This Is How To GET SUPER LOW SWR ON YOUR CB RADIO!!
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- This Is How To GET SUPER LOW SWR ON YOUR CB RADIO!!
In this video I use a brand new Workman SWR meter to test the Cobra 29LX CB radio's internal swr meter. I'm using a Wilson Little Wil CB antenna and am parked on the roof top of a parking garage with no obstructions around. The Cobra 29LX CB radio is telling me the SWR reading is very very low. So, I thought I'd get a second opinion with this new SWR meter.
Workman SWR meter SWR2T: amzn.to/2ZBPphH
Wilson Little Wil CB Antenna: amzn.to/2LbzcvD
Cobra 29LX: amzn.to/2NKFHqP
If SWR is high on Ch. 1 and low on Ch. 40, add length to your antenna.
If SWR is low on Ch. 1 and high on Ch. 40, shorten your antenna.
www.1roadgarage...
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THIS MAN DESERVES AN AWARD! This must be the only video intro ive seen in the last decade that doesnt contain ongoing rambling or senseless talking followed by the "lets get right into it". Thank you for actually "getting right into it" and continuing that theme through the ENTIRE video; which actually is an exact representation of content reflecting what the title states it is.
WELL DONE SIR!
Kudos on your kind comment and I concur completely some people and I mean alot when I say some like to Ramble on and on and on as if we want to listen to them and perhaps thinking highly of themselves in which case most times I click away to find another more informative you tuber who gets right to the Point of my search . This is on of the Best in that regard. Laterz Leland Handyman
Amen
@@jacobsonleland I just bailed on a rambler and came here for concise info.
It's annoying when someone shows there family, house ,car, dog. Then start talking about the topic at hand!
Great info for the amateur CB guy. There are still a lot of us out here, Jimmy. Great job! I’ll see you in the next one.
Good thing when he connected to Transport, he didn't get sent to another dimension when he keyed the Mic. Good Video though, very well explained. Thank you.
Great Video, My Call Sign is Canadan Kid, Had it more 40 years now, I've gotten really great results just useing a 108" or so S/S whip antenna with the S/S spring base coil .....I have a old Sears Road Talker 40 Channel upper and lower side bank Radio .....👍
I use to have a mobile sears road talker and that thing would really get out there ! I been on the air since 1977. right now I am running a tram magnet mount and a 40 channel uniden !
@@baldy194859 That's great , How you getting out with that ? Also the road talker even worked on a motorcycle even without a good ground ... KAPN4831 OUT 🇺🇸
Side bank lol
@@Fox250R Side bank 🖕 LOL
@@Fox250R I saw that also. A Canook thing I presume.
Antenna placement makes a difference on swr. Yours is a mag mount try moving it around on the roof, I'm sure you can get a flat swr reading you just need to work at it.
U said "flat". Yep magnet mounts R good at "flat"...2 "flat".
Ok. Always be sure not to coil your coax . this will cause a choke and give you false readings. A l'il will USUALLY comes out of tje box needing some trimmed off of the stinger. And set out at 1.3 on one and 40 and flat on 20. Make sure all grounds are good to the radio also. A magnetic antenna is a "capacitive ground" and also through the radio chassis via a .01 pf cap. (Or several) those swr's , although usable, seem to be a little higher than I usually see with those. I am not at your location though, and cannot tell if you are dealing with outside influences . sometimes a choke in the coax will "fool" the meter using an invisible pi circuit. (Capacitive and inductive.) Coax should be run as straight as possible and back and forth on each other(when needed) instead of a coil. Standing waves could still exist but being covered by the antennae systems inherent capacitance and inductance issues through the coax and magnetic base... And so on and so on...
Thank you for this info!!
@@1RoadGarage had a shop in Grand Bay al. They called me "flamethrower" said i put "the fire in the wire" lol.
A lot of guys say an external SWR meter is better than the built in one, is this true? Thanks. I have that same antenna on the roof of my truck, works great for what it is.
My question is this. When you tuned your CB antenna you are standing still in a parking lot in the field there's no movement of the antenna. But as soon as you get on the interstate and you're doing 65 80 mph the antenna starts to fold back due to the wind of the moving vehicle so that screws with your SWR right? Especially on a magnetic antenna their thin they flex easy soon as that wind hits it it bows down disrupting the SWR
Yes. Generally not a significant amount tho.
