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#1
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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. -- Dave Platt AE6EO Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads! |
#2
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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. ================================================== ====== That's the part that's difficult to measure. Some of my good HT antennas that came with the radio, when tested alone on a good ground plane, have lousy SWR. Yet these radios are fully capable of being connected to an external antenna. A perfect quarter wave is 36 ohms. Yet HT's are happy driving an external 50 ohm antenna. I do have a few telescoping antennas. This might be the best solution. I was hoping someone made one built like a tape measure. A tiny SWR meter that mounted between the HT and antenna would be a nice solution. I'll admit I like to have the ability to at least jump over to the FRS or the GMRS. |
#3
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In article ,
Bruce W.1 wrote: That's the part that's difficult to measure. Some of my good HT antennas that came with the radio, when tested alone on a good ground plane, have lousy SWR. Yet these radios are fully capable of being connected to an external antenna. A perfect quarter wave is 36 ohms. Yet HT's are happy driving an external 50 ohm antenna. Well, for one thing, the transmitter "sees" the total load - the quarterwave's radiation resistance, the radiation resistance of whatever is servicing as the ground plane / counterpoise / other half of the dipole, and the losses of both. The role of GP/counterpoise is usually taken by a combination of the HT's metal body, and the user's skin (capacitively coupled to the HT body). The radiation resistance and losses of the HT body and user's skin are difficult to predict, and no doubt vary all over the place depending on the situation, sweat levels, phase of moon, etc., but I imagine they're high enough to boost the total feedpoint impedance up well above 36 ohms. For another things, HT finals _have_ to be reasonably tolerant of poor matches, or the failure rate would be astronomical - there's just too much variation in antenna feedpoint impedance to allow such devices to be designed with finicky, sensitive finals. I would guess that modern HTs all use internally-ballasted multiple-emitter RF transistors which are very conservatively rated (e.g. voltage breakdown ratings of several times higher than the power supply voltage, plenty of excess current-dissipation margin due to the ballasting) and may include automatic high-SWR power foldback circuitry as well. -- Dave Platt AE6EO Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads! |
#4
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