to the antenna (make it too long, or operate higher than resonance). For best performance it is always best to operate at resonance and match the resistive portion. You'll also find out that using an UNUN will give you a little more 2:1 bandwidth than you have with out it. Incidentally, inductive and capacitive impedance matching is not as broad banded as an UNUN. This is why I prefer them over other matching techniques.

Alan, KØBG
www.k0bg.com

[KF6RDN]

You mentioned ohming your trunk, and as other have mentioned, that's a DC measurement.

It's also a very low current measurement, when you close the trunk, the little latch probably touched the little, metal.. latch thingie and conducts fairly well.  But it's also a very random connection, full of oil and crap, so you throw a couple amps through it, and it dies.  

Bottom line, as has been mentioned everything might SEEM like it's connected, via hinges, springs and junk, but if you ground strap it to each other you will KNOW it is connected.