SWR Meter with Automatic Tuner

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KD8TZC

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So if I understand things correctly, if you have an external automatic tuner, the SWR meter will go between the tuner and the transceiver. If you also have a transceiver that has a built in SWR meter, with the tuner, is there any need to measure the SWR on the other side of the tuner (meaning between the tuner and the antenna)? I would think it might be of interest to see what the SWR really is so you know what your loss might be and what the reflected power is even though the tuner is compensating for it.

Can anyone give their opinion on this as I have a possibility of getting a Kenwood 440SAT receiver that has the auto tuner and SWR meter built in, but just curios if I should also be paying attention to what the true SWR is between the tuner and Antenna.

Thanks,
 

gewecke

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So if I understand things correctly, if you have an external automatic tuner, the SWR meter will go between the tuner and the transceiver. If you also have a transceiver that has a built in SWR meter, with the tuner, is there any need to measure the SWR on the other side of the tuner (meaning between the tuner and the antenna)? I would think it might be of interest to see what the SWR really is so you know what your loss might be and what the reflected power is even though the tuner is compensating for it.

Can anyone give their opinion on this as I have a possibility of getting a Kenwood 440SAT receiver that has the auto tuner and SWR meter built in, but just curios if I should also be paying attention to what the true SWR is between the tuner and Antenna.

Thanks,

What are you going to be using the tuner on? Your external swr meter should be the last item in your feedline before the antenna. ;)


73,
n9zas
 
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davedaver1

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So if I understand things correctly, if you have an external automatic tuner, the SWR meter will go between the tuner and the transceiver. If you also have a transceiver that has a built in SWR meter, with the tuner, is there any need to measure the SWR on the other side of the tuner (meaning between the tuner and the antenna)? I would think it might be of interest to see what the SWR really is so you know what your loss might be and what the reflected power is even though the tuner is compensating for it.

Can anyone give their opinion on this as I have a possibility of getting a Kenwood 440SAT receiver that has the auto tuner and SWR meter built in, but just curios if I should also be paying attention to what the true SWR is between the tuner and Antenna.

Thanks,
There's not much point to putting the meter between the transmitter and automatic tuner (unless, perhaps, it's a remote tuner and you want to see loss or what kind of a match it's giving the transmitter). Putting it between the automatic tuner and the antenna is going to show what the actual SWR of the antenna and feedline is, so it can be useful to understand what your antenna and feedline are looking like to the tuner (and transmitter, without the tuner in place)

If you really like fussing with this stuff, get an antenna analyzer like the MFJ-259B, RigExpert AA-54 or YouKits FG-01. You will learn a lot about your antenna(s)!
 

KD8TZC

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Thanks Dave, the analyzer may be a better idea. I think my thoughts were along the lines of seeing just how bad or good the antenna is in case I ever wanted to improve the antenna. I'm not very familiar with all that an analyzer does, so time to do some homework and find out.

Thanks
 

LtDoc

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If you put that SWR meter between the tuner and the antenna it isn't going to change no matter what that tuner does. So, if you are using an external meter, that meter would go between the radio and the tuner.
What will the meter tell you if it's between the tuner and the antenna AND you change bands? It'll tell you what the SWR is between it and the antenna . That assumes that the radio/tuner is a 50 ohm impedance output. If whatever is directly in 'front' of that meter isn't 50 ohms impedance, it isn't going to tell you anything particularly usable/important.
- 'Doc
 
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