5/8 Wave groundplane 1.5:1 SWR all over the band

[mattsowders1989]

It's a Hy-Gain Super Penetrator 500 but the coax is fed at the match directly. Same location that the SO-239 was connected. Below Ch.1 the SWR starts climbing to about a 1.9:1. Same with above Ch.40. stays around 1.5:1 on the regular 40. All my grounds are good. No power lines or anything around and its 50 Ft in the air on a 5 Ft mast pipe. Tower is buried 3 Ft in the ground. Not sure what happened. Didn't used to be that high. Any thoughts?

 

[Unit 75]

Have you had any freezing rain go thru your area?

 

[mattsowders1989]

nope.

 

[jessejamesdallas]

could have water in the coax or the connector...Might be fine after it dries out...

SWR gets a little higher on my antenna when it's raining

 

[mattsowders1989]

it hasnt rained in a few days

 

[Unit 75]

If the antenna looks structurally sound, then I would have to agree with jessejamesdallas. You most likely have some water in the coax or antenna.

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

Could be a bad coax connection anywhere in the station. Plug or socket. I tore my whole setup apart one time to find a 3 foot jumper that looked ok until I increased power. It was ok barefoot....

 

[Jay Mojave]

Hello All: Not sure what you mean about feeding the coax at the match directly?

"It's a Hy-Gain Super Penetrator 500 but the coax is fed at the match directly. Same location that the SO-239 was connected."

Maybe a photo showing the coax to match directly connection, would be a help. And as said before checking the coax for loss called Insertion Loss and bad connections would be a good call. Measure the carrier output at the radio, then at the end of the coax. should be around .5 to 1 dB approx. Something like 4 watts carrier at the radio, and 3.5 watts at the end of the coax is approx. .5 dB. dB = P1 / P2 Lod10 x 10

The coax manufacture web site or even another manufacture wed site should have a dB loss per 100 feet at around 30 Mc, which would be close. See:
https://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/cable/coaxperf.html

I have seen coaxes have water in them that in some cases causes the coax to have more loss which results in a lower SWR and wider bandwidth, than normal, doesn't sound like your case. Maybe a antenna check of all the lengths and connections. Good luck, please let us know what you find the fix is.

Jay in the Great Mojave Desert

 

[W4KVW]

1.5.1 is a very good SWR & there is ZERO chance that anyone can or ever would hear a difference in your signal if it were 1.1.1.nor will you see or hear any difference.Don't stress over things that make ZERO difference.They put a RED area on an SWR meter for a reason & 1.5.1 is nowhere near that RED area.I for sure would not be trying to tune it but if you feel stressed about it then go ahead but it's a waste of time & energy.You may feel free too quote me on that as well.If having a 1.1.1 SWR was so important then everyone would talk on a Dummy Load & few people would ever hear them.

SIX-SHOOTER

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

SWR is important when running a qrp cb. When you don't have much to start with, every little bit helps.

 

[mattsowders1989]

SWR is important when running a qrp cb. When you don't have much to start with, every little bit helps.

Absolutely! 1.5:1 is unacceptable to me. Too much reflect that can damage my equipment.

Well i feel stupid. It was a bad jumper. Sorry guys and thanks for all of your help!

73, 677

 

[jessejamesdallas]

Absolutely! 1.5:1 is unacceptable to me. Too much reflect that can damage my equipment.

Well i feel stupid. It was a bad jumper. Sorry guys and thanks for all of your help!

73, 677

Well crap....I was looking forward to 3 or 4 more pages of posts stating what the problem was!........you just killed the thread!

 

[Road Squawker]

Well crap....I was looking forward to 3 or 4 more pages of posts stating what the problem was!........you just killed the thread!

No He didn't,.. We can kick this around for a few pages.

Absolutely! 1.5:1 is unacceptable to me. Too much reflect that can damage my equipment.. edit...

 

[Redbeard U812]

.If having a 1.1.1 SWR was so important then everyone would talk on a Dummy Load & few people would ever hear them.

Ha! Buddy of mine was getting out great local on his homebrew mineral oil dummy load.....he didn't realize it at first, but that load under the bench was loud and proud.

 

[jessejamesdallas]

No He didn't,.. We can kick this around for a few pages.