Help needed

Hi all Ive got crt ss900 I've bought a silver rod mounted it on a 10ft steel pole on high power I cant get my swr below 2.1 on low power its below 1.5 o chanel 40 on channel 1 it is doesn't register at all what could be the problem please 

Regards gav

Are you using the inbuilt swr or have you got an external meter.
SWR should be the same on whatever power.
I personally don't trust the inbuilt meter never have and always have an external one to hand.
The low cost ones will do the job might not be 100% but will be close enough you don't need to spend big on a rigexpert or the likes as some of us do lol.

No I've a external meter if I turn the transmit power down the swr is perfect if its on full its sat at 2.2 and that's on 40 on channel 1 it's off the scale the silver rod I bought doesn't black marks on either so I'm wondering if the ariel is faulty
26-CT-4188

Hi Gavin. As Alan says, SWR  shouldn't change. That said I did have similar earlier this year when I set a 1/4 up in my  loft. At the time the loft was very cluttered and I found the more I decluttered the better the results were, so there was definitely interaction with items up there.

So just wondering if you have anything close that might be affecting it? I know you said it's on a 10ft pole, but is there anything else very close by, like a metal shed or something? If you can, try moving the antenna a bit, be that up down, left right etc to see if resolves.

Hi the antenna is very very loose almost like a fishing pole and everything is tightend so I've put it to about waist hight on the metal pole could that be acting as a conductor?

you need to get the antenna up to the top of the pole and check your swr on 4w and if its high on 40 it needs shorting but mostly get that up to the top of the pole so the antenna does not see the pole as this will give you very high swr,and when you get the antenna swr right tape the joints so no water gets in as will wreck your antenna there is two ways to tightening the claps some say tape the joint first and when swr is good mark the the antenna joints then tape the so no water gets in and then put the clamps onto each joint and the tighten them up, some use shrink fit i have done this in the past and it works very good and then the screw camps and it works very well, and i put tape on the ends of the shrink fit but what ever you choose good luck

Thanks for that I've got my swr down to 1.4 and used self amalgamation tape for the joints appreciate everyone's help let's hope I'm dxing soon

gavalar1980 wrote:

No I've a external meter if I turn the transmit power down the swr is perfect if its on full its sat at 2.2 and that's on 40 on channel 1 it's off the scale the silver rod I bought doesn't black marks on either so I'm wondering if the ariel is faulty
26-CT-4188

In regards to the antenna, most of them don't have black marks on the poles. I've never bought a silver rod type antenna that did. The presence of those black marks has no effect on whether the antenna works, they're merely a guide put there to give you an idea of how much one section should slide into the next before securing with a jubilee clip or whatever.

Are you using the SWR meter properly? When you alter the power you're transmitting you need to recalibrate it. 

So how to do that...

Put the switch from REF to FWD. In FM mode key up the radio and use the CAL knob until the needle moves to the maximum on the scale and de-key the radio. Its now set. Set the switch back to REF, key up the radio and read the SWR.

Every time you change what power output you are transmitting you need to do the above, ideally you should do it every time you want to properly check the SWR.

Hi thanks for that I've got the swr on full power to 1.4 if on low power its less than 1 I'm hoping that's ok numbers