How Many Have An Antenna Analyzer ?

[902]

I've had an Anritsu in a previous job (which stayed there). It was slick. I've got an MFJ and a TDR that I bought from an auction site. I have a 6BTV with the DX Engineering retrofits for 60 and 17 making it 8 bands. The antenna was IMPOSSIBLE to tune up with the radio inside, running back and forth making measurements while putting the antenna up and taking it down, over and over. Using the antenna analyzer right there put it on freq impressively quickly. The other thing that's a must-have for the 6BTV is the tilt-over base, otherwise it's like a caber toss.

 

[ridgescan]

Most certainly! While a low swr and resonance may not be as vital as it is to transmitting, you'll still be able to adjust your wire lengths to be resonant in the bands of interest.

I can guarantee you that since you like to homebrew, once you get one of these, the time it saves cutting your antennas to the right dimensions will make you build and/or improve on what you have almost immediately.

It's fun and satisfying - while not absolutely necessary, getting close to 3:1 is usually good enough, although you can get into it and "tune for X=0 (or as close as you can get to it)" anyway if you want to take things there as an swl.

The tip here is to make your measurements close to the feedpoint of the antenna, either right at it, or with a small coax jumper. Measurements taken at the rig, if you consider line loss, and coaxial common-mode interaction, may skew your readings.

Thanks Hertzian I didn't know that-I never gave a thought to one of these because I buy all my radio stuff at HRO and I've seen what they have runs from $440 up to $1500 for analyzers, and I was under the impression they were only meant for the transmitting side anyway. This thread made me see that one could be had for way cheaper. Now I may need to add this to my toy list

 

[aharry]

I have an AIM 4170c that I would like to part with. It is an awesome device, but since I sold my HF rig and don't really do much antenna work anymore I don't really need it. If anyone is interested PM me.

AIM 4170

 

[nanZor]

This thread made me see that one could be had for way cheaper. Now I may need to add this to my toy list

I started out swl back in the day with a Palomar noise-bridge. No metering, you just listened for the quietest settings. These days I prefer the analyzers.

While measuring at the feedpoint is generally recommended, if you use a tuner, you can put the analyzer to use right there and get to the proper settings quickly - especially if you are only going by ear, and your antenna is so high q that the settings are easily passed by if the band is quiet or the settings are extremely touchy. There may also be multiple settings that going by ear alone seems the same - which for amateurs allows one to pick the *better* setting for transmit.

It also allows one to figure out unseen problems, like cutting an antenna by the book dimensions, and readings are out of the park - something is wrong somewhere, like failed construction, or proximity to other objects that are detuning it, and can alert the op that this just isn't poor band conditions.

SWL or amateur, I can't think of a better acessory than an analyzer. But be your own judge on how much complexity you can handle or even use the features. If all you do is just check for resonance or shoot for ballpark swr's, then a simpler unit like the MFJ 207 may be all you need to get started. Still, if the budget allows, I think the Comet CAA-500's quality, coverage, and simplicity would be the better bet although swr alone doesn't tell the whole story. With the smarter analyzers, the sky's the limit for doing much more, but just be sure you are comfortable with using it.

There are some that say that for rx-only, due to modern receiver sensitivity and band noise in general, that optimizing an antenna is not really necessary - and rightly so under many circumstances. However, I'd rather have an efficient antenna where it allows one to turn OFF preamps and in some cases turn ON attenuation, rather than have it the other way around. In other words, with an efficient antenna, you'll be on the bands sooner, and stay later.

 

[ridgescan]

Good stuff hertzian thanks again.
My system is pretty good now but it's never really "done" in my sick, sick mind.