Most of the tuners in the solid state rigs are only good
from about 35 ohms to 150 ohms reactive, which takes care of
about 90% of the installations a ham can put up. Alan if
you put up a straight dipole at the proper height, 1/2 wave
length or so over proper ground, it will be approximately
70-72 ohms in free space. If you lower the ends to about
12 ft. of the ground the impedance will drop to near 50
ohms.
But what have you accomplished in most cases is to put the
voltage nodes near the grounds and the worms love it because
it keeps them warm. The higher the ends the better even if
it results in a minor mismatch to your tuner or radio. More
room for the RF to leave the wire.
Therefore the difference between 50-52 and 70-72 ohms will
yield a 1.3: swr provided there is no other reactance in the
system. If you put up a straight dipole and have the right
conditions, I would use 70 ohm coax and any tuner will
handle it so the loss of power in the tuner circuits will be
minimal and the resultant heat dissipated should be in the
tuner not the radio final.
Bob is right about knowing what your antenna looks like from
the feed end of the feedline. SWR is a catch all that only
tells you there is a mismatch. You will almost be chasing
your tail to try to achieve a match using an SWR bridge.
In other words, you will always wonder why the best match
you might be able to achieve is 1.2 to 1.
Do some reading of the handbooks to learn a bit more about
impedance and the necessity of proper installation, end
effect, ground, etc. Look at coefficient of coupling for
example and so forth.
Jim
W5JO
Geoff, Alan, Et al,
Both of you are RIGHT - BUT - almost EVERY radio/amplifier
will tune from 50 ohms to about 75 ohms.
So futzing with the antenna MAY not be NEEDED!
An inexpensive way to check is to borrow an MFJ antenna
analyzer, I.e., MFJ-204B currently going for $89.95.
OR simply put a GOOD VSWR bridge between the Final and the
antenna. See what it tells you! My bird with peak
reading tells me that my HT-32, Heath TX1, DX-60, and
TS-930SAT, TS-820S -> and FINALLY the T-599 will ALL tune
to the simple standard dipole.
From OLD BAs to newer <groan> Sand State, I have found
that ALL will tune in this range OR more.
Bob - N0DGN
Geoff/W5OMR wrote:
Alan Beck wrote:
Basic question
Why is it that my radios are 50 ohms and the impedance
at the feed point at
the antenna (pure dipole) is 70 ohms.
Am I mistooken
No, yer not mistaken.... but, if you want to lower the
input impedance to your dipole, bring the legs down to
around 40 degrees, and you'll drop the input impedance to
the antenna down around 20 ohms.
--
73
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