2021-01-09, 17:59:04
So at John’s suggestion I put up a doublet today, about 40’ up and V’ed down 30 degrees to two trees. I used about 55-70’ of ladder line to my MFJ versa Tuner III over to my Yaesu 857D. I used 12 gauge insulated wire, it was touching tree branches in a couple of locations.
To my surprise after doing the “rough” tuning by ear(max noise) I was receiving brothers in the US no problem (I monitored the frequencies from the waterfall on my IC7300 to locate good frequencies to listen to.) But:
I’m no expert on the MFJ tuner beyond my uTube training but what it was telling me was this:
1. At 100w output the meter showed about 10 watts going out and maybe 1 w reflected, couldn’t read an SWR(would have been high where the two needles crossed).
2. The radio’s SWR meter was showing an SWR of about 2:1
3. The radio’s PWR meter was showing about 30watts output
4. It was blasting the input of my IC7300
I CQed a few times, no response. I don’t know if I’m transmitting or not. The uTube showed the meter going up to 80w and reflected about 20 and a decent SWR, I can’t tell what’s happening with mine. But it receives crystal clear, doesn’t that mean a low SWR and that the output power should be high?
I checked the 857D manual and it will restrict output power if it detects a bad SWR.
So what might be happening here oh gurus of the airwaves.
To my surprise after doing the “rough” tuning by ear(max noise) I was receiving brothers in the US no problem (I monitored the frequencies from the waterfall on my IC7300 to locate good frequencies to listen to.) But:
I’m no expert on the MFJ tuner beyond my uTube training but what it was telling me was this:
1. At 100w output the meter showed about 10 watts going out and maybe 1 w reflected, couldn’t read an SWR(would have been high where the two needles crossed).
2. The radio’s SWR meter was showing an SWR of about 2:1
3. The radio’s PWR meter was showing about 30watts output
4. It was blasting the input of my IC7300
I CQed a few times, no response. I don’t know if I’m transmitting or not. The uTube showed the meter going up to 80w and reflected about 20 and a decent SWR, I can’t tell what’s happening with mine. But it receives crystal clear, doesn’t that mean a low SWR and that the output power should be high?
I checked the 857D manual and it will restrict output power if it detects a bad SWR.
So what might be happening here oh gurus of the airwaves.
Doug McDougall 