Calibrating the SWR meter SWR 430. How to set up the antenna, what is required to set up the antenna. Pickup from a store or point of delivery

1. To the nest " ANT"connect a 50 Ohm load or antenna.
2. To the nest " RTX"connect the radio station.
3. Set the switch to the desired measurement range ( 10W or 100W).
PWR".
5. Turn on the radio station to transmit.
6. Read the transmitter power using the scale.
P.S. AM and FM modes will have different values ​​for the same radio station.

How to measure SWR:

1. To the nest " ANT"Connect the antenna.
2. To the nest " RTX"connect the radio station.
3. Tune the radio station to the operating frequency.
4. Set the switch to " SWR".
5. Set the switch to " F.W.D." (direct signal).
6. Turn on the radio station for transmission and use the " CAL"Set the arrow to the far right position of the scale.
7. Release the radio's PTT button.
8. Set the switch to " REF"(reflected signal).
9. Turn on the radio station for transmission and read the SWR on the scale.
10. Change the radio station tuning frequency and repeat the measurements. The SWR will change. Take SWR measurements at different frequencies. The minimum SWR will be at the frequency to which your antenna is tuned.
10. Shorten the antenna (usually car antennas are tuned to a lower frequency). Again, measure the SWR at different frequencies. The minimum SWR will be obtained at a different frequency. So, using the successive approximation method, you can tune the antenna into resonance at the operating frequency.
RULE: the shorter the antenna, the higher the frequency (the larger the channel and grid number).
P.S.
SWR varies little within the same frequency grid.
The best SWR = 1 (the signal from the antenna does not return to the radio station), the worst is infinity (the signal does not go to the antenna, the antenna or cable may be broken, there is no contact, etc.). SWR=1.5 can still work, but Not all the energy goes into the antenna and the transmitter works in heavy duty (it may fail).

The article was written for beginners, those who are going to set up an antenna for the first time to work on the channel (frequency) they need. Those who have already repeatedly tuned antennas are unlikely to find anything useful for themselves in the article.
The article describes the main points of setting up simple single-band antennas - automotive mortise ones, on a magnetic base, basic 1/4 GP, 1/2 (half-wave), 5/8 (five-eighths).

What you need to set up your antenna

SWR meter
A device that shows the ratio of the forward (coming from the radio station to the antenna) and backward (reflecting from the antenna) waves in the cable.
Indirectly, this device shows that the output impedance of the radio station is equal to the resistance of the cable, and it is equal to the resistance of the antenna. You can read about what characteristic impedance is and how it differs from that shown by a regular tester in the article:.
An SWR meter (SWR meter) can be purchased (the price is about 1000 rubles) or you can borrow it from someone you know who has one.

Radio station
The SWR meter does not work without a radio station.
The more “grids” there are in a radio station, the wider the frequency range the radio station can tune in, the easier it will be to tune the antenna to the desired frequency (channel).
Having a radio station with 40 channels at 27 MHz, it is possible to configure the antenna, but it is very difficult; with a radio station that has 400 or 600 channels, this is much easier.

Tape measure or ruler
It will be needed to measure the antenna surface and determine how many centimeters to shorten or lengthen.
In principle, you can do without a tape measure or ruler and simply perform the adjustment step by step, slightly shortening or lengthening the antenna blade.

Basic principles when setting up an antenna

The antenna needs to be adjusted to the place where it will then be located.
That is, the antenna needs to be configured in the conditions in which it will continue to be used, especially if there are some people at a distance closer than 2-3 wavelengths (wavelength = 300/frequency in MHz (for 27 MHz wavelength is approximately 11 meters)) conductive objects parallel to the antenna surface.
If this is a basic antenna, then you already need to prepare a mast for it, which allows you to remove and install the antenna, raise and lower it all for configuration and maintenance.
If this is a car antenna, then the car should be parked so that nearby there would be exactly the same situation that would exist when driving it at the time the radio station is working, that is, at a distance of about 5-10 meters there were other cars, but on the other side there should not be be the walls of reinforced concrete houses, garages, you cannot stand inside an iron garage or hangar. At the time of measurements during setup, the car's doors and trunk must be closed. You should not stand next to the car yourself; the human body absorbs radio waves and thereby introduces losses and affects the operation of the antenna.
There should be no moving conductive objects at a distance of 2-3 wavelengths from the antenna.
All connections of devices must be reliable.
You should not hold everything “in weight”, using your hands to press roughly stripped pieces of cable that are about to fall out of the connectors or are short-circuited to the contacts.
Reliable connections are needed so that the readings of the device do not change as they please, do not float and are repeatable. If the readings are not repeatable, then these are no longer instrument readings, but the weather on Mars at the time of eating Snickers, and it is impossible to rely on such readings.

