{"id":338,"date":"2018-01-15T13:22:05","date_gmt":"2018-01-15T21:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/?p=338"},"modified":"2018-01-15T13:22:05","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T21:22:05","slug":"tuning-swr-with-an-antenna-analyzer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/2018\/01\/tuning-swr-with-an-antenna-analyzer\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuning SWR with an Antenna Analyzer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re at all into antennas aside from your handheld rubber duck antenna, you should try to get an antenna analyzer. Here I am using a RigExpert AA-600:<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cNzKpTXH5Ak?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Before using this device, I would just go by the radio&#8217;s SWR reading (a poor display of SWR &#8220;bars&#8221;) to determine if I was close to resonance. The quad-band vertical antenna I have supposedly works with 10m, 6m, 2m, and 40cm. I never had much success with adjusting the end tip of the antenna for 10m until I started evaluating readings using the AA-600. My target frequency was 28.400 MHz for the LARC weekly 10m net, and 28.457 MHz for the SDARC weekly 10m net. Both frequencies had such high SWR that I could never get out very far.<\/p>\n<p>Turns out I was lengthening\/shortening the adjustment the opposite way I thought, so no wonder I had no success. I also found that the counterpoise placement has a huge effect on SWR readings, it&#8217;s very finicky.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_340\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-340\" style=\"width: 477px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/IMG_4412.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"340\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/2018\/01\/tuning-swr-with-an-antenna-analyzer\/img_4412\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/IMG_4412.jpg?fit=3024%2C4032&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"3024,4032\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;1.8&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;iPhone 7 Plus&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1515789672&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;3.99&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;25&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.033333333333333&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"MultiSWR mode on a AA-600\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;MultSWR mode on the AA-600 antenna analyzer&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/IMG_4412.jpg?fit=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/IMG_4412.jpg?fit=768%2C1024&amp;ssl=1\" class=\" wp-image-340\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/IMG_4412.jpg?resize=477%2C636&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"MultiSWR mode on a AA-600\" width=\"477\" height=\"636\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/IMG_4412.jpg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/IMG_4412.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/IMG_4412.jpg?resize=800%2C1067&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/IMG_4412.jpg?resize=135%2C180&amp;ssl=1 135w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/IMG_4412.jpg?w=2320&amp;ssl=1 2320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 477px) 100vw, 477px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-340\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">MultSWR mode on the AA-600 antenna analyzer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Using MultiSWR mode, I am able to determine the effects of tuning across several bands in real-time. The above readings are what I was able to finally arrive at.<\/p>\n<p>The RigExpert is a very sensitive piece of equipment and I was warned by a fellow ham to be wary of static charge and strong nearby RF, as it can fry the diodes of the analyzer.\u00a0I cannot recommend an antenna analyzer enough. It is a true time-saver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re at all into antennas aside from your handheld rubber duck antenna, you should try to get an antenna analyzer. Here I am using a RigExpert AA-600: Before using this device, I would just go by the radio&#8217;s SWR reading (a poor display of SWR &#8220;bars&#8221;) to determine if I was close to resonance. The quad-band vertical antenna I have supposedly works with 10m, 6m, 2m, and 40cm. I never had much success with adjusting the end tip of the antenna for 10m until I started evaluating readings using the AA-600. My target frequency was 28.400 MHz for the LARC weekly 10m net, and 28.457 MHz for the SDARC&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/2018\/01\/tuning-swr-with-an-antenna-analyzer\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[23,28],"class_list":["post-338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antennas","tag-hf","tag-vhf"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9naFX-5s","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":185,"url":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/2017\/11\/sdarc-meeting-119\/","url_meta":{"origin":338,"position":0},"title":"SDARC Meeting 11\/9","author":"kf6ujs","date":"November 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Met with the club members of Stockton Delta Amateur Radio Club (SDARC) this evening at a classroom in the Bear Creek Community Church. The club elected (or re-elected, rather) the club board for 2018, and discussed upcoming club events. Then W6SXA Mark gave a presentation and demo of the\u00a0Rigexpert AA-600\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antennas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_9911-651x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_9911-651x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_9911-651x1024.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":85,"url":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/2017\/10\/found-a-beacon-on-2m\/","url_meta":{"origin":338,"position":1},"title":"Found a Beacon on 2m","author":"kf6ujs","date":"October 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I briefly heard someone on 10m single-sideband (SSB) saying goodbye to his QSO friend, and that he was going to tune around on 2m SSB. Although I knew 2m SSB existed, never occurred to me that now that I have an all-mode rig, I could also tune around there instead\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antennas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":500,"url":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/2018\/05\/cw-and-ft8-and-psk-oh-my\/","url_meta":{"origin":338,"position":2},"title":"CW and FT8 and PSK, oh my!","author":"AD6DM","date":"May 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In the past month, I've finally unblocked my antenna issues and made great strides in the digital realm of ham radio. Using the PreciseRF HG-1 magnetic loop antenna along with my RigExpert AA-600 to get the lowest possible SWR, I have found that I can get out to virtually all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antennas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Reverse Beacon Network for AD6DM","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-22-at-11.30.24-PM.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-22-at-11.30.24-PM.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-22-at-11.30.24-PM.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":125,"url":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/2017\/11\/first-10-meter-qso\/","url_meta":{"origin":338,"position":3},"title":"First 10 Meter QSO!","author":"kf6ujs","date":"November 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This is probably old hat to the veteran hams out there but this evening I finally, successfully, made clear contact on 10m SSB phone! A milestone for me, after tons of antenna research and tuning around on the frequencies forever. Stockton Delta Amateur Radio Club (SDARC) has a weekly informal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antennas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":597,"url":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/2018\/10\/test-ed-fong-roll-up-j-pole\/","url_meta":{"origin":338,"position":4},"title":"Test Ed Fong Roll-up J-Pole","author":"AD6DM","date":"October 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the few things I actually took home from Pacificon 2018 in San Ramon was an Ed Fong \"DBJ-2\" Dual-band Roll-up J-Pole for 2m\/440. A vendor was asking me if I needed a cool base-station 2m antenna (DBJ-1), and I said I already had one set up. I recognized\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antennas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":684,"url":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/2018\/12\/projects-2018\/","url_meta":{"origin":338,"position":5},"title":"Projects 2018","author":"AD6DM","date":"December 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This past year was an eventful ham radio one. As I begin to look ahead to goals and daydreams of 2019, it's always good to not expect the past to be the norm, but to take a moment and appreciate all the stuff that's happened good and bad. Thinking back,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Elmer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Elmer","link":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/category\/elmer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Southwest_050216.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Southwest_050216.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Southwest_050216.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":341,"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions\/341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}