need alittle help.... swr

[oldslowchevy]

ok as many of you know i use a dipole inside my apartment on 11 meters because i am not alloud to have any outside antennas at all.

i have 3 swr meters.

one is built into the radio (ranger freedom one) a rat shack swr meter and older mfj 815b meter.


the radio and the rat shack meters are very close in saying the swr is about 2.0:1-2.2:1 but the mfj reads 5+:1


the radio and rat shack meters i was told show a forward swr while the mfj show a reflected swr.

that said i am more confused then ever and i never knew swr can be measuered two different ways. how does one effect the other? could this be one of the reasons i am getting such a high level of white noise? i avg 7-9 s units of noise all the time no matter what radio i have inline no matter what is on or off eletricly. i have just learned to live with it.

the set up is as follows,

astron rs-35a power supply
ranger freedom one
mfj 815b
18' coax with two baluns (1' coax then wrapped 5 times approx 3 1/2" dia 7' more going to the top of the antenna where the second balun of the same type is then the elements come down in an inverted v from there.)
the whole thing is taped to the wall using scotch tape

there is no noticeable change from the inverted V vs the standard T dipole setup as far as the swr reading or the white noise goes.

 

[RatsoW8]

The MFJ meter is showing you the forward power output in watts (left hand scale), reflected power in watts (right hand outer scale) and the SWR (right hand inner scale with red curved lines).

I went through the apartment antenna blues for while myself many years ago. You are experiencing the drawbacks of having an indoor antenna. More electrical noise, less chance of a good match and less than decent performance. Lots of things will affect the performance of an indoor antenna that just aren't present if the antenna is mounted outdoors in the clear. It's just something you have to get used to.

 

[hwq1776a]

You are experiencing the drawbacks of having an indoor antenna.

I can second that. I've got my "backup" dipole in the attic and the noise level is just horrendous (it's especially bad if you've got asphalt shingles).

You might be able to reduce much of the noise using a DSP speaker, like the "Hear It" from GAP.

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/3712

Never tried one myself but it seems to get decent reviews.

 

[Beetle]

ok as many of you know i use a dipole inside my apartment on 11 meters because i am not alloud to have any outside antennas at all.

i have 3 swr meters.

one is built into the radio (ranger freedom one) a rat shack swr meter and older mfj 815b meter.


the radio and the rat shack meters are very close in saying the swr is about 2.0:1-2.2:1 but the mfj reads 5+:1


the radio and rat shack meters i was told show a forward swr while the mfj show a reflected swr.

that said i am more confused then ever and i never knew swr can be measuered two different ways. how does one effect the other? could this be one of the reasons i am getting such a high level of white noise? i avg 7-9 s units of noise all the time no matter what radio i have inline no matter what is on or off eletricly. i have just learned to live with it.

the set up is as follows,

astron rs-35a power supply
ranger freedom one
mfj 815b
18' coax with two baluns (1' coax then wrapped 5 times approx 3 1/2" dia 7' more going to the top of the antenna where the second balun of the same type is then the elements come down in an inverted v from there.)
the whole thing is taped to the wall using scotch tape

there is no noticeable change from the inverted V vs the standard T dipole setup as far as the swr reading or the white noise goes.

I'd avoid asking any more questions of the guy who told you that. "Forward SWR/Reflected SWR"? SWR is, among other things, the ratio between forward and reflected power. However, there's no such thing as either "Forward SWR" or "Reflected SWR". Get a good dummy load and connect it in place of your antenna. The meters should indicate very close to 1:1. If that MFJ is a cross-needle type as Ratso indicates, you have to read SWR at the point where the two needles cross, in the area with the red lines.

Then, as part of the learning process, you can make another dummy load with an SO-239 connector and a couple of 200 ohm, 2-watt carbon resistors. In parallel, this gives you 100 ohms, which would represent a 2:1 SWR. See how well the meters agree here. Just don't exceed the power rating of the combinations. And don't use wirewound resistors - that'll give you some really funny readings (although all three meters should agree with whatever reading it produces!)

Finally, remember that a man who owns a watch knows what time it is. A man with more than one watch is never really sure. Same goes for meters.