[Blu_Lunch]

I don't know if anybody else is a ham radio operator here or not. I hold a advanced class operator licencse and have had for 15 years. A few things first from what I see is that most rigs run about 25w out at about 6 amps draw that can be easlily handled by the fuse box or lighter outlet but don't aways run straight from the battery and besure the plus is fused, you get to much crap from the engine mixed in your audio. Most important is ALWAYS use the best co-ax for the MHZ it make a huge differance. Connectors. save yourself the headaches don't go to Radio Shack to get your co-ax connectors, look for silver-teflon connnectors they are very low loss and easy to solder to and they will not corrode. Why no TX? Have you checked with a VHF power meter/ swr meter your out-put? Got out put but the power TX is only fraction of what it should be? SWR probley is high over 2:1 as soon as the SWR goes high it will cut back out put to save the TX finals the reflected RF goes back to to your rig and is disapated as heat in the finals not good. Most fiberglass attennas are pre-tuned there is no way to tune the attennna for the best SWR, the factories do it by the lenth of the co-ax: always use the same lenth co-ax. I dont recall the exact formula but it goes like the length of the driven element{ boat attennas are a single driven element} by the operation freqency will give you the lenght of the co-ax . *May be you can narrow down your problem but find a ham in your area most of use have the test meters to find and fix your trouble, we are glad to help..........Ted