Trouble Calibrating Radio Shack SWR Meter

I just finished installing my CB and I'm trying to tune the antenna. I have the radio shack SWR meter but I can't seem to get it to calibrate properly.

The directions say to switch the meter to cal, key the radio up, and adjust the cal knob until the needle points a CAL. Even with the cal knob turned as far as it can go I can't get the needle past 3 on the SWR scale. Does this sound like I have a bad meter or am I doing something wrong?

Below is a picture of the meter to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

 

I had a bad antenna on my Big rig that caused that to happen also... Ended up buying 2 new antennas just to fix it. Something to think about.

 

If I had a bad antenna it wouldn't work at all though right? I'm picking up truckers on the interstate a few miles away and I live in the mountains. Also the weather stations come in crystal clear. The radio seems to be working fine.

 

no not always... thats just what im saying, mine seemed to be working but I could not get it to setup right... I ended up getting 2 new antennas and bam i was able to fully calibrate it and set the swr up properly.. I was hitting about 1.5 to 1.3 on my 1 and 40... with ch19 being my target... Worked flawlessly.. Try someone elses antenna and see if the problem persists...

 

I think I'm going to try exchanging the SWR meter for a new one first to rule out the meter being bad since I bought it 3 days ago.

 

Got a new meter today and it cals up perfect. Looks like I had a bad meter. Now it just needs to stop raining so I can tune my antenna.