Sark 100 swr analyzer find out is antenna to long or to short

[mrel]

Hello
Watch on youtube amateur radio operator use a MFJ 259 to determine how long his antenna is.
At time he would say his antenna to long need to be short by using his MFJ 259 to determine to adjust his antenna.
Since don't own MFJ 259 but own sark 100 swr analyzer .
Sark 100 swr analyzer can person use this device to find out if antenna is to long or to short?
I build inverted V antenna 20 meter can my Sark 100 analyzer find out if my antenna is to long or to short?
El

 

[w2xq]

Unfortunately the Sark reviews on https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=8960 are all over the place. I wouldn't trust it, but that's me. With the dipole cut to the right length, try the Sark and see if the results make sense to you.

 

[alcahuete]

Don't know what the Sark think is...never heard of it...but you can either use an antenna analyzer or SWR meter (to an extent) to determine if the antenna is too long or too short.

 

[AK9R]

Any SWR meter can be used to see if an antenna is too long or two short.

Let's say you are building a simple dipole antenna for 14.2 MHz. Using the traditional antenna length formula, 468 / frequency (MHz), the proper length is 468 / 14.2 equals 33 feet. So, you build a dipole at that length.

You check this antenna with your SWR meter and find that the SWR is higher than you like, let's say its 2.5:1. Is the antenna too long or too short? One principle to keep in mind is that with simple dipoles, shorter antennas are for higher frequencies and longer antennas are for lower frequencies.

Move up to 14.3 MHz and take an SWR reading. If the SWR goes down, then you know the antenna is more resonant at 14.3 MHz than it is at 14.2 MHz, so your antenna is too short for 14.2 MHz.

Or, if you move down to 14.1 MHz and the SWR reading goes down, then you know your antenna is more resonant at 14.1 MHz than at 14.2 MHz, so you antenna is too long for 14.2 MHz.

You can use your SWR meter to create an SWR curve for your antenna. Take SWR readings at 14.05, 14.10, 14.15, 14.20, 14.25, and 14.3 MHz. Plot those readings on a graph (in the old days, we used graph paper, but the cool kids these days use spreadsheet programs). Your plotting should have frequency on the horizontal axis and SWR on the vertical axis. Draw a best fit line between the plotted points and you'll have the SWR curve for your antenna.

Some modern antenna analyzers can automatically perform the sweep through the frequencies to get the SWR at each frequency and then plot it for you. But, the principle is pretty much the same--take SWR readings at various frequencies and plot the results.