I'm thinking the radios meter was good and this swr meter off Amazon is a pos? Any thoughts?
That meter is sold under many brands (made in China) Workman, Astatic, Paradynamic, Dosy, etc.
It is one of the cheaper (price and quality) of all of the meters out there.
Buy a meter fro an amateur radio dealer, you will pay more but you get what you pay for.
What if your antenna is all the way up and still in the red?
"transport" had to laugh
Yeah, I stopped watching
I heard that, and scrolled down immediately. Ha ha!
yup had too.
Tranceiver, ya big dummy!
I almost quit watching too... Except I realized that whether he knows the the correct terms or not, the meter will work properly, as long as he's using it properly and tuning properly, whech basically he did. I wanted to see if there was a lot of difference between the internal and an external meter
Get rid of that Little Wil and go with a 1000, much better antenna
I would trust the radio more than that cheap workman meter.
SWR is an indication of impedance matching. The impedance as seen by the radio can easily be different than that seen by the external meter which is at a different place in the feedline
Throw a 102" SS whip on that puppy while making sure your vehicle is well bonded and that will give you the best performance achievable, that's assuming you're using a high grade coax.
Never skimp on mounts, antennas or coax, it's the heart of your entire system.
102in is not "highest achievable" however it is good depending on what type local / DX (skip) of communication U R seeking. Hard 2 beat 4 durability. U R correct on the rest.
@@Dark_Knight_USAyou're semi correct, it's only half of the antenna system. In my case, I have a 102" length of ½" ground braid attached to the mount 180° opposite of the driven element in effect giving me a half wave dipole on my tractor.
Going down the road my average range is 10-15 miles on 27.185. When conditions are right, my average range can extend across the pond. My favorite contact was with a strong in the UK, (Wales to be specific) on 27.385lsb. BTW, my swr is 1.1:1 as measured on a Bird 43 and resonance is near channel 28 according to the Smith chart on a Mini VNA.
I'm sure if I spent more on a Predator or a Stryker antenna I could do better, [sarc] but it would look much more coolerer...
Should Have Never Moved The Antenna Up And Down It Was Fine Before You Started
Is this the only expressway in America where the mile markers don't match the exit numbers
The problem is that workman swr is garbage
You should never switch the fwd an set button while the radio is keyed up
very good vid i never knew how to use that meter properly,thanks for the vid was very informative
You will only achieve a low SWR across the entire band if you use an antenna closer to a true 1/4 wave. (102") The shorter the antenna using inductance, the narrower the bandwidth.
Partially true. CB rigs are designed around a nominal 50 ohm impedance. A 1/4 wave provides a nominal 70 ohm impedance, which gives you close to a 1.5:1 SWR. 4 percent reflected power is acceptable. A 2:1 match is still only 11 percent reflected power. Tube finals can handle this at legal power levels. But...
There's still no substitute for adjusting the antenna length to reduce reflected power. If you have a Penetrator, you can adjust it easily. Fiberglass antennas, not so much. I have been using a roof rescue Antenna Specialist Super Magnum, an end-fed half-wave set to the factory length. This causes the SWR to be below 1.5 from 27.5 to 26.2. For CB use this is fine because the extra length provides more capture area. For 10 meter amateur use it forces me to use a tuner as the SWR exceeds 2 by the time I get to 28.5.
It's all about compromise.
One more thing...measure the SWR at the base of the antenna for best results.
I get good results with base loaded antennas about 3-4 feet long.
I like the part you added at the end about doors closed and stuff. Also add "with engine running".
I wouldn't trust that SWR meter. Better off putting the money toward a nano VNA.
wow great job. We didn't have to listen to 5 mins of what you have done in the past and all about your new radio and other stuff. I love this short clear and to the point. Good job.
you should not be keying the mic when you switch to ref.
breaker breaker 19 do you copy
this is 685 in south east michigan do you copy
how about a dx land this is 685 in the mobile we are trying break
i guess i have no conditions in my receive
it be 685 in the mobile we are 2/3 off the key and 10 /27 to the stand by
bye bye................ BEEP.
Transport, must feed the flux capacitor.
Cool, I switched to a .5" shorted whip and got a high of 2 and a low of 1 -thanks!
