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the caveman
04-11-2013, 02:19 PM
Do swr meters always help guys? I just used mine and it seems Its made things worse.

High Voltage Mobile NJ
04-11-2013, 02:35 PM
I just use them to test . it all depends what kind of meter you are using . what brand ? is it a really good one ? is it accurate + - less than 10% . pal star , dosey , daiwa , are some of the good ones. If it made things worse , you will have to play with jumper lengths sometimes. you really need a 1/4 wave to 1/2 wave length of coax from the radio to the first connection being the meter or the amplifier or driver . 9 footers work ok , 12 and 18 footers work the best. :300 (286):

619 NJ
04-11-2013, 03:06 PM
Or have a friend with a pal star or Mfj, right High Voltage ;)?

the caveman
04-11-2013, 05:17 PM
Lol I have an Aries swr meter. Its just a normal little meter, its just got switch for fwd & ref, 1 knob, 1 meter, and 3 foot jumper cable.

Gordon Gekko
04-11-2013, 06:15 PM
exactly how did the meter ​make things worse?

619 NJ
04-11-2013, 06:17 PM
HV has helped me tune pretty much every vehicle I have had. He has a palstar meter, I forget the model number. Basically, you hook up the meter directly to the antenna, and it transmits a signal and measures inductance, resistance, refelct, resonance, etc. IT allows you to tune super accurately. A plain old SWR meter works just fine, but it is nice to have a friend with the good stuff, and the know how to use it properly.

Beercanman
04-12-2013, 05:15 AM
Lol I have an Aries swr meter. Its just a normal little meter, its just got switch for fwd & ref, 1 knob, 1 meter, and 3 foot jumper cable.

Might be a bad jumper, it happens.

Sent from your mom's mobile phone.

doughboy
04-12-2013, 07:07 AM
Swr meter is just a test device shouldnt change much unless its broken somehow or bad jumper

the caveman
04-12-2013, 01:08 PM
it might be the jumper. its an old meter. my buddy found it sitting in his garage among other old cb stuff (nothing worth value). the meter sticks sometimes but goes back to working when i tap on the side. would i leave it hooked up or do i take it off after tuning?

BOOTY MONSTER
04-12-2013, 03:29 PM
try another meter .
heres some links explaining how to use a vswr meter in case you're not sure how .


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jRWKZskxcs0

here's another link explaining what vswr is .

http://cbradiomagazine.com/April%202007/SWR.htm

Tallman
04-16-2013, 10:46 AM
I don't leave test equipment in line for any reason. Once it's tuned up you are done with testing. I like to keep my test equipment handy and ready to go to the next job. The fewer connections the less trouble and less loss on your receive signal. But, that's just how I like to do it. If you want to leave it in circuit to watch the watts out, it's okay as long as the meter is not causing a problem.

Moonchild 747
05-04-2013, 09:30 PM
Tallman...I agree 100% fewer things connected less attinuation of the signal occurs. I personnaly use my MFJ-259B antenna analyser. Then disconnect and connect to the radio once tuned. Sometimes when I just throw up a random long wire ill use my MFJ 971 Tuner and get on the air with little worries of ensuring I have the proper length of the radiator, I just tune to the lowest reflected signal and hello DX Land...

Tallman
05-05-2013, 07:28 AM
If I get the time I'll take some pictures of the "O"scope wave form with one in the circuit and one with out it. The postive peaks of the signal change a bit. The swr meters essentially just pass the signal straight through, but the SWR meter has to take some of signal to analyze. The first time I saw the difference I thought I had a transistor starting to go bad.