Setting up a radio for my daughter.

[DaveJacobsen]

My daughter received her license last week. As a surprise for her, I am setting her up a little area in the shed for her. From an estate sale, I purchased some gear that seems to function properly (I know very little about radios...)

There is a transceiver, amplifier, antenna tuner & swr meter & switch (for one radio->multiple antennas). I understand about the swr meter, and tuning the antenna to the frequency. I plan to set it all up for her.

My question is do I test the swr with only the transceiver, swr meter, & antenna, or do I put it inline with everything else? If so, do I put it just after the transceiver, or as the last bit going to the antenna? (I assume transceiver -> SWR -> amplifier -> tuner -> switch -> coax/antenna)
I want to A) tune the antennas for what she's expressed interest in, and B) set up all the hardware so she can just get started. I know there's a certain amount of learning I should let her handle with setting it up, but since it's used equipment, I want to get it set up, tested & cleaned up nicely before displaying it to her.

Thanks for any advice

 

[ffertitta]

Dave,

Transceiver----> SWR meter----->Antenna.
When you have the SWR to 1:1 then:
Transceiver----->Amplifier--------SWR Meter------>Antenna
That's if the SWR meter can take the power from the amplifier. Are you sure it's not an SWR/Watt meter?

Regards,
Frank

 

[Hit_Factor]

Great idea Dave, nice support for your daughter.

You can't legally test everything based on the list of equipment. You are not allowed to transmit.

Clean it up, and let her have at it.

I use my SWR meter with just the coax and antenna. But, the one you have could be different.

If you only have one antenna, don't bother with the switch.

 

[belvdr]

Personally, I would not use the amplifier yet. Make sure everything works first before introducing it. I can tell you I've worked the world with 100 watts. Many people do.

 

[mmckenna]

Depends on what you have.
SWR meters cover a slice of spectrum. If you are setting up an HF station for her, then the SWR meter, antennas, tuner and amplifier would need to be appropriate for the HF band. If it's VHF/UHF, then the equipment needs to be specific to that.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you know that….

Your SWR meter would go after the amplifier and before the antenna switch. You want to know the output power from the amplifier, to make sure she stays within the legal limits for the band/license class. You also want to know what the SWR is with the amplifier running. On lower power (without the amp) an antenna, feedline, etc. might work fine. Hit it with 1500 watts, and a damaged antenna might start behaving poorly.

 

[jwt873]

Congrats on your daughter getting her ticket! (Never could get my kids interested).

What equipment do you have? Knowing that will let people provide more specific answers.

 

[WB9YBM]

Congrats to your daughter! I'm not sure how much information she's been given so some of this might be repeats for her, but some good resources for her include:

1.) American Radio Relay League (ARRL), found on the web (they can also lead to local clubs);
2.) radio stores, like Ham Radio Outlet (HRO), also on the web;
3.) "CQ: Amateur Radio" magazine;
4.) qrz.com, an on-line callsign look-up database;
5.) various entries in Wkipedia (I'd start with entries on antennas or antenna types; morse code, should she be interested in that; QSL cards; etc.)

 

[cmdrwill]

DaveJacobsen Do you have a Ham license or are you going to take your 'test' too.?

 

[kinglou0]

My daughter received her license last week.

I know there's a certain amount of learning I should let her handle with setting it up, but since it's used equipment, I want to get it set up, tested & cleaned up nicely before displaying it to her.

Thanks for any advice

Excellent news but.....

No offense meant here but why not let her figure it out?

She's licensed, right? Hopefully through studying the material and not what I called doing a "mind dump" (been there myself with college classes I had to take where I had ZERO interest in the material - cram the material in and throw it up when the exam comes around).

Let her at it. She has the Internet, you and maybe an elmer (fingers crossed).

View it as a project car. Show her what you got and help/supervise her setting it up. Kids are much more likely stay interested in something they poured their own time into.

 

[RockyBennett]

^^^^ I like this idea. Let your Daughter do it, it will make a great father-daughter project.

 

[W5lz]

The SWR meter...
If that tuner is built into the radio then it won't show that anything has changed after tuning that tuner. If the tuner is 'outboard', then put the meter between the radio and the tuner. Then it will show you what the radio will be seeing for SWR. Make sense?

 

[Hit_Factor]

Make sense?

Probably not, since the OP hasn't been back since he started this thread.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Never put SWR meter between tuner and antenna. It must be before the tuner.

 

[DaveJacobsen]

Thank you for the input.
No, I personally do not have a ham license.
We are moving to a new state, we already purchased the new house. It's not in a city, so that's a big adjustment for a kid: New state, New friends, new school, new environment. The house has a barn, with a 1/2 finished room. I mounted the antenna on the roof of the barn, and ran coax down to the room. My goal is to have it be ready for her so she has something to do when we get there. I want to make it as ready-to-go as I can.
Even if I let her "do it" -- I'd still like to get it all hooked up in the proper order and make shelves for the gear to be nicely organized. Girls like "neat and tidy". History proves that if it's just "done" she loves it; but if I have to get in and build shelve once she starts, she'll hate it. The more turnkey the better. I do not want her up on the roof tuning the antenna.
I'm not at the new house, but the radio gear is about 10-15 year old gear; the radio is 25w; with a 300w amplifier (I may be wrong on the #'s, but not much). So far, the only thing new I had to purchase was guy wire to secure the antenna & a new microphone (the old one was carved with some letters/numbers, call sign? and stunk of cigarette smoke) I cleaned the gear inside/out & replaced a couple bulbs that looked weak.
Anyway, that's probably more info than needed, but just want to get it all ready for her to help ease her into the new place.

 

[WA0CBW]

What is the model of the radio and amplifier if you don't mind my asking?
Bill

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Assuming she has a general class license or higher and this is appropriate HF gear. If not she is Tech class and has some restrictions below 50 MHz or Mc as we used to count them cycles. Nice of him to get this all set up for her new QTH away from city. I am jealous already...

 

[KC5AKB]

PM sent

 

[DaveJacobsen]

I do not know the brand, but it was one I recognized. No home-brew stuff. there was a lot more stuff there; I picked out what looked to be the gear in best condition & they function tested it for me (was still hooked up). Sounded like as soon my deal was done, someone offered for "everything left". As I said, I'm not there now; I travel back and forth currently working in both locations, the family will move in mid-December, I will move permanently in January. It is a big move, I'm trying my best to make it as smooth as possible for my wife too. I can try to remember to write down the models, but I cannot promise it will be timely.

 

[WB9YBM]

Never put SWR meter between tuner and antenna. It must be before the tuner.

In putting the SWR meter between the tuner and antenna, wouldn't that show if there's a mis-match between tuner and antenna? (That'd at least confirm the tuner's doing what it's supposed to as far as matching to the antenna.)

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

In putting the SWR meter between the tuner and antenna, wouldn't that show if there's a mis-match between tuner and antenna? (That'd at least confirm the tuner's doing what it's supposed to as far as matching to the antenna.)

The SWR meter is a 50 ohm device, the tuner and antenna may be something completely different. What one should care about is that the radio sees 50 OHMS. If you look inside an autotuner the internal SWR is measured at the input and before the LC network.

Auto-Tuner schematic on this page on down a ways.

SGC Smartuner with balanced dipole antenna.

If the tuner can't do its job, the input wont be close to 50 ohms, or spec which might be 1.7:1 on a simple tuner. An autotuner will show a fail indicate after the relays have clattered and given up.