tuning an antenna without a SWR meter

I'm no expert at Big trucks, but on base installations mostly I have accomplished ranges 20 to 50 miles building my own antennas. I once built an Antenna using a (screendoor) It was alumnium and I tore off its side it was 2 inches wide & 90 inches long. Stuck it up 30 feet in Air on a pole using 30 feet coax and grounded it to waterpipes in old 1950 house. It was weird how I got a 1.3 SWR(too short for 102 inches)only used in high band Channel 39(27.395 mhz) It put a 5+db on a meter at 20 miles away from my bedroom(mobile Cobra 21 ltd radio 12 Vdc 3 amp supply)when a Antron a99 18 feet base only put a 4+db on same station. I tore it down & went with the (bragged best) Antron A99 from Copperelectronics that cost me $50+tax and new coax. It just got a 4 db on them but was fiberglass & lightning resistant and set at 1.3 Swr(factory) with 9.9 dbi gain. It was 17 ft 4 inches to be exact and screwed together in 3 sections. Is Antron the best or lie? Easy to setup needs no ground,lightweight, wind resist to 100mph(is one thing A99 has) ??? still think needs more.?

 

wholly crap,i thought i was a geek.you dudes have had waaay too much time on your hands.all that scientific mumble wrapped up in a nut shell...get a cheap meter,read the directions, follow directions.anything with a steel whip on the end always performs better than glass.on a mobil that is.base stations are out of my league..

 

To the original question the power needles position for best SWR. I heard a way of setting SWR with a dummy load . IIRC the power is the same position as if you were powering a 50 ohm dummy load. But I'd just get a meter, the dummy load method gives less than optimum results.