my SWR reading
Highland Ham wrote in
:
Try transmitting up and down the band to see where your lowest swr is.
Then you can shorten or lengthen the antenna a bit to get a low swr in
the 28.4 mhz range. If you can't quite get it to 1:1, coiling the coax
at the feedpoint, 4 or 5 turns about 6 inches in diameter can get you
pretty close to 1:1.
2:1 isn't bad, but you're probably not getting full power output if
your rig is solid state.
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When SWR is 2:1 the reflected power is only 11% of the tx output
power,
which will hardly be noticeable at the receiving end .
Even when SWR would be 3:1 only 25% of the transmitter power would be
reflected , still resulting in only a fraction of an S-point at the
receiving end.
But a low SWR will make the solid state PA of your radio feel happier !
Frank, your analysis ignores the fact that the PA may deliver other than
its rated power into the actual load, it could be higher or lower power,
but in radios that incorporate VSWR protection of the PA, it is most
likely to be lower, and at 3:1, substantially lower.
VSWR protection helps protect radios operated by operators with the view
that 'anything works'.
To me, 2:1 seems a bit poor for such a simple antenna and probably
readily capable of improvement to 1.5:1 or better. More importantly, the
OP might expand their knowledge in the process.
The original description was scant on information about the
configuration, and I guess that sometimes, knowing how to describe the
configuration / problem is the first step of knowing how to solve it.
Others have identified missing elements of the description, the use or
otherwise of a balun is relevant in indicating the extent to which common
mode feed line current plays a part in determining the load presented to
the feedline.
Owen
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