On Wed, 06 Apr 2005 02:37:12 -0000, (Dave Platt)
wrote:

In article ,
Bob Miller wrote:

For example, the rubber duckie that comes with my 2 meter Icom T2-H,
at 147 Mhz, has an swr of 3.0, and an impedance of just under 400
ohms, according to my MFJ 269 antenna analyzer. But the antenna works
fine on the handie talkie.

You might want to try repeating the measurement with the MFJ 259 held
up beside your head as if it were an HT.

I've been told that HT duck antennas are often tweaked for best match
and lowest SWR when used in this position, with a significant amount
of capacitive coupling to the user's head. Measurements of a couple
of 'em with my 269 seemed to support this - they "read" a lot better
in a "typical HT use" position than they do if the analyzer is being
held out at arm's length.

Hmm, maybe I don't have as much upstairs as I thought -- moving my
head towards the antenna doesn't do much -- but moving my hand towards
the antenna does affect things -- this is all highly approximate
measuring with the MFJ 269; guess it's a miracle these HTs work as
well as they do... touchy little devils to measure...

bob
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