Impact of crimps on CB antenna cable?

[twichers]

I was in a rush to isntall my CB before a Jambo back in Oct. Just ran the antenna cable thru the gaps in the tailgate and now have a number of crimps/bends in it.

How does this impact performance of the CB/antenna? The antenna is tunealbe so can that compensate? I plan on routing the antenna thru the door but wonder if I need new cable first.

Thanks..

[Jeepin' Rock Climber]

Do you have an SWR meter? That will tell you if it's ok or not pretty quickly.

[Jerry Bransford]

Well, consider that the antenna cable has four parts to it... the center conductor, then a polyurethane insulator around the center conductor, then the shield conductor is wrapped around that, finally covered by the outer black insulating cover. I'd be worried about the shield conductor being squeezed nearly through the polyurethane insulator to the center conductor, depending on how badly the cable has been crushed by the tailgate. Not to mention that the cable's impedance is probably no longer 52 ohms so the SWR has probably been adversely affected.

I'd consider replacing the cable since it's only a few bucks to do so.

[twichers]

Thanks guys, esp for the description of the innards Jerry.

I have a SWR meter also.

I will probably just buy a new one when I fix the routing.

[Rit]

I just ran mine thru the bottom corner of the rear window. Fits nice and loose.

[IH8PVMNT]

I ran mine through one of the rubber plugs in the floor pan under the rear seat. You can also run it through the tailgate where the wires for the rear center high brake light run. Here is a link I found on how to.

http://www.4x4xplor.com/antennamount.html

Goodluck.