How to use an SWR meter

We connect the cable to the antenna, the other end of the cable to the SWR meter, to the “ANT” connector, connect the SWR meter “TRANS” connector to the antenna connector of the radio station.
We turn on the radio station and set the frequency at which we will measure the SWR.
If there is an SWR/PWR switch, move it to the SWR position.
Switch on the SWR meter "FWD/REF" to the FWD position.
We press on the transmission on the radio station and set the arrow protruding from the SWR meter to the end of the scale. Let's release the transmission.
Set the "FWD/REF" switch to the REF position.
We press the gear and count the SWR reading on the indicator. On most SWR meters, the less the needle deviates, the less SWR, if it does not deviate at all, then SWR = 1 or the device is dead. If at all frequencies, in the REF position, the arrow does not deviate, then either you have a good equivalent load connected instead of an antenna, or the device is dead, but let’s not talk about sad things.

Antenna setup - step by step

We connect everything to measure the SWR, as mentioned above, the antenna in the working position.
- We set the radio station to the highest frequency that the radio station is capable of producing, for example grid G ​​channel 40 (more precisely, see the instructions for the radio station).
- We measure the SWR, moving down the frequencies through about 20 channels (200 kHz), remember at which frequency (channel, grid) the SWR was minimum and which SWR was at the minimum.

Now there are several options:
The SWR is large everywhere, the device is off scale.
Either you are using the SWR meter incorrectly or you have a break in the cable or antenna.

The SWR drops smoothly as the frequency decreases, but we have not reached the minimum.
Your antenna is too long. It needs to be shortened. When it comes to shortening, it’s worth remembering the golden rule: “measure twice, cut once.” In most cases it is impossible to stick the shortened one back, so we shorten it a little bit, for CB antennas in the 27 MHz range a little bit is about 1 centimeter, for LPD or PMR antennas in the 433-446 MHz range a little bit is 2 millimeters.

SWR increases as the frequency decreases.
Your antenna is too short. The antenna needs to be extended. How much exactly - it’s better to do it by 20 percent, and then shorten it.

The SWR fell as the frequency decreased, at a certain frequency it became minimal, and then, as the frequency decreased further, it began to increase again.
This is the most common case.
This behavior means that everything is normal, the antenna is operating in the desired range, all that remains is to adjust it to the desired frequency (channel).
If you have this case, then it is advisable to find exactly on which channel the minimum SWR is.

If the frequency at which the minimum SWR was lower than the one you need, then the antenna needs to be shortened a little, literally 5 millimeters at a time, if we are talking about the 27 MHz range, after each shortening, look where the minimum SWR is now, and shorten it until the minimum The SWR will not be at the frequency you want.

If the frequency at which the minimum SWR was higher than what you need, then the antenna needs to be lengthened.

What to do if the minimum SWR is at the desired frequency, but this minimum value is still high

This indicates that the antenna does not work exactly as intended by the manufacturer or the antenna is rubbish, but there is no need to immediately talk about sad things.
If this is a car mount antenna, then it may “not have enough mass,” that is, the contact with the ground is poor.
If this is a car antenna on a magnet, then it may also “not have enough mass”, for example the paint layer is too thick.
Or your car antenna is located where it should not be placed - next to the elements of the metal roof rack, next to the additional light that you hung on the trunk, you even magnetized it to the hood or trunk, bumper or wheel rim.
Maybe you mounted a mortise-in antenna on the aluminum runners of the roof rack that you have on the roof, but the rack turned out to be plastic, not aluminum, or does not have reliable contact with the ground of the car, or is not long and wide enough to act as a mass for the antenna.

If the antenna is on a magnetic base, try looking for another place to “slap” it, try from the corner of the roof, in the center of the roof, from another corner.
Radio frequency currents do not flow exactly like direct current, where the tester shows excellent contact, for radio frequency this may turn out to be a “bottleneck”.

If the antenna is mortise-mounted, check to see if you have thoroughly cleaned the paint from the area where the antenna ground contact is attached.
If you mounted the embedded antenna on the trunk or some kind of fastener on the drain, try to improve the contact with ground. There were cases when the author of the article took 2 pieces of wire 0.5 mm thick without insulation, wound them around a bracket on which a mortise antenna hanging on a drain or trunk was attached, threw them into different corners of the car roof along the drains and the SWR decreased from 3 to 1, then the antenna began to work perfectly (naturally, the signal on the air also improved).
Throw in additional wires, tear off the paint and then pour sealant, or look for other ways to improve the mass or installation point - it’s up to you, it’s your antenna and your car.

