SWR HAPPENINGS ?

[Switch Kit]

Simply stated, in this business if you get things more better than they should be, then you likely have losses as a buddy.(That I can surely believe) Well , it's still all very interesting reading for me (-: ....I will very soon be checking further into all of this , The radio is transmitting and receiving very well up to this point , I've seen stranger things in my times , like guys running ground plane antennas at 3.1s for years and never having any problems and as far as they were concerned,they didn't want it messed with ? Go figure ? ....granted a lot of you guys have antenna analizers and equipment that can help you all be more closer to perfect then not , I've never personally have been into antenna tuners or anything along those lines , Antron 99s / 2000s are a beginners type antennas that helps make life fairly easy from the get go as far as having a top notch SWR out of the box with the tuning rings being set for the 11 meter band from the get go . After years of running Wilson antenna's and never ever having any problem with those as far as SWR goes, the time finally came when I did on a perticular vehical and no matter how much time I spent grounding this and that and what not ,the best I ever saw was a 2.5 .....and that's the way it stayed. (No power was ever ran) but the radio did transmit and receive well enough . This 2000 is cleanly mounted 30ft up around the wood frame that goes around the chiminy about 2 ft down a 5ft mast ,this type of roof is made of a sheet type cynder block .....5ft away from the radio is a metel garage door ......3.1 at the radio 1.3 at the antenna around the band ,basically the same reading on 2 different meters....i did not move these rings but I dont think that will make a differance as far as the SWR readings good at the antenna and not so good at the radio .....I appreciate you guys spelling things out for me here , I will get back at this ASAP and see if I personally can't figure something else out. Thanks

 

[W5LZ]

FWIW
The idea of a 'perfect' antenna is one of those ideas that usually only occurs to people who don't really have a lot of experience or knowledge about antennas. After people have had the experience, or have found out nore about antennas, they realize that there just ain't no 'perfect antennas, there's always a 'fly in the ointment' somewhere. Absolutely nothing wrong with wanting the 'best' antenna possible, but you just can't carry that to extremes. That 'fly' is always buzzing around close by. After a while you get to the point where if it works okay, why bother trying to 'fix' it? That can be carried to extremes too, so you gotta sort of take all of this 'better' stuff with a grain of salt.
The best that anyone can do is find the 'best' antenna for a particular set of circumstances (what you're trying to do, and where you happen to be). That 'best' antenna which works so well in one set of circumstances will probably be terrible in other circumstances. (Had a loop that did most everything I ever ask of it. A friend couldn't get a loop to work no matter what he tried. Go figure.)
In most cases, more simple is more better. And there are always exceptins. Once you can get around that idea, antennas aren't all that much of a problem, usually. The 'trick' is in knowing when you're 'there'...
- 'Doc

And if you think that's all a bunch of malarky, that's okay too.

 

[Marconi]

Sorry Switch Kit for changing the direction of your thread. I've been on drugs with this knee for weeks now. I can only guess that I was having a bad moment. I have removed the words that did not apply to you problem with the SWR at the antenna and at the radio end of your line being different by a large amount.

IMO, I sill think something has to be wrong in the long line.

Sorry,

 

[Switch Kit]

UPDATE ....went back to the antenna today , checked and all was good on both ends ? Whatever the case may have been ? IM sure it was me .....but it's still strange all the same. IM thinking maybe there might be a stray ground wire in the 259s I used on my patch cord ? (even though I couldn't find one from tests I gave it ) ......maybe I was in a hurry and missed something ? reads 1.2 on both ends now ....Thank you God !! I really didn't want to do anymore investagating as it was ....IM just getting to damned old for those 30ft slanted roofs anymore )-: . Thanks a lot guys for trying to help me out there ,much appreciated !! RF can be a very strange thing at times .....it often reminds me of a cancer that gets into things were it really doesn't belong just because it can.

 

[frmboybuck]

Had it been raining or wet at all when you made your initial tests?

 

[Switch Kit]

It was a sunshiney day 72 degrees or so , I did remember 1 thing in the beginning ,when it was already to go and when I took the SWR at the radio when it read bad , at the top when I unscrewed the 259 from the 2000 and checked the SWR from there and it was good , I noticed that the center conductor of the coax had a bit much solder on the end and it had made it a very tight fit into the 2000 and I noticed when screwing the 259 on the 2000 that it didn't completely bring it up all the way into the the connector (when you tighten the connector it will usually bring one part of the connector flush with the other ground) so IM guessing ? When I did it the first time it wasn't flush ? ......but IM still thinking it was still grounded all the same just being screwed together , I just used a pair of pliers to tighten it enough to make them flush. Well .whatever it was, it's good now.

 

[bandaid kid]

It was a sunshiney day 72 degrees or so , I did remember 1 thing in the beginning ,when it was already to go and when I took the SWR at the radio when it read bad , at the top when I unscrewed the 259 from the 2000 and checked the SWR from there and it was good , I noticed that the center conductor of the coax had a bit much solder on the end and it had made it a very tight fit into the 2000 and I noticed when screwing the 259 on the 2000 that it didn't completely bring it up all the way into the the connector (when you tighten the connector it will usually bring one part of the connector flush with the other ground) so IM guessing ? When I did it the first time it wasn't flush ? ......but IM still thinking it was still grounded all the same just being screwed together , I just used a pair of pliers to tighten it enough to make them flush. Well .whatever it was, it's good now.

I was about to say that you had a problem in the feed line or the connectors until I read this post. In general, varying so badly between the SWR at the base of the antenna feed point and the end of the line at the radio does indicate a problem with the line and/or connections not the antenna. But you found it. Good job1

73

 

[Switch Kit]

after all has been said and done , the only pl259s IM ever totally sure of are the ones I personally put on myself . I've seen so many different ways over the years how folks decide to solder them on , some good ,some bad ......at least if i do them myself ,I have know one to blame but myself if I have any problems there after.