I've been having trouble getting into the FM satellites lately. It's the same rig I've been using for a couple of years and I have not had problems before. I bought a digital meter to measure power out from the handhelds and to measure SWR on the antennas. According to the meter I'm getting 4.9 W out of the handhelds, which is expected. For SWR I've got values of 1.7 at 70 cm and 2.0 at 2 m. The antenna is an Arrow.
Are those acceptable SWR values? Should I try to get them lower? Can you even adjust the tuning on an Arrow antenna?
Steve AI9IN
Very acceptable readings when feedlines are so short.
On Thu, Jun 13, 2019 at 13:47 AI9IN via AMSAT-BB [email protected] wrote:
I've been having trouble getting into the FM satellites lately. It's the same rig I've been using for a couple of years and I have not had problems before. I bought a digital meter to measure power out from the handhelds and to measure SWR on the antennas. According to the meter I'm getting 4.9 W out of the handhelds, which is expected. For SWR I've got values of 1.7 at 70 cm and 2.0 at 2 m. The antenna is an Arrow.
Are those acceptable SWR values? Should I try to get them lower? Can you even adjust the tuning on an Arrow antenna?
Steve AI9IN _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Steve, Theoretically, 2:1 would have you "losing" 11 percent ofyour TX power due to reflection/mismatch. With your 4.9W,that would only be about 1/2 W. Doesn't seem like much tobe worrying about. Polarization should be more of a concern. GL/73, Bob K8BL
On Thursday, June 13, 2019, 2:47:29 PM EDT, AI9IN via AMSAT-BB [email protected] wrote:
I've been having trouble getting into the FM satellites lately. It's the same rig I've been using for a couple of years and I have not had problems before. I bought a digital meter to measure power out from the handhelds and to measure SWR on the antennas. According to the meter I'm getting 4.9 W out of the handhelds, which is expected. For SWR I've got values of 1.7 at 70 cm and 2.0 at 2 m. The antenna is an Arrow.
Are those acceptable SWR values? Should I try to get them lower? Can you even adjust the tuning on an Arrow antenna?
Steve AI9IN _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Thank you to the folks who have helped me with this. My gear is working fine so I guess I need to concentrate on my technique.
(That's never a bad idea anyway.)
Steve AI9IN
On 2019-06-13 2:47 pm, AI9IN via AMSAT-BB wrote:
I've been having trouble getting into the FM satellites lately. It's the same rig I've been using for a couple of years and I have not had problems before. I bought a digital meter to measure power out from the handhelds and to measure SWR on the antennas. According to the meter I'm getting 4.9 W out of the handhelds, which is expected. For SWR I've got values of 1.7 at 70 cm and 2.0 at 2 m. The antenna is an Arrow.
Are those acceptable SWR values? Should I try to get them lower? Can you even adjust the tuning on an Arrow antenna?
Steve AI9IN _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
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Bob Liddy (K8BL) -
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skristof＠etczone.com