FM transmitter antenna output help

[phrettbender]

I finally got my FM transmitter and antennas set to go and powered it up. Got a great signal on my home receiver, great signal in the car, but problems after a few hundred feet of distance with a 1 watt unit and a 1/2 wave folded dipole. Hooked up the 3/4 wave j-pole with no difference. The SWR/power meter, a MFJ-872 1.8-200MHz. did not register and power or SWR signal. I shut everything down and doing a few checks found that the transmitter's output connection for the antenna was an open circuit from the outside ground/case to the middle pin. Should this happen? Or is there likely a bad solder joint where the antenna coax attaches to the main board shorting the antenna connection.

[Kage]

Could be a number of things. Could be a blown output transistor, or a bad soldering connection.
The antenna jack inner to outer connection on the transmitter usually does appear as an open circuit in most transmitter designs.
I would check the soldering and the jack itself.
Take a multimeter and check the jacks inner connector to where it connects to the circuit board and make sure it's making connection through that path.
If not then there's your problem.
If all seems fine it could be that your final is blown or some other problem.
1 watt with a good high up antenna should easily cover a mile or more.

[phrettbender]

Thanks for the advice. I tried a number of those things, and others, but put things away for a week or two cuz I got busy. Set up again the other day and had the same results. I rechecked things and thought I may have turned the power adjustment the wrong way. Nope, was at full power, but I rotated it back and forth several times and WOW! right up to 5 watts output. Hooked up the J-pole and trimmed it out to 1.1 SWR and I get almost 3 miles in the city from ground level. I'm sure once I raise the antenna to 40' that can only increase!