leiniesred
Hard Core 4+
possible to tune a CB using only a power meter?
So I busted out the ol' SWR meter and took apart my dash to get to the back of the CB.
I hook up the SWR meter and go to town.
Channel 1, Press mic button. Calibrate for infinity. Switch to SWR and BAM! Off the scale?
Channel 19, same thing
Channel 20, same thing
Shorted antenna, right? Well I test my continuity and all is well. Not to mention I can talk to truckers at 25 and arapahoe from revere and arapahoe. A decent distance for a 2 foot, bed mounted antenna IN the truck. Too far for a shorted output as far as I can tell.
ya know...Maybe that really high SWR reading IS correct? I'm going to get a heck of a bounce off of the inside of the bed box for the first foot of the antenna.
Also, I get 3 weather channels in my driveway. So I think the antenna is workin' OK.
So I guess my SWR meter is bad? I decide to tune by meter deflection instead. I think it is wired backwards. The meter moves an amount that would equate about.1.2-1.4 We'll see how it goes.
The power meter shows 100 on the 2000 watt scale at the 20 watts setting. 120/2000 = .05 times the 20 watt scale = 5 watts. That is what I would expect from a stock CB so I think it is getting out OK. Maybe I'm reading it wrong and I have 1.2 watt output. I dunno. I don't trust the meter anymore. Everything seems to work wrong on it.
ON TO THE QUESTION!
This got me thinking:
Can I tune my antenna using only a power meter?
Like look at average (CW) output power on 1 and 40 and try to balance the output from channel 1 to channel 40?
Over and out good buddy. <--That's how we did it in the 70's with the CB's.
So I busted out the ol' SWR meter and took apart my dash to get to the back of the CB.
I hook up the SWR meter and go to town.
Channel 1, Press mic button. Calibrate for infinity. Switch to SWR and BAM! Off the scale?
Channel 19, same thing
Channel 20, same thing
Shorted antenna, right? Well I test my continuity and all is well. Not to mention I can talk to truckers at 25 and arapahoe from revere and arapahoe. A decent distance for a 2 foot, bed mounted antenna IN the truck. Too far for a shorted output as far as I can tell.
ya know...Maybe that really high SWR reading IS correct? I'm going to get a heck of a bounce off of the inside of the bed box for the first foot of the antenna.
Also, I get 3 weather channels in my driveway. So I think the antenna is workin' OK.
So I guess my SWR meter is bad? I decide to tune by meter deflection instead. I think it is wired backwards. The meter moves an amount that would equate about.1.2-1.4 We'll see how it goes.
The power meter shows 100 on the 2000 watt scale at the 20 watts setting. 120/2000 = .05 times the 20 watt scale = 5 watts. That is what I would expect from a stock CB so I think it is getting out OK. Maybe I'm reading it wrong and I have 1.2 watt output. I dunno. I don't trust the meter anymore. Everything seems to work wrong on it.
ON TO THE QUESTION!
This got me thinking:
Can I tune my antenna using only a power meter?
Like look at average (CW) output power on 1 and 40 and try to balance the output from channel 1 to channel 40?
Over and out good buddy. <--That's how we did it in the 70's with the CB's.
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