If you do not have a car antenna, but a basic version, then the treatment here is exactly the same, namely: maybe you need more “mass”, or maybe you need to get into the antenna design with a soldering iron.
To begin with, we make sure that there is enough mass - the base pipe, which is also the main counterweight, the mass for antennas of the 5/8 (five-eighths) and 1/2 (half-wave) types should be at least 1/4 of the wavelength, that is, for 27 MHz it is about 2 meters 75 centimeters. More is better; less - you will have to extend it with a wire thrown along the roof.
Although sometimes it happens that everything is done well, but the antenna is not tuned, this happened to a friend of the author of the article, 1/2 did not want to tune in. It seems to be in frequency, but the SWR is not 1 or even 1.2 or 1.5 - it turned out that someone “got into the antenna” before him and cut off a turn of the coil installed inside the antenna.
It is also very likely that the nearby stretched optics of your provider or the mast of a collective antenna are interfering with your base antenna.

How much to cut and what is the ruler for?
Antenna sizes depend linearly on frequency.
If the antenna is full-size, then how much it needs to be shortened or lengthened to get to the desired frequency directly depends on the ratio of the current frequency where it resonates and the desired frequency where you would like the antenna to resonate.
Let me explain with an example:
we have a quarter, let its length be 267 centimeters, it resonates (SWR is minimal) turned out to be at a frequency of 27.0 MHz (channel 4, section C), we want the antenna to work at 27.275 MHz.
We count K frequency differences:
27.0 / 27.275 = 0.9899175068744271
We multiply the current antenna length by this K:
267 * 0.9899175068744271 = 264.3
and we get the length that the antenna must have to earn 27.275.
Calculate how much to cut:
267 - 264 = 3 cm.
However!
There is no need to cut exactly 3 cm right away. Don’t forget, an antenna is not only a rod, it’s also counterweights. Everything has an impact.
This way you can determine the order of the first cutting - either 3 cm or 5 mm.
Next we proceed step by step.
For the example above, you can cut off 1.5 cm, again find the resonance, and based on the result obtained, move on.

Lastly, although this probably should have been written first:
Basic rules for installing antennas
The antenna must be placed no closer than the same wavelength to other conductive objects, especially those that will be parallel to the antenna.
The higher the antenna is installed, the better.
It is clear that for car antennas at 27 MHz these rules are simply impossible to comply with, so car antennas are a compromise, so don’t demand miracles from them.

If you still have no time, no desire to understand the intricacies of SWR measurement, look for an SWR meter, configure the antenna yourself, and you are in Novosibirsk, you can contact, for example, here:

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Description

*SWR-430 measures power and SWR. - a device that measures the standing wave coefficient and is actively used to tune a variety of radio stations. Having an SWR meter will allow you to optimally tune the antenna of your radio station and achieve.... Delivery of swr 430 (swr, watt) antenna tuner (SWR meter-standing wave ratio meter) in Moscow and other cities of Russia.

Characteristics

*SWR-430 measures power and SWR.
- a device that measures the standing wave coefficient and is actively used to tune a variety of radio stations.
Having an SWR meter will allow you to optimally configure the antenna of your radio station and achieve maximum radio performance.

Range 24-30 MHz
Resistance - 50 Ohm
Measurement error - 5%.
Power measurement limits 10 and 100 W
PL (UHF) connectors
Setting up the car radio antenna. After installation, the antenna must be adjusted to the minimum SWR value in the middle of the operating frequency range, or if it is intended to operate on only one frequency, to the minimum SWR value at this frequency. SWR is the standing wave ratio - a measure of the matching of the antenna-feeder path. It shows the percentage of power loss in the antenna. Power losses at various SWR values ​​are shown in the table

