"RB" wrote in message ...

Thanks all for your answers.
How good can I expect the SWR to be when the antenna is on the ground?
In principle how much will the antenna be detuned? I have an MFJ SWR
analyzer and I did some measurements on the antenna when it was laying
on the ground with the same bad result as when it was standing up. I
did not take that big notice about these bad readings then, as I
thought the antenna was to close to ground and I had not the
counterpoises in place yet. The antenna is still up but it will be
taken down at some time.

Best regards Assar W. SM2LTA

What Dan just said is right.

Don't know if you want to take it down or not. You may have to. But, if
it's down, you can do a reasonably good setup with an atenna analyzer with
the Voyager laying on saw horses at strategic points.

What you do is get the swr as low as you can mid range on each of the bands.
When you get it up, it may end up a little better or worse, but that will be
about the best you can get it.

The reason they caution you not to use a tuner is because the swr slopes go
up rapidly once you get outside the "flat" part of the window on each band.
Higher swr means you can much more easily pop the caps. On bands where you
get higher than about 1:3, you will need to lower power somewhat to keep
from popping the caps. The tuner will probably bring in insofar as loading
is concerned, so your rig is happy, but it does nothing for the swr. The
only way the antenna can live with the higher swrs is through decreased
power.