Earthing/groundplane question

[cmickey123]

I dont know too much about cb and aerials so im am wondering if you can earth an aerial by running an earthing strap or wire from the aerial to somewhere that has a good earth, i want to know if this could give it any better of a groundplane?
im using a mirror mount and a mini orbitor on a tractor. il post a picture below.
Any sort of help would be great
thanks

[Dragonfly]

The mounting bracket looks like its clamped to black paint rather than bare metal , also the antenna spring looks to close to that top bar probably causing high SWR and with time would wear through the paint and cause a drastic short .

[cmickey123]

so theres no way of earthing it to anything using a wire or earthing strap?

[Dragonfly]

Were there,s a will there.s a way but if the mirror arm has a earth run down to the chassis then you wont need a earth wire .Have you tried a continuity test from mounting bracket to chassis .

[stampman]

easiest way is to mount the antenna at the outer most end of the mirror arm so it does not pick up reflection from the cab i supply a lot of farm contractors here in Lancashire and they all mount this way with no problem without the need for a looping ground plane strap

[cmickey123]

so if i was to just scrape off the paint from the end of the mirror arm and mount it on there it should work fine?

[Asterix]

Hi,I was using a mini orbitor mounted directly to my roof bars, and had problems with high s.w.r so I mounted it to a three legged radial attachment which bought the s.w.r right down, so if your earthing is found to be ok but your readings are to high, then maybe try one of these

[stampman]

you dont need to scrape the paint off just make sure its tight