staticky convo

A lot of static on your end, the receiving end, when he was talking to you, Or did he hear static too? If you were both hearing static and usually don't, I bet it was some kind of external noise, like power lines, not much you can do about that. If it was just you hearing it when he was talking, it was probably some electrical noise from his vehicle coming through when he transmitted.

 

He needs to get his antenna tuned to start with....

 

SWR isn't going to change anything about the static on the receiving end. If you were both hearing lots of static, chances are pretty good it was external interference. Try again in another area and see what it sounds like.

 

A lower SWR will most likely help with the range problem, however.

 

No, no it wouldn't. The difference between a SWR of 1.3:1 and 2.0:1 at four watts is 3/10 of a watt, 3.9 watts to 3.6 watts. The difference isn't measurable to someone receiving the transmission. I'll admit that things that can help lower SWR, like proper grounding, can also reduce noise, but if they were both hearing it at the same time and usually don't, it's not going to help.

 

Okay, thanks! I didn't think of it like that. I especially wouldn't have figured out the math-ee-mat-ee-cool part of it.

 

Check this out. VSWR calculator.

Confession time-I have this bookmarked..