Do I need one of these?

[Mistah Gravy]

Hello guys,sorry I haven't been around much lately.Last week I was sick with double pneumonia.I had to be rushed out of my home in an ambulance and then brought down to Boston to Mass General for a week.but all is well now.that is just how things go.i have somewhat shitty health at times and the meds i take sometimes cause other issues.i am very much used to it.

anyways,about a month or two i bought a lot from eBay that included two semi-working police scanners and one non-working.along with three or four SWR meters.one which i will keep for myself and the others i am going to list and re-sell on eBay.

in this lot was a Midland "Antenna Matcher".i am slowly setting up a base station at home.i have the antenna up in the tree but i have to have someone come out and maybe put it up higher in this particular tree,or up higher in a taller tree.then i have the lightning supression to do and then send my 2000GTL out for tuning.then i still have to buy coax.so yeah,it's slow going.

do i need an antenna matcher?or should i sell it.also,what do i do with it if i should keep it?where does it hook up in line with a radio/swr meter/antenna/amp(small amp under 200watts peak).

thanks for any help/info.

[Mistah Gravy]

and also,i have been thinking that i need to save up for LMR 400 coax.i have been thinking-where i don't plan on running more than a couple hundred watts for the forseeable future,should i just go with a good coax and not hold out for the LMR 400.the reason i ask is because the LMR 400 is twice what i could afford right now.if i went with a good coax,i could be up and running within a week.if i hold out for the LMR 400 i don't know when i'll be able to be up and running and i am tired of waiting and don't believe i truly need that kind of coax just yet.i think a good rg-58? would do the trick for now.it's not like i am running more than 200watts right now so how much signal is there for me to lose?

[Birdy]

How many feet of coax are you looking for?

[Mistah Gravy]

How many feet of coax are you looking for?

at least 100 if i go with the tree that the antenna is in now.that tree only gets my antenna up about 35ft to 45ft off the ground though.i may need as much as 135ft. of coax which is probably close to what i need rather than 100ft.

if i can afford to have the antenna guy come out and climb the antenna up a tree,then i would prefer to put it in a tree closer to my room which would get my up at least 65 to 85 maybe even more,ft. up off of the ground.in that case then 100ft would be all i would need at the most unless he got me to the top of the tree but i don't see that happening.

i'd love to eventually go with a tower but because my sister and i both own the house,she wouldnt go for a tower in the yard.she's fine with it being in a tree but no towers.

[Mr.5150cbrn]

no more than a few hundred watts rg-8 will do fine
for abit more get rg-213 good for a kw or better
always remember the key to getting out lies in your antenna system

[Mistah Gravy]

oh yeah,do i need this antenna matcher thing or can i go ahead and list it and sell it on eBay with other items i sell?

[Birdy]

I looked and i only have a couple 60ft pieces andrews 240 laying around.

[john doe]

a antenna matcher only fools your radio into "seeing" a better match .the mismatch would still be there .i say sell it .

unless you want to go out of cb band alot you really wont need it .

[High Voltage Mobile NJ]

a antenna matcher only fools your radio into "seeing" a better match .the mismatch would still be there .i say sell it .

unless you want to go out of cb band alot you really wont need it .

how does it fool the radio ?????? when it actually tunes the feedline of ya circuit . theres a tank circuit in there john . theres no fooling going on there , its a tuner matching network.

[Beercanman]

how does it fool the radio ?????? when it actually tunes the feedline of ya circuit . theres a tank circuit in there john . theres no fooling going on there , its a tuner matching network.

I thought you were here to help people. Now it's your turn to learn.
An antenna tuner doesn't really "Tune" your antenna or any part of it!
What and antenna tuner does do is transform the impedance at the antenna feed output at the radio to a value that your transceiver can handle, in this case 50 Ohms.
The tuner has no effect on the SWR between itself and the antenna, it is the SWR between the transmitter and the tuner that is changed with the tuner controls.
In layman"s terms (for High Voltage), all a tuner does is act as a kind of adjustable impedance transformer between the radio and the antenna. It will take whatever impedance the antenna system presents and attempts to convert it back to 50 Ohms for the transceiver.
Your rig "thinks" it's seeing a 50 Ohm antenna on it's output.
If you have high loses and a poor excuse for an antenna, you will have a poor excuse for a good signal no matter how well your tuner "tricks" your radio.