my swr's move up and down when i check my swr's on my imax2000. i even made sure i turned down my mic gain when i check them. why. please help
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my swr's sways when i check them please help
- Thread starter scorpion1980florida
- Start date
Could be anything from weather to surrounding objects.
I've seen changes in humidity change my vswr... not much but a little bit.
Have also seen vswr vary when the trees/limbs sway in the breeze.
Just like stated above "reflection".
You shouldn't see much more than a point or so difference, if you're seeing a dramatic variance like from 1.1:1 to 1.8:1 or more than you need to start checking connections.
Check the solder on the connectors, check for a bad spot in the coax, check connection to the antenna and the antenna itself.
I've seen changes in humidity change my vswr... not much but a little bit.
Have also seen vswr vary when the trees/limbs sway in the breeze.
Just like stated above "reflection".
You shouldn't see much more than a point or so difference, if you're seeing a dramatic variance like from 1.1:1 to 1.8:1 or more than you need to start checking connections.
Check the solder on the connectors, check for a bad spot in the coax, check connection to the antenna and the antenna itself.
The microphone gain/audio does not affect VSWR in any way. It appears you are trying to measure VSWR of an SSB rig? Anyway, just measure it in the AM mode to get a steady carrier, and do it at low power (i.e. 4 Watts). If you are measuring the VSWR at high power you may be forcing a fault out in the open. Thus if the problem disappears at low power, it might indicate something is arcing in the antenna or something is happening at the SO-239 antenna connection.
With that said there might be a loose connection within the antenna that shows up when the antenna sways in the wind. There may be an issue with the PL-259 at the antenna end. This could require the assistance of a second person to monitor the VSWR meter while the other person wiggles the antenna back-and-forth. In short it is not fun to trouble shoot an intermittent problem like this.
If you had another antenna to put in place of the imax2000 that is one way (not easy) to isolate if the VSWR problem is caused by the antenna.
You didn't state if this is a new antenna installation, or if this is something that has come up recently with an existing install.
Let us know what happens after any trouble shooting tests you do, OK?
73,
Mike
With that said there might be a loose connection within the antenna that shows up when the antenna sways in the wind. There may be an issue with the PL-259 at the antenna end. This could require the assistance of a second person to monitor the VSWR meter while the other person wiggles the antenna back-and-forth. In short it is not fun to trouble shoot an intermittent problem like this.
If you had another antenna to put in place of the imax2000 that is one way (not easy) to isolate if the VSWR problem is caused by the antenna.
You didn't state if this is a new antenna installation, or if this is something that has come up recently with an existing install.
Let us know what happens after any trouble shooting tests you do, OK?
73,
Mike
Actually by running a higher mic gain setting when checking SWR it can cause EXACTLY what he is seeing. Any room noise or background noise will cause the needle to wiggle. That's why you turn it down so you can properly calibrate and then get a stable reading.
As mentioned Ive seen this hapen when windy or I just had a quad magmount do this and I had to tighten it up now its fine. Its usually an easy fix as in the case of my mobile but when its a base well theirs a bit more work involved. Ive seen my 75 meter inverted V do this on occasion.
Check SWR in AM mode, mike gain all the way counterclockwise. You can't do it in SSB mode, nor with any modulation at all on other modes.
Are all the SWR's changing or just one of them?
I had to say it. I just had too.
Sounds like a loose connection somewhere.
Dont you mean SWARS???????