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Message |
    
Keiths121
New member
Username: Keiths121
Post Number: 1
Registered: 8-2009
| | Posted on Sunday, August 16, 2009 - 7:29 pm: | 
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I cannot get my SWR below 2.0 across all 40 channels. I can get it 1.5 or below from 5-35 or 1-30 or 10-40 but not across the whole band. I purchased the antenna tuner that copper offers. However I need to lower the screws more to get a lower SWR and they are already as low as they will go. I would like thw SWR to be low across the whole band as I have an amp I would like to use, and I am a channel surfer. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. |
Tech808
Moderator
Username: Tech808
Post Number: 17081
Registered: 8-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, August 16, 2009 - 7:55 pm: |
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Keiths121
Welcome to the Copper Electronics Forum!
An VSWR/SWR reading of 2.0 on the high or low channel's on the 11 Meter Band band is nothing I would personally worry about.
You will find very few if any that have a 1.5 SWR across the entire 11 meter band.
It could be your meter, or not having all of your equipment ie: Radio/Meter/Coax/Antenna/Antenna Mast or Tower. grounded to a single point ground properly.
Set your SWR on Channel 20 to 1.5 or as low as you can get it.
A .5 jump from a perfect 1.5 across the band is nothing that I would personally worry about.
Hope this help's,
Lon~Tech808
N9CEF
CEF#808~CVC#002
Radio Enthusiast!
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Keiths121
New member
Username: Keiths121
Post Number: 2
Registered: 8-2009
| | Posted on Sunday, August 16, 2009 - 10:33 pm: |
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on 20 I am at 1:1, so your saying don't worry if its a 2.0 on 39 even if I use that channel regurlarly, and using an amp? |
Patzerozero
Senior Member
Username: Patzerozero
Post Number: 4625
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, August 16, 2009 - 10:57 pm: |
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base? mobile? antenna? how is the antenna mounted? what coax? swr directly from radio to antenna, using radio's swr meter, or an external meter? if external, length & type of jumpers? |
Train_man
Member
Username: Train_man
Post Number: 63
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Monday, August 17, 2009 - 12:26 am: |
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I dont know what ant you have, but it sounds like the band width is very narrow. What ant do you have?
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Keiths121
New member
Username: Keiths121
Post Number: 3
Registered: 8-2009
| | Posted on Monday, August 17, 2009 - 10:57 am: |
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Other than the ANT not being able to be tuned for the entire band it seems to be doing its job. On saturday the conditions here were great. Was on 39 LSB (ANT was tuned for the top of the band) and I was able to make a DX contact in Kentucky, and N. Carolina from Texas using about 100 watts provided from the KL-500. |
Keiths121
New member
Username: Keiths121
Post Number: 4
Registered: 8-2009
| | Posted on Monday, August 17, 2009 - 10:25 am: |
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I have a galaxy 959 being used as a base station. Antenna is a 4' Wilson no ground plane antenna about 25 feet high on the roof of the house. This is mainly due to deed restrictions in my neighborhood. coax is 48' of RG-8X. Using an external meter, signal goes to ANT, to SWR meter, to radio. The ANT is not the normal wilson NGP ANT. I believe it is one that is discontinued now or replaced w/ the current NGP wilson. It has cable that runs along the side of the antenna in a second shaft and a clip on the side that when moved up and down shortens and lengthens the NGP coax inside the ANT. |
Patzerozero
Senior Member
Username: Patzerozero
Post Number: 4627
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 19, 2009 - 10:20 pm: |
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you answered your own question. i had the old midland NGP for a boat. not so hot. still have it on the house for testing, lowest swr is 2:1, on a good day, and it is very narrow banded. never used the one you have, but saw one. do you do much local talking? use that for local & build a wire dipole (horizontal) for skip. the -zero- gain from the dipole will probably be 6db over the wilson, on horizontal to horizontal locally, and far better on skip. AND, no swr trouble across the band, plus, depending on coax, handle as much as 1k or more! |
Keiths121
New member
Username: Keiths121
Post Number: 5
Registered: 8-2009
| | Posted on Saturday, August 22, 2009 - 1:59 pm: |
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Only local activity here is in spanish or channel 19. I don't speak much spanish. I wish the locals that don't speak english knew about the gentlemens agreement for 35-40. I'm on 38 LSB quite often and sometimes the conditions are rolling in but there are a lot of loacl hispanicsis on 38 AM that are 1 or 2 miles away putting an S9 on my meter.
About building the wire dipole can you give me some details on that? Length, what type of wire to use, etc.
the feedback is greatly appreciated pat. |
Patzerozero
Senior Member
Username: Patzerozero
Post Number: 4629
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, August 22, 2009 - 7:03 pm: |
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take 2 pieces of #14 bare or enameled copper wire, 3 insulators and a piece of coax, rg8x or better. start at 8'8" for each leg, and with a decent swr meter, you may find you'll need to shorten it an inch or 2(each side) to get a 1.1:1 swr. google 'how to build a dipole' and you'll get step by step details. google 'dipole calculator' and you'll get the length. if you have questions....post 'em here!
at only 17+ feet, you could put up a couple of them....they should end up directive off each long side, so put up 2 away from each other, one for north/south, one for east/west.
are you able to install a tv antenna on your roof....with a rotor? google 'moxon' and put one of them up..... |
Train_man
Member
Username: Train_man
Post Number: 65
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, August 23, 2009 - 12:52 pm: |
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Or you can buy/build one of these.
It can be installed hor or vert.
Add a rotator and you have a rotatable dipole.
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Flying_cloud
Member
Username: Flying_cloud
Post Number: 88
Registered: 4-2009
| | Posted on Friday, August 28, 2009 - 1:57 am: |
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well you can try to build a 3 element beam that would help your tx. you should be able to do some dx with that and hit some engligh speaking people then!
Flying High and Flying Proud!!!!!!!!
CEF# 1028
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Keiths121
Junior Member
Username: Keiths121
Post Number: 17
Registered: 8-2009
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 - 10:54 am: |
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No TV antennas are allowed here in this neighborhood. I went through the neighborhood looking to see if anyone else had one thinking that maybe if they are getting away with it I can, but there is not a single antenna amongst the 300+ houses in the subdivision. Every last house has cable or directtv/dish network.
KF5CTE
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Patzerozero
Senior Member
Username: Patzerozero
Post Number: 4648
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 - 11:28 pm: |
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go with the wire dipole. just off the roof & nobody should see it. while it has no real gain, if assembled, tuned & fed properly, it really has no loss either-100 watts in gets 97 watts out. what more could you ask for? |
Slugo4449
Intermediate Member
Username: Slugo4449
Post Number: 186
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Friday, September 11, 2009 - 1:49 am: |
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I live in a covenant restricted neighborhood and I have a "Flag Pole Antenna". It is ground mounted and I have many random length ground radials burried about a foot below the surface. Some are over 80 feet long. I can use it from 6 to 75 meters and that also includes CB. I use a 1KW auto tuner to get all bands.
Do a search for factory made flag pole antennas on the internet. Good Luck
73,
Marty |
Joey_migs
New member
Username: Joey_migs
Post Number: 9
Registered: 9-2009
| | Posted on Sunday, September 13, 2009 - 4:10 pm: |
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I had the same problem w/ a home-brew 1/4 wave drooping GP. I was using 12 awg copper wire hot glued to a fiberglass stake. It turns out that wire radiating elements have a very narrow bandwidth, I swapped it out with 102 inch aluminum radiator telescoping style and now my SWR is 1.3:1 on my worst fringe frequency. good luck, I hope you resolve ur SWR issue.
73,
Migs |