I'm new to CB and I'm trying to learn all I can
Listen to what he said don't ever set your swr midrange your likely to burn up your radio after a period of time be careful who you listen too out here
Never listen to someone saying that lower side band will travel further than upper side band. That is a ridiculous fallacy. Upper side band and lower side band will travel the exact same distance out of the same station running the same power. If you want to use upper side band, go ahead and use it. It is actually much quite up there because so many use lower side band. I believe the proliferation of the usage of lower side band over upper side band may be sourced with the few that believe lower wide band travels further and others just found more operators on the lower side.
You have to learn how to say, SHUT UP STUPID
@@indridcold8433 , here in the US it has to do with tradition. SSB CBers settled on channel 16 because it's between a radio control channel and channel 17. Lower sideband puts you closer to the R/C channel and the inherent selectivity of the crystal filter gives high attenuation of channel 17.
When the FCC expanded CB to 40 channels, the sideband operators staked out the top 5 channels and established channel 38 as a call channel. They still use LSB while hams use USB above 30 meters.
You are correct in stating that there is no operational advantage in using one sideband over another.
Your SWR will also be the same regardless of whether you use AM, FM, SSB, DSB, or CW.
@@spaceflight1019 The only two CW QSOs I have ever had were on 27.405 megacycles. I can not believe how much of the code I remembered from my childhood, though my brain hurt a bit. The person transmitting was very proficient, likely an amateur radio operator. But he would slow down to let me read his code. It was a mess but so much fun. I was not aware amateur radio operators came to Citizen's Band. But the person I tapped to was surely an amateur radio operator. I guess why not? His radio could get on the band so why bit use the bands he can. I think he had a great time as well. He made an invitation to go to 10 meters. But being unlicensed, I did not dare and I recommended he not go either. But he said he had no worries. I told him I was just a radio hobbiest. I never had so much fun stumbling across one key and tripping over my own fingers. Maybe it is time to monitor channel 40 CW again.
1:31 "Transport" ??? Wrong! TRANS stands for "Transmitter."
Good info, good demonstration. The built in meters are good to get a general sense of how your antenna is performing, but having a specialized meter is good because you have better sensitivity and resolution.
Take a look at when he did at the beginning of the video - using the radio's meter didn't tell you anything other than you weren't having a ton of reflective power coming back at you. Using the external meter, you actually have a number to compare when adjusting the antenna.
Good job @1ROAD! Keep the content coming!
QUESTION WHY DID YOU CHECK CHANNEL 20 AFTER YOU CHECK 1&40
Channel 19 is the center frequency of the CB band 27.405 is 40 and 26.965 is channel 1. There are radio control channels that are between some of the channels 1 and 22. I had a car alarm that broadcast on ch24.
Really thinking about dusting off my ~30 year old Antron 99 from the garage........
You should.
@@jllucci The power of suggestion is hard to resist......
@@raymondj7588 it would surely kill that Lil will in performance! What a POS the lil will is!
I think they are still marketed as Solarcon A99 antennas. They are really broadbanded without a tuner and have excellent range. I set one up for the forestry rangers. They operate their transceivers on 27.445 to 27.605 megacycles. When they showed me the antenna they wanted me to set up, I thought to myself, "That looks familiar."
Me 2
Just keying the microphone only tells you what the swr is at dead key that's okay for F.m on Am when you talk you swr goes up. Because the increase in power. 440 said that.
Your swr meter is trash but works. Most stuff sold at truck stops is junk. The problem is your using a mag mount. Your swr should be under 1:5:1 across the 40 channel window.
Thanks Jimmy. I'm not sure how but I have SWR less than 1 across all channels. I'm using a Cobra29 LTD with 2 Wilson 2000 trucker antennas. I suppose that's a good thing.
Did U CK them individually? What type of feedline?
My dad was a trucker for more than 30 years and I remember him spending days adjusting and tuning his radios. He ran a 10 meter radio and had 2 separate sets of antennas on his truck for 10 meter and for 11 meter and had a switch to go between the two. I never knew what he was doing until I saw this video. Now it all makes sense. This brought back good memories of my dad. Thanks for posting.
On the radio, you didn't calibrate to the line, that's not a zone. Works just like the workman meter. I would suggest unkeying mic, then switching between forward and reflect.
Not to say the readings weren't accurate, but the workman is a meter, not a switching device.
why does ronco come to mind when i hear this guy talk....
