Best Antenna for Distance

Handlebar is there such a thing as demagnitizing the swr adjust inside the radio. I had a high swr . But the shop had a lower reading on his swr box. So he took my radio in the shop and demagnitized it . Now my swr is .5 . Never heard of anybody doing that but it worked and radio preforms well.

 

Heres my humble opinion on the best antenna for distance......ready?

Longest physical length you can deal with, lowest SWR reading, biggest forward swing (modulation) on your own meter.
You have these things going on, it won't matter which monkey named wilson made your antenna.

I get accused of having a "big radio" all the time with a box-stock LX-29 (2.5 watts) and a 5.5' Francis, 5.5' Radioshack base loaded whip, 102" whip, OR others. I change out antennas when I get board but they all work fine. When I flip the switch on my little 100 watt amp I am a BIG radio and I talk FAR...ie; 2500+ miles on skip, farther than most can answer me non-skip. (strait line) Really! My SWR is 1.2-1 typically on any antenna I'm running. (I've got a truckload just for when I get board)

Handles "928" in skipland and "singleshot" the rest of the time. "twolane" here.

Read again...longest physical length, lowest SWR, biggest forward swing on YOUR meter. Nothing else matters. Someone elses meter means squat! Radio meters do not lie! Radio shops lie.

 

I agree with all of this except the "coax length doesn't matter." ALWAYS go by 3 ft (3,6,9,12,15,so on) when buying coax. Say you need atleast 16 ft, buy 18ft. Your SWR's will be better and will save you the hassle in the long run.

 

Standing by........

 

I agree with the standing by humor.
X .78 to compensate for velocity factor. LOL

 

I have found this to be true in the real world as well however...1 of the resident radio experts was kind enough to explain why length of the coax shouldn't matter. However we know that it does.
In a nut-shell it's about what the radio/amp "sees" for SWR, and antenna "gain". (how wel it actually transmitts a signal.) I have had to add coax to 18'ers to get what the radio "sees" SWR wise down, and from what I got from this "expert" was that the reason the length mattered was because the coax itself acts as some kinda transformer?
Anyway,,,Length can matter, but it's not set in stone! It's determined by what the radio "sees" but does absolutely change SWR. 3' increments are what we can buy in a truckstop so thats what we use.
Hope this helps and maybe that expert will chime in here.

 

Let me break this down.

"why length of the coax shouldn't matter. However we know that it does."

What you have done is mask the SWR. It's still there however.

"I have had to add coax to 18'ers to get what the radio "sees" SWR wise down, and from what I got from this "expert" was that the reason the length mattered was because the coax itself acts as some kinda transformer?"

Your "expert" is correct. The SWR changes along the length of the coax. Assume for a moment you are using a 3' length of coax to connect the SWR meter. When you remove that coax length your SWR will change.

A second point about these short coax lengths. These 3' multiplies sounds fine except for one minor factor. At 27 Mhz these multiplies are the wrong length. What length depends on what type coax you are using.

The best advice I would give is find and correct the mismatch. And use the shortest coax from the radio to the antenna.

 

Why do these people that think that coax length can
change the swr, never consider velocity factor when
they insist on the 18 footer?

 

I am not running 18 foot of coax, it was an 18 foot when I bought it but had to cut it down when it got a cut in it, then I cut it down again to install it. heck I don't even know if it is in multiples of 3 anymore. Oh well, I have enough to go from the antenna to the radio, have a perfect SWR and it works awsome. Heck even when I turn on my box, the SWR stays flat.