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Old May 20th 08, 09:10 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.antenna
Lumpy Lumpy is offline
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Feb 2008
Posts: 53
Default Why is my dipole low impedance?

Roy Lewallen wrote:
What do you read when you connect a
47 - 75 ohm resistor across the
terminals of your measuring device?


Plain resistors read appropriately.
27ohms, 56 ohms etc.

I don't have a good dummy load. I have a 50 ohm
50w resistor but it's wire wound. It varies all
over the range when I sweep the MFJ.

Known good piece of coax, end shorted or open,
reads 50 ohms when the MFJ is tuned to the quarter
wave of the coax.

MFJ seems to read a vertical hamstick
appropriately -

http://digitalcartography.com/n0eq/M...il-600x400.jpg

I just made a contact on 5W QRP from Phoenix (here)
to St Louis. So I have to guess the antenna isn't
open or shorted or something else catastrophic.
That's through an LDG tuner.

But -

Running the dipole into my Yaesu 857 with external
tuner bypassed, shows an SWR high enough to cause
the transciever to self protect shut down.

Engage the tuner, SWR comes down to 1.5:1, and
I'm putting out (at least to the back of the radio)
very close to the selected 5 watts.

Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke

www.n0eq.com