The larger Wilson Mag mounts Antennas are much better performers and have at least twice the bandwidth. 2.0/1 SWR or less across MHz. Entire 40ch is less than 1.4/1
That meter is a joke 😂
The built in meter is better than that little box.
What? A mud duck? LOL
@1ROAD I have the same radio, but when I connect a linear of any type... I get ANTENNA WARNING on the LCD.... is there something I am missing??
The amplifier is not matched to the radio, that's why you're seeing that warning. The radio's protection circuit will cut output power but you won't get the most from your amp.
You can move your mag mount antenna around a bit on your roof and see if it helps as well
This has worked for me!
lol, the guy sounds like the Project Farm guy
It's a Lill Will, not bad for that antenna LOL
Even my Oil Can Truck Specs truck stop brand 1000 watt rated 5 ft stainless whip tunes better than my Lill Will
Now you look at the difference when you compare that $20 piece of crap truckstop meter to a $350 analyzer and you will see which meter is actually lying.
very easy, connect to a dummy load!
Nice job Jimmy LOL
HAD TO REVISIT THIS?
Cool just keep doing what works for you
Thanks 1ROAD!!
I'm into CB right now. Just having fun that's all🤷♂️
@@1RoadGarage yeah I have my CB gear but I'm in a car and with the way ppl are today I will just keep it locked up thanks again and
SEE YOU in the next one!!
@@1RoadGarage Dude side band will give you more channel like 160 it ha hole bother thing keep haven funny
Lots more to radio than swr .rejection and reflection are just as important grounding also too
I tune my antenna using a MFJ 269C analyzer which is a $370 meter and that will tell me a lot more about my antenna tuning including my impedance, reactance and if I have any open or shorts in the coaxial cable. There’s a lot more to a radio they just reading VSWR especially if it does not have a proper 50 ohm match.
The 269 is not a "meter". Technically it is a transmitter. Credits tho, the rest of Ur comment is true.
Cheap meter for cheap results.
...over-n-out.
Basically if you using only one channel you could adjust the power transmitted to the maximum on that specific channel. But that could swing your SWR way more than 3 on opposite channel.
The problem with mag mount mobile antennas is they are very narrow banded, however a 2/1 swr is acceptable..
PS.. Spend a few more bucks and get a good quality meter..
I don’t get it. All other videos I’ve watched were trying to lower SWR below 1.5 and the same value before ch 1 and ch 40. Why would you leave it at 2?
I had high swrs then I put a 4 foot whip antenna , astatic 18 ft coax and antenna mount with a ground wire to the frame and got a 1.00 on 19 , 1.00 on 1 and 1.37 on 40 without using a meter .
Little Wil-. Newbie special.
So when is a SWR meter needed? Only the first time to set up the antenna, or is it used periodically?
I heard grounding the mount of the cb antenna helps lower the swr, so grounding the mount is a must regardless of antenna length?
1st time yes. U can leave it online if U want. Mount should B DC grounded locally...not by a wire!. Antenna length has no relevance 2 DC grounding mount. However the reverse has everything 2 do with VSWR, performance and reliability of the transmitter.
You need to do your matching and calibration on channel 20 (Or channel 12 on a 23 channel). Tuning at the middle of your channels pretty much will set for all.
Transmit not transport
Technically what he plugged into was the trans. Port. Which means transmitter port. 🤦
Technically what he plugged into was the trans/port. Transmitter port🤷🤦
Being a First Responder I usually use VHF or 700 mhz digital and have no experience with CB but your videos are very informative and interesting. I would personally hard mount the antenna and honesty check out other antennas that are available. Keep it up.
For 700Mhz the ideal quarter wave antenna is 4 inches. For 27.185Mhz the ideal quarter wave antenna is 103 inches. However, the employment of a 103 inch antenna for mobile purposes may be a bit ungainly. This is why many CB antennas are coil wrapped. I have a quarter wave cb antenna on my old Jeep. It performs brilliantly but I do hit lower branches, the occasional bird, and offroad obstacles. There is a 158Mhz unlicensed radio service with five channels that would only need a 18. 5 inch antenna for a quarterwave antenna. There is a GMRS service on 462 Mhz that only requires a 6 inch antenna for quarter wave. The GMRS requires you to buy a $35 license, no test. The formula is:
234÷ frequency in megacycles or megahertz = quarter wave antenna length in feet.