SWR	1	1,3	1,5	1,7	2	3	4	10
% losses	0	2	3	6	11	25	38	70

Tuning the antenna is possible in two ways: 1. Changing the length of the pin is the simplest and fastest method, and for non-separable antennas the only one 2. Changing the length of the matching coil. To tune the antenna, you need a special device - an SWR meter, for example VEGA SX-20 or Vega SX-600. To understand how to use each specific device, you need to study its instructions, but as a rule it is done like this. Connect the device between the antenna and the station, as shown in the figure below. Do not forget that the device must allow operation at your output power. That is, if the device is designed for a maximum power of 10 W, then a maximum of 10 W must be supplied to the input, and if 100 W is supplied, the result will be quite obvious in the form of smoke and a not very pleasant smell. Let us immediately clarify that manipulations with the device during SWR measurement depend on the specific model of the SWR meter. For example, in the VEGA SX-20 model it is enough to simply connect the SWR meter to the antenna and radio station and take readings by clicking on the transmission, and in the Vega SX-600 model there is a separate device calibration mode and SWR measurement mode (SWR). It is important to remember here that the device is calibrated every time we change the antenna parameters. And then the SWR is removed. So, set the switch to the FWD position (measurement of the incident wave). Place the pointer arrow at the end of the scale. In this way, the instrument readings are calibrated. An important point is that the device must be calibrated every time the antenna parameters and operating frequency change. Next, switching the device with the transmission turned off to the REF position (reflected wave measurement), turn on the transmission and read the SWR value on the device scale. An example of tuning an antenna to the average grid frequency (27.205 MHz) by changing the length of the pin. First, you need to measure the SWR value on channel 1 of grid C. Then on the last (40) channel of grid C. If the SWR value is greater than 3 in both cases, this indicates that either the antenna is installed incorrectly, or is not designed for such power, or has defects. We stand on the 20th channel of the C grid, measure the SWR and remember its value. We unscrew the screws securing the pin, move it 7-10 mm in the desired direction, tighten the screws, and check the SWR again. If the pin is pushed all the way and the SWR is still high, you will have to physically shorten the pin. If the pin is extended as much as possible, you will have to increase the length of the matching coil. We install the pin in the middle of the mount. We bite off 5-7 mm, measure the SWR, and bite off again. At the same time, we make sure that the SWR value decreases. As soon as it reaches a minimum and begins to increase, then we adjust the length of the pin only by changing the position in the antenna. This way we will find the minimum SWR. The antenna must be adjusted only at the location where it is installed. If we move the antenna to another location, it will need to be tuned again. That's all, from the data below you can determine what's wrong with your antenna and whether there was any sense in adjusting the SWR. Table. SWR value and result

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Many people are concerned about the accuracy of SWR meters sold on our radio markets and in radio equipment stores. This article has the answer to this question. A test was carried out and compared with the standard of the two most popular SWR meters, SWR-420 and SWR-430.

On the pages of the magazine, I have already written several times that the popular “instruments” for determining the standing wave ratio do not provide sufficient accuracy to obtain an adequate picture of the state of the AFU, which, however, does not mean that they cannot be used for initial antenna tuning.

Materials and methods

This test involved 5 SWR-430 SWR meters and 5 SWR-420 SWR meters from a well-known manufacturer, whose name we will not name :). However, based on practice, the picture is repeated from manufacturer to manufacturer, since the design does not fundamentally change, but is simply copied, and the data obtained can be used to adjust the readings of other SWR meters of a similar design. The SWR meters were randomly selected to maximize parameter variation, if any. All data obtained during the measurement were averaged and summarized in a general table. The readings were compared with the RigExpert AA-600 antenna analyzer, the data of which was taken as the standard.

The Lemm AT-2001 Turbo antenna embedded in the roof of a Chevrolet Lacetti (sedan) was used as a load.

The signal source at different frequencies for studying SWR meters was Yosan Excalibur.

For the measurement, 15 frequencies were selected corresponding to the 20th channel of the selected grid, which is quite enough to obtain an accurate picture of the dependence of the readings on frequency.

results

As a result, the picture turned out as follows. Columns SWR-420 and SWR-430 indicate the SWR value at the corresponding frequency.

Columns Err 420 and Err 430 indicate the difference in the SWR meter reading relative to the analyzer, which must be added to the SWR meter reading to obtain the true SWR value. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that these values ​​are not absolute, and may vary depending on the measurement conditions, the resistance values ​​of the AFU, the parameters of the SWR meters themselves, which also have some scatter in the readings from instance to instance (about 5-10%), but the general dependence must be preserved.

As can be seen from the table and graph, factory SWR meters not only underestimate the SWR value in the studied frequency range, but also somewhat smear the readings. Although, in general, these devices, especially the SWR-430, are quite suitable for initial antenna setup and simple diagnostics of the AFU. SWR-420, in my opinion, is less successful in terms of choice, but as an alternative option it is also quite suitable for use. In short, in order to find the minimum SWR and draw a conclusion about in which direction to tune the antenna, both devices are quite suitable. For accurate measurements, it is necessary to calibrate each individual device, comparing its readings with a standard impedance meter and calculating a correction for each frequency under study that will need to be taken into account during the measurement.

Bottom line

In general, the SWR-420 and SWR-430 are quite suitable for use as a primitive diagnostic device and initial setup of antenna-feeder devices. The SWR-430 performed better than the SWR-420 and in the frequency range declared by the manufacturer gave more accurate results, therefore, in my opinion, it is more promising in terms of use. Plus, the SWR-430 has a function for measuring the output power of a radio station's transmitter. However, we should not forget that in order to obtain correct results, such measurements must be carried out on the equivalent load, and not on the antenna!!!