Aaron
I confess I routinely operate into something like 1.6:1 especially if I know the feedline has a reasonable loss to the antenna. One of my antennas is an EFHW. Do gather its SWR across bands so you know where it's reasonable.?
You can make plenty of contacts while figuring out that tuner. It may be a bad connection somewhere or a backwards diode or insulation not removed from a coil. Trust you can figure it out when you study it systematically.?
Coax fed antennas don't do well operated into very high SWR. Well above 2 generally the antenna needs adjustment. A tuner with a coax fed antenna works decently to adjust moderate swr. At something like 1.6 you don't need the tuner. Much above 3 the tuner may not work so well.?
Enjoy your radiation.?
Curt wb8yyy?
