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Adjusting SWR

The length of your antenna makes a difference. Even though we can’t see them the radio waves have an actual physical length. By matching your antenna’s length to that of the CB radio wave you will achieve the best performance of your rig. When your antenna is the wrong length some of the power does not radiate, but is bounced back into the coax cable and into the radio itself. If this reflected power is too high it can damage your CB’s power transistor. The bottom line is that you want the least amount of reflected power and the most amount of forward power you can get.
SWR means Standing Wave Radio. You can find if you antenna is the right length by using a SWR meter.

Let’s Check SWRs

You will need a short coaxial cable that has PL259 connectors on both ends. Plug in one connector into your CB rig and the other into the socket on the meter labeled TXMTR or TX. Plug the coax cable that goes to your antenna into the socket on your meter labeled ANT.

Turn the knob on the meter all the way down (counter clock-wise). Put the switch in the forward or calibrate position. Turn on your radio and listen for other stations making sure that your CB rig is working normally. Tune your channel selector to a unused channel where you won’t bug anybody.

Press your microphone button and without saying anything into the microphone adjust the knob on the SWR meter until the meter reads set or full scale. Then flip the switch to Reflected or SWR and read the SWR scale of your meter.

After noting what the SWR is, stop transmitting. If the meter reads less than 1.5, your antenna is working properly. If it reads more than 2, your antenna probably needs some adjustment. If it reads more than 3 or in the red, check all connections; the antenna or the center wire of the coax might be touching the body of the vehicle.

NOTE: Coiling your excess coax into a small bundle can cause a high standing wave. If this happens the coax cable can be coiled into longer loops to avoid casing a high SWR.

When installing a trunk lip antenna make sure you scrape the paint away on the underside of the trunk of hood lid where the set screws make contact to the metal. A poor antenna ground connection here is a major case of high SWR. If you obtain a high SWR when installing mirror mounted antennas check and make sure that the mirrors is grounded to the body of the vehicle. A poor ground here will also give you SWR problems.

Remember a bad ground will create a high SWR. Checking this issue first is essential prior to ruining your CB antenna by over adjusting.

Adjusting Your Antenna

Say you have a SWR of 2.1 and you want to bring it down. First of all check if your antenna has a good connection to ground, (very important).

There are two ways to change an antenna’s SWR. One is to lengthen it and the other is to shorten it. You can figure out which way to go in the following manner: Take an SWR reading on Channel 1, then on Channel 40. If the SWR is higher on Channel 40 you need to shorten the tip. If the SWR was higher on Channel 1, you need to lengthen the tip. Move it about ¼” at a time. Check the SWR on some of the Middle channels and try to set the antenna so that is has the lowest SWR on the Middle Channels.

Most antennas have a set screw you can loosen so that the tip can slide up and down. If this does not give enough adjustment you can snip off a ¼” at a time off the bottom of the tip and reinsert it in the coil. Make sure to reset the SWR meter every time you take a reading.

One good CB antenna installation trick to remember when adjusting the antenna’s length is if you bring your hand near the loading coil or the top of the antenna and the SWR goes down the tip of the antenna needs to be lengthened; if the SWR goes up, the tip needs to be shortened.

NOTE: If you’re using twin antennas, take equal adjustments to each side at the same time.

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