Multiply by 12 to get inches.
Remember to have a good ground plane with at least the same quarter wavelength radius radials or piece of metal to finish your ground plane antenna. Amateur radio operators may be very helpful with your cb station also. I used to know quite a number of them.
HIs Wilson is a fine radiator. There are some better choices, and many more poorer ones. :)
Don't keep the PTT switch engaged when you flip the switch. Release the Push to Talk {PTT} switch, then flip the meter to reflect. Now Push the PTT switch again and read the meter.
I have a cobra 29 ltd nw with a 3’ firestik and a 8.5’ hustler whip on my Nissan Frontier and my swr is perfect, make sure to properly ground your antenna tho
If your 1.5 or below, don't worry about it. At 27 MHz, it's not so critical.
A wee antenna is crap with no frequency range
Man U should throw that Antenna in the trash and get a good one that has more bandwidth..
Oh, by the way, that is Transmitter on the back of the SWR Meter not Transport.. ♠Mr.G..
You can’t trust those little meters on the radio a little one like that for 20 bucks you’ll do fine I was always taught that from my father before he passed away it he was a ham operator tech just Like me oh I give a thumbs up but it was green I’m only joking
Your swr was pretty good considering that you have a magnetic mount they are a pain at times due to grounding. I thought the readings were odd I set mine today on my truck and I had 0 at channel 1 and barely off 0. On nineteen and 1.3 on 40, I made sure I have good grounding at the antenna as well as the radio housing that is a big factor in reducing the reflection of the swr the I adjust my antenna. Great job with your videos.
lol magnetic are the easiest to get right. The magnet portion is the ground...😂😂
@@rockhaller3899 The magnet is not a "ground". There is no "ground" on magnet mounts. It's only function is mounting. The VSWR is attempted low by capacitance in the load design and 18ft feedline fooling the meter. Most mobile antennae (commonly ¼, ⅝ and ⅞ wave) require good RF (not DC) "ground" as counterpoise which a magnet mount has not. Hence their reduced performance and setting problems. The added capacitance can fool a meter and/or transmitter by the added inductance.
Do not use 1,19 or 40 2 test. They R commonly used as talking. Using the adjacent will yield same results without interrupting.
@@Dark_Knight_USA boy i hope your joking... the magnet to the surface acts as capacitance for the antenna.
@@rockhaller3899 Nope. No joke face 😉 no joke.
All I had to do was buy a DX 929 😁
Great work on the video but, it didn't help me at all. My SWR is alot higher then this and both channel 1 and 40 are evend out.
SWR basically means "Something Went Wrong". Achieving resonance is the true goal of antenna tuning. And it involves so much more than than a flat SWR.
exactly. if my antenna showed a 1.0 swr i would be worried.
@@swingdaddy2126 Standing Wave Ratio
True, you can get a perfect 1.0 out of a dummy load.
Well so... I wonder why nobody can tell me how to solve the problem that my radios built in swr meter totally mismatch with the eternal
Naw, no radio check but maybe you can qualify for a welfare check?
Well your video has educational value for people who don't know how to check your Standing Wave Ratio but come on anyone with antenna knowledge knows you chose a POS antenna to demonstrate with. The lil will is a terrible performing antenna unless you only want to talk a couple of miles!
Indeed. It is basically a HT antenna. A newbie special.
Like you said being open feel don’t cut the antenna yet bring it all the way to the bottom of the base in the middle of the vehicle see where it’s high and low on one and 40 hey 40s hi Get a bolt cutter cut it like you’re getting a call cuts at ShopRite very little bit at a time give me a call make sure it’s all the way down to the bottom and check it again I guarantee you get where you want to I see people put the antenna too much and when you go to much that’s it you got a buy another one
So *that's* why they sell 36" replacement whips for the Lil Will!!
One more thing sometimes you might need to buy a longer antenna and you can work yourself down it depends on the person’s top of the SUV truck or whatever
Channel 19 is actually the middle of the band, funny how you were on it at the end. Ch19 is 27.185Mhz, when Ch20 is two steps away at 27.205 because of a skip.
