Hi all, I am a new ham and I've been trying to get my SWR meter to work. I need help trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong.
Equipment: Yaesu FT-60R, Unknown origin SAM to BNC adapter, PLC-259 to bnc female adapter Diamond RH77CA antenna, MFJ-864 SWR meter, Ham Brewed leads made of Radio Shack parts. RG-58 cable both leads under 2 feet, Crimp on PL-239 connectors (soldered on the center and heat shrink on the outer to prevent separation) and twist on BNC connectors with a female to female adapter.
Okay here goes, The purpose of this set up isn't to test the Diamond per say but to qualify my meter so I can build antennas with more gain to lower my out put power on my HT to protect my finals and build special antennas for other activities like finding RFI/EMI and working Sats. Curiosity into antennas is one major reason I got into the hobby.
Note: I purchased this meter from a local ham fest. according to the seller there was some confusion as to the calibration. From the factory that the 30 watt side was calibrated to 10 watts at the factory.
I setup yesterday and had a SWR of about 6:1 mathematically. I decided this morning to replace both PL-239 connectors because I melted the center insulator on the first attempt of soldering them. I used a heat sink this time. During my continuity checks I found a 2.5 M ohm short in one lead. I tracked that to a bnc connector and fixed the problem.
So off to my meter I went, I decided to put the Pl-239 to bnc adapter on the load side of the VHF/UHF side of the meter to connect the diamond and use the leads individually to test them. With the radio set on 145 MHz and the output power on High. I used the longer of the two leads (around 1.5 feet long first) and had a swr of around 3:1 according to the needles. Under the same radio settings I used the shorter of the two leads and had the needles read about 6:1. There is my first curiosity.
I then removed the adapter on the load side and put the longer lead in, I had to adapt a female to female adapter to attach the antenna. Same radio settings (yes I did say my call sign) when I keyed up the meter read off the charts.......
I'm lost, I need to figure out if this meter needs to be calibrated because the radio is 5 wattish, my test leads are still junk. I've done the best I could for checking shorts with my FLUKE 87 multi-meter but I don't have any other test equipment for this. I checked the leads and the female to female adapter. All look good according to my automotive training.
I wrote mfj around a week ago with there online contact from but haven't heard back. I was considering purchasing a dummy load or their dummy load/wattmeter but its VHF only and I use both VHF and UHF.
Any ideas on what I should look for t solve this problem.
Equipment: Yaesu FT-60R, Unknown origin SAM to BNC adapter, PLC-259 to bnc female adapter Diamond RH77CA antenna, MFJ-864 SWR meter, Ham Brewed leads made of Radio Shack parts. RG-58 cable both leads under 2 feet, Crimp on PL-239 connectors (soldered on the center and heat shrink on the outer to prevent separation) and twist on BNC connectors with a female to female adapter.
Okay here goes, The purpose of this set up isn't to test the Diamond per say but to qualify my meter so I can build antennas with more gain to lower my out put power on my HT to protect my finals and build special antennas for other activities like finding RFI/EMI and working Sats. Curiosity into antennas is one major reason I got into the hobby.
Note: I purchased this meter from a local ham fest. according to the seller there was some confusion as to the calibration. From the factory that the 30 watt side was calibrated to 10 watts at the factory.
I setup yesterday and had a SWR of about 6:1 mathematically. I decided this morning to replace both PL-239 connectors because I melted the center insulator on the first attempt of soldering them. I used a heat sink this time. During my continuity checks I found a 2.5 M ohm short in one lead. I tracked that to a bnc connector and fixed the problem.
So off to my meter I went, I decided to put the Pl-239 to bnc adapter on the load side of the VHF/UHF side of the meter to connect the diamond and use the leads individually to test them. With the radio set on 145 MHz and the output power on High. I used the longer of the two leads (around 1.5 feet long first) and had a swr of around 3:1 according to the needles. Under the same radio settings I used the shorter of the two leads and had the needles read about 6:1. There is my first curiosity.
I then removed the adapter on the load side and put the longer lead in, I had to adapt a female to female adapter to attach the antenna. Same radio settings (yes I did say my call sign) when I keyed up the meter read off the charts.......
I'm lost, I need to figure out if this meter needs to be calibrated because the radio is 5 wattish, my test leads are still junk. I've done the best I could for checking shorts with my FLUKE 87 multi-meter but I don't have any other test equipment for this. I checked the leads and the female to female adapter. All look good according to my automotive training.
I wrote mfj around a week ago with there online contact from but haven't heard back. I was considering purchasing a dummy load or their dummy load/wattmeter but its VHF only and I use both VHF and UHF.
Any ideas on what I should look for t solve this problem.
