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Whether you're new to using single sideband (SSB) or have years of experience, this forum is the perfect place to ask your questions or provide assistance to those who are new.
Some of you know of my new SSB adventure....I'm going to start playing around tonight as soon as I get a power supply.....one more question, though....
Until I get my 'tuned' dipole antenna that is coming, I have a brass slinky dipole wired up for the job....(don't worry, the slinky is rated to transmit even though I bought it for my shortwave) but the question is, what if the SWRs are bad? What do I do to make 'em better? It's not like a whip you can just shorten or lengthen....
your gonna have to cut it. its all about the lenght. i think a cb wave lenght is 36 feet. half of that is 18 feet. thats how long a antron 99 is . im pretty sure thats why they call it a half wave.you might measure the slinky to see how long it is. go get some wire and some conecters and build your own dipole.one side goes to ground and the other too the center. use that old uniden for the tunning of your antenna,you dont want to screw up your good radio. what was the slinky dipole for. 20 meter,40 meter ????? 10 meter. ???? you need aprox. 36 feet im pretty sure. take that uniden and tune it on ch.38 am and if you get the swr right youll be good for you side bander. stick to 27.375 to 27.555 thats all you need. if skip is rolling youll get more than enough action on those freqs.good luck. annie :D
Thanks Busman! I guess I'm gonna wait to use my Cobra, then.... I don't wanna cut my fancy brass multiband slinky, lol.....Oh well...I'll just be patient, heh....I did check the SWRs on 38...they were up over 3....not good....
Patience is a virtue..............................................................................that I don't have!
yah multiband is just that, ithink that that one is for listening. or go buy you a old dentron super tuner antenna matcher or something. you need a antenna tuned for 27 mhz. go get 2 peices of wire 18 feet long and put a coax thing in the middle and run coax or buy a antron 99 and bolt it to the railing. :D i got to go to work. good ol graveyard shift. have fun with the radios annie.
Yeah I would wait for sure,that cobra isn't gonna put up with swrs over 3 for long.Not to mention with high swrs it isn't gonna work like you want it to anyway.Check out [Please login or register to view this link] They have just what you need and the prices aren't bad either.Shawn
Leave the slinky part alone. Surely you have some wire around there, even lampcord will do, anything 16 ga. or larger will work for this power range. Connect a 1/4 wavelength piece of insulated wire to each side of your center insulator. What you'll have is your slinky plus the 2 1/4 wave pieces connected all together. When you string it up, make sure there is distance between the slinky and the wire, especially on the ends. The trick of feeding multiple dipoles is often done, and the signal will find and radiate to the most resonant dipole connected. Use 9 ft and cut/fold from there to tune and you may have to move it around a little to make it work. If you need a pic, look around the web as I'm sure there are some. Also, make sure that if your dipole isn't completely straight/flat, that the legs aren't at less than a 90 degree angle or tuning will be harder and efficiency will be lower. -drdx
Yes it's me, Dollar-98, drdx, the original all maul, shot cawla on workin this no-fade technology.
drdx wrote:Leave the slinky part alone. Surely you have some wire around there, even lampcord will do, anything 16 ga. or larger will work for this power range. Connect a 1/4 wavelength piece of insulated wire to each side of your center insulator. What you'll have is your slinky plus the 2 1/4 wave pieces connected all together. When you string it up, make sure there is distance between the slinky and the wire, especially on the ends. The trick of feeding multiple dipoles is often done, and the signal will find and radiate to the most resonant dipole connected. Use 9 ft and cut/fold from there to tune and you may have to move it around a little to make it work. If you need a pic, look around the web as I'm sure there are some. Also, make sure that if your dipole isn't completely straight/flat, that the legs aren't at less than a 90 degree angle or tuning will be harder and efficiency will be lower. -drdx
Thanks, DrDx....I get most of what you're talking about....except I measured my balcony and it is 10 feet wide..so that would be five feet straight out for the two wires....you're saying I can drop them at 90 degree angles to the balcony floor? That would be easy and perfect....the way I have the slinky is like that right now....I could separate them by 10 inches or so across and then keep 'em separate as the make the 90 degree drop....that'll work?
I've been reading online that antenna tuners will 'tune out' SWRs......is this true? If it is, then I could build one (there are kits on the web) and use what ever length dipole and just tune the antenna to the radio....
Here's a link to a cool, rather expensive one: [Please login or register to view this link]
If that is what this product really does, how come more CBers don't just use a tuner instead of stressing out over the SWR readings? It seems like it would be an easier solution....
Really curious what you guys think about this and whether I'm reading it wrong....
Yep, that's what antennas tuners do. Your "typical CB'er" usually won't spend the $$$ for something like that, and realistically for mono-band operation, one isn't needed. For a Ham operating on multiple bands, it's a different story, depending on the type of antenna(s), being used. With a tuner, you can tune a lot of strange things to use as an antenna, like that old set of bedsprings in the garage! Or even your slinky with the 3:1 swr.
A tuner is nice to have, but it is only making your radio happy. The antenna is still going to radiate the same, it will just have power applied to it. On the dipole space issue, if you only have the 10 feet, run it as straight as possible for as long as possible then let the ends hang vertically. You need them for length but that part is not an area of high radiation, so you can drop the ends with too much performance decrease. This might make it tune a little longer or shorter, but you should be able to shorten/lengthen to tune that out. -drdx
Yes it's me, Dollar-98, drdx, the original all maul, shot cawla on workin this no-fade technology.
On the slinky, you can just put some of the coils together to get it to resonate on 27mhz. Push the coils together closest to the coax for best results. A tuner will work as well. Sometimes, well most of the time actually a home brew antenna well be resonate on a certain frequency you want to use, but it will have a high SWR due to the miss match in impedance. Your rig requires 50 ohms and a resonate antenna. Some antennas don't come in at 50ohms, but are resonate. Some antennas are nether resonate, nor have the correct impedance.
A antenna tuner will certainly help with both.
A double slinky dipole usually is resonate around the 40meter 7mhz band, great for hams or SWLers, but not for CB. I would start by shorting out with a jumper, or just pushing about 3/4 of the coil together on both sides to get it to match on 11meters. Keep it stretched out as much as space allows, but just push together and tie off, clip, or short the coils till you get the right length.
I don't wanna cut my fancy brass multiband slinky, lol.....Oh well...I'll just be patient, heh....I did check the SWRs on 38...they were up over 3....not good....
Or even your slinky with the 3:1 swr.
