Venom 1/2 wave SWR Issue

Hi All,

Back on CB's after 20 years and instead of just going mobile this time I setup a home base.

I'm using a CRT2000 with 7 metres of Mini8 low loss coax, I have a Venom 1/2 wave silver rod mounted 10ft above ground level and have checked the SWR which is as follows.

Channel 1 = 1:1
Channel 20 = 1:1
Channel 40 = 1.2:1

This seems very low to me but as Channel 40 is higher I did try shortening my antenna which made no difference even when I reduced it by a foot!

Do I have an issue or am I just very lucky to have a well matched radio and antenna?

I can get through to people about 5 mile away and I can hear them clearly but I do get quite a lot of noise aswell.

Any help and advice much appreciated.

Hi Bruce,

Sounds like job's a good'un!


These half wave antennas have a good SWR range, if I recall something like a 1:1.5 range of over a MegaHertz. They make for good 28Mhz/10m antennas too.

We do have to suffer much more noise nowadays on pretty much all the HF range compared with decades ago unfortunately....all those PC's, laptops, tablets, chargers, etc. spewing RF noise everywhere! Always RF 'quieter' when you can go mobile and get away from such urban noise. Don't despair though, you can chase the proverbial 'dogs tail' trying to track down RF noise. If it isn't that bad I wouldn't worry, (and I'd rather sit in comfort at a homebase radio than a cold night on a hill in the car!)

When there is no prorogation or 'skip' CB range is fairly limited but once that 'skip' is in it's all exciting as hell.



All the best,
Victor

Thanks Victor,

Just a bit worrying when you hardly get the needle on the SWR meter move, I started questioning myself and the equipment.

I was turning lights off and moving things about trying to find what was causing the noise but I think I need to get the neighbours to move, no loss there as we don't get on anyway lol.

Hi Bruce. Re the noise, I had a horrendous level of unwanted noise for a while earlier this year, but managed to get it to drop substantially, partially by just moving antenna slightly. If you've got the time and space you could try hiring or lowering it a little or moving it a few feet one way or another to see if it picks up less.

You can get a good low SWR over a wide band with the Silver Rods. Even if you don't they can still work well. Had one led flat once inside the loft hung from the rafters, SWR nearing 3:1 but still was able to work Europe when the skip was running. You should have good fun with yours next time the skips up

Leave it how it is the length or if you want to adjust the length do the top section only by dropping it a few mil at a time see how that goes .