Here I am testing the effect of different numbers of radials with my tripod mounted vertical/ground-plane antenna. Interesting results which confirm what others have said. Also its a nice day to be outside.
The SWR depends on both the reactance and the resistive reading, reaching 1:1 when a 50 ohm resistive component and 0 ohms reactive component is achieved (with 50 ohm coax).
The reactance can be cancelled out by changing antenna length or using capacitors or inductors.
As losses increase the resistive component may rise getting closer to 50ohms reducing SWR, but the efficiency will be poorer, so SWR is not the whole story.
The meter reads both the resistive and reactive part of the antenna impedance.
The reactive part (L or C) can be modified by lengthening or shortening the antenna.The resistive part is the sum of the radiation resistance, a ficticious resistor meant to explain the loss of energy in the wire due to it being radiated into space (good resistance) and the the other part of the resistance reading is the loss of energy due to ground losses etc (bad resistance).
@dx2hunt
The SWR depends on both the reactance and the resistive reading, reaching 1:1 when a 50 ohm resistive component and 0 ohms reactive component is achieved (with 50 ohm coax).
The reactance can be cancelled out by changing antenna length or using capacitors or inductors.
As losses increase the resistive component may rise getting closer to 50ohms reducing SWR, but the efficiency will be poorer, so SWR is not the whole story.
Hope this helps , 73s - Rob.
dx2hunt 4 months ago
@nashvilleoutlaw
The meter reads both the resistive and reactive part of the antenna impedance.
The reactive part (L or C) can be modified by lengthening or shortening the antenna.The resistive part is the sum of the radiation resistance, a ficticious resistor meant to explain the loss of energy in the wire due to it being radiated into space (good resistance) and the the other part of the resistance reading is the loss of energy due to ground losses etc (bad resistance).
73s -Rob
dx2hunt 4 months ago
Lets say you set your ohms as low as you can go. Would you need to make your antenna shorter or longer to bring down the SWR?
nashvilleoutlaw 4 months ago