In days of old, 27.195 FM was an RC channel. There were four others as well. CB actually has 45 channels with 5 channels being for RC. No voice is allowed on the skipped frequencies. They are known as alpha channels. However, those five channels are rarely used anymore. I do hear a lot of voice activity on 26.995 AM (channel 3A). I also hear some occasional lower sideband voice on 27.195 LSB (channel 19A). But sadly, CB is dying. I rarely hear anybody on the other channels anymore except the two alpha channels I mentioned, very distant radio traffic on 27.385 LSB, occasional Morse Code on 40,and the occasional channel 19 chatter. The rest is near empty.
@@indridcold8433 yes and garage doors. As in regard to 385, you must live on another planet.
@@arconeagain I am surprised you do not hear anybody on 27.385 LSB. On AM and FM you will not hear anybody. But on 27.385 Lower Side Band (LSB), I can hear very distant stations. Mentioning FM, I rarely hear FM anymore, anywhere. Go to 27.385 LSB and just leave the radio on. Surely you will hear someone with the range LSB has.
@@indridcold8433 I think that you're confused by my post. Culturally, 38 is a popular channel for international contacts between Australia and the US and other countries. And of course I mean on lower sideband. I hear plenty of stations on there at the moment, local and interstate here in Australia. Not much Stateside, although 269 Danny did stop by 35 today. If I know him, he would most definitely had been on 38.
19 is more occupied which us why many test on 20.
1.5 is the best without breaking the radio
1.0 produces the least amount of heat on the final transistors and an exact matching antenna system, in theory. But, that is not always possible. 1.5 or lower is just fine. Of course perfect standing wave ratio is not all that is needed for the best radiating power from your antenna. You can get a perfect 1.0 from a dummy load and radiate very low rf energy .
@indridcold8433 that's correct an antenna with 8.1 swr can radiate pretty much all it's power produced
So if you're on 31 or 27 and you have an SWR 2.5, is that good?
High swrs can damage the radio
you sound like ChrisFix
Magmunt suck for swr
The longer the antenna, within resonance, the broader banded it is. A cumbersome quarter length antenna will have a broader band resonance than a short, antenna with a loading coil. It is a tradeoff. The ungainly quarter length antenna is superior electrically but is mechanically really sloppy. The loaded coil antennas are much more mechanically tidy but your bandwidth is not as wide. This is true on all radio service bands.
Thicker antenna are broader banded. Get a pipe.
@@DumbledoreMcCracken Yes, get a quarter wavelength pipe and you will have an ugly mess of an antenna but it will work brilliantly. You should see the abortion I made out of thick galvanized cable conduit. It looks like a heavy wind blew a conduit covering some cables up and it is sticking up from the roof. But it works great on many bands. I made an ugly J-pole out of it.
@@indridcold8433 what is a credible reference that explains common mode current flow in a coax fed Larson NMO installed in a steel automotive roof?
@@DumbledoreMcCracken Unfortunately, I am not an amateur radio operator, nor have one. I just have a scanner and an ancient Citizen's Band transceiver, which is very empty of users right now. I am just a mild hobbiest. However, your question may be better addressed to an amateur radio operator. I do not think I can get a license even if I wanted one. There are no license tests going on anywhere. Even my vehicle's registration expired back in April. I can do nothing about it. I just know cut the coaxial cable at quarter wave intervals, only ¼ wave and ¾ wave end fed antennas resonate without a matching coil which is what would be needed for a car, unless you do have a, coil. I do not know if there are any amateur radio operators on the thread. Hopefully some of them will get back to you.
Indrid Cold - KBX1339 (defunct)
@@indridcold8433 haahaa Well, you are knowledgeable. I'm an Extra, but there is still a lot I haven't understood.
I'm not one of those 'hihi' amateurs'; I'm a no-coder. The people I once knew to be knowledgeable have all passed away over time.
"Trans" stand for Transmit.
I’m running 2 3 ft fire sticks. Should I swap or what?
I got a Realistic TRC 435 but without a mic. Can someone direct me to the correct microphones for this CB? What brand and where can I buy it. I tried hooking the TRC 435 up to my power supply and antenna, but I assume that, like my Cobra 29, the mic is an integral part of this CB's operation. My Cobra mic has a four (4) pin setup, this TRC 435 seems to take a mic with more.
Thank you in advance.
