Anyone used a SWR Meter used to tune CB?

[themmd]

themmd you sound like a Ham??? are you?

Yup, KT9B

 

[themmd]

SWR's are adjusted by lengthing or shortening of the antenna (in this case you can't) or the coax. Since the antenna length and design is predetermined by HD i would think the only way to adjust the swr (unless the radio has an internal adjustment) is to trim the coax. I always hated doing that. I don't think you'll ever get the distance that a car or truck will get. However, if the swr's are good, you could always add a linier for extra power boost and transmission range. Not legal, but certainly helps get you out there. Used to run one on my Pace 2300 in the mid 70's...with a pair of 102" steels. Man that thing would talk. Don't think the swr's do much for reception as that is a function of distance and the other transmitter.

Adding a linear to a MC mounted radio would be a bit like adding Nitrox to a moped; sure you can do it but why? You can spend untold amounts of money on gadgets, but if the antenna system isn't good your peformance will always be bad. What most people don't understand about output power on RF and the reason is that the math is fairly complex, is a 10 fold increase in transmitting power nets you about 1 S unit increase on the other side. In other words, not much. There's also the AMP issue on a bike to drive the linear.

Installing a decent 1/4 wave antenna and grounding it on as much metal as possible will do more than a bunch of extra watts that heats up the coax and nothing else. You can even use braided copper strapping between metal parts to increase the ground if you are serious.

The other thing is that MC antennas are mounted very low which means you will only get ground wave propagation. the rest goes almost straight up so virtualy everything about mounting a radio on a MC conspires against getting a lot of distance out of it.

 

[lorne]

yup, kt9b

ve7dtv