I need to tune my antenna with the SWR meter and the article say’s to do it in a large open area. Would a shopping mall parking lot at night work for this or am I to search for a large open field?

Thanks for the input,

-Freeman

 

A shopping center parking lot is fine. Basically you don't want to be in something enclosed like a home garage or parking garage. And close your doors when you are testing.

 

Ok. Great.

Thanks for the advice.

 

FWIW, when I did mine, I pulled down the street in back of a stip mall and did mine.

 

Let me expand a little more: SWR is Standing Wave Ratio. It is the ratio of the energy that the radio is transmitting to the energy that is reflected back from the antenna (ignoring for loss in the coax). Any RF that doesn't make it into the ether (and that isn't lost as heat in the transmission line) is reflected back down the coax line--back into the radio. You measure that with your SWR meter. Reflected power that is present is measured, and based on the calibration you made on the SWR meter, compared to the forward RF power. Then the SWR meter can give you a reading of your SWR.

Now, open field: Even once the RF makes it out of the antenna, it can be reflected and end up back in the antenna and headed back down to your radio. By doing the measurement in a reasonably open area, with the Jeep in "driving configuration" (e.g., doors closed, etc), you turn those reflections into what you'd expect as you're driving down the road.

I hope that helps you to better understand why you do what you're doing when setting up the system. And, it also suggests that poor placement of the antenna (such as adjacent to the tailgate) can raise the SWR.

 

Yes that helps.

Thanks,

Freeman.

 

oh, and btw.....an open area doesn't mean you have to have acres of area open around your rig. It just means not to have anything close like a metal building or another car or something, or say inside a garage or right next to a hill, or something like that. Just as long as you don't have anything next to your rig for say...20ft or so you'll be good to go for the test.

 

for some reason it posted twice.......

 

Thanks for all your help guys. I metered at a college parking lot last night and it came out perfect.

-Freeman