Could be a 6 pin in a star pattern, try electret or dynamic 6 pin
I got a 102" whip with PERFECT swr
I run 102 whips, they're awesome
That Wilson has a surprisingly narrow bandwith..
Good SWR should be below 2 on all channel and meter is crap it's a toy.
Hollyweerd / Burbank. hows the traffic out there?!? 😂
You need to have your meter on a level surface also to get a correct reading
I'm settng up a home base station with the Cobra 29 LTD Classic. A wilson trucker 5000, with the wilson gum drop stud, with mount hardware. Using a Pyramid-DC regulator power supply 13.8 v. 5 amps. Will this method with the workman swr meter also work for a home base?
I use both en external SWR meter an antenna analyzer, the antenna analyzer tests the SWR without the radio, resistance in the coax, etc
Don't obsess over low SWR. Reflection at 2.0:1 is 11% (0.5db), and by the time you get down to 1.5:1 your reflection is just 4% (0.2db) !! There is no meaningful benefit to trying in get it lower if it isn't already - it just becomes a time sap.
Where dies the 11% come from
@@Pioneer936 Even with a high SWR of 2, 11% of your TX signal (after feed line loss) is reflected back down the coax to your transceiver instead of being radiated by the antenna.
Or to put it another way, even with a high SWR of TWO, 89% of your signal (after coax loss) is still getting out.
50% loss is 3db (equivalent to half of 1 S unit), and 25% loss (quarter of 1 S unit) makes no significant difference. 11% is nothing, so don't worry about it.
@RF_Burns but how have you come to the figure of 11% ,swr is not a measure of loss just a measure of the mismatch
@@RF_Burns I'm not concerned about transmit distance. What I am concerned about is protecting my radio from high SWR. Do modern radios (like Radioddity) protect against high SWR or tolerate high SWR?
@@kjrehberg Raddiodity? Do they even make HF sets? Their walkie-talkies come with a little rubber duck - if the SWR is wrong with the supplied antenna they're incompetent!
I was obsessed with getting a low swr..after lots of tuning I got it down to where the needle barely moves on 1 20 and 40…success!!!🥳 using a cobra 29 ltd chrome 18 ft coax and a Wilson 2000 trucker antenna mounted on the spot mirror location on a 2025 Kenworth t680
Calibrate on channel 20. Flip switch to SWR or and check SWR’s on channel 1 then 40.
I liked your comment at the end as to where you and how you should test SWR. If you are in Southern California there is no open fields or space left to test SWR without a building, power line, cell tower within pissing distance. I drive 2 hours to the desert for open ground. From your video it looks like you are on the top deck of a parking structure; not a bad idea. I plan to try a cemetery; should have no complaints from the neighbors and much closer.
Note: the reading on the lower scale represents the loss in power to the antenna, you have to add another 0 in other words the full scale (FS) is 100% so with a SWR of 2 you are losing 25% and at a 3 = 50% that's half of your output from your radio to the antenna, here in the UK the 4 watt radios ends up with only 2 watts, so tune for higher frequencies (Ch 30 - 40) where the reflective signal is very low, just forget the lower channels, simples. Retired Radio Ham G0VMQ
50Ohm block of carbon the ONLY way to test the SWR meter
Hey 1ROAD just finished setting my swr's on my president McKinley president radio my antenna was actually up way to high I was getting high readings on 40 and very low readings on 1 and twenty after I was done im getting around 1.2 on 1 and 20 and 1.7or 6 on 40 I figure thats good enough if I have to ill change it on the fly during our trip to Ontario next week.....your instructions on setting swr's were clear and concise and you dumbed it down so anyone could understand it KUDOS to you sir.....keep up the good work....Dave Taylor HAM KI5FYU GMRS WRDU-841 SOA OK MOBILE 227
Why you are switching it while tranmitting? The hot switching is nightmare and with PA used you will burning the switch and other parts... just 2c. Thanks for vid.
The instructions that came with mine (astatic, looks identical though) specifically states to switch while keying down. Ummmmmm🤔
Not true. The switch ONLY switches the sampled forward or reflected signal to the meter movement which is derived from the internal sampling circuit; either a torroidal transformer or some other type of pickup from the coax passing through the device. The switch does not switch the RF path between input and output of the meter, so no RF power is switched at any point. 73 de G0CFD.
Thanks for explanation. Lesson learned…