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SWR (or VSWR) Meter

RWoodard

RWoodard

Well Known Member
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I've searched this forum and googled the 'net' in general and can't seem to find a solid answer re: which SWR meter is appropriate for use in testing my antenna installation.

Some folks say the standard Radio Shack meters will work fine and others say that most of the RS stuff is designed for CB radios which don't operate in the aircraft 108-136Mhz band. Others have suggested that anything that'll work for the 2 meter Ham band (up to 144Mhz, I think) will work for our aircraft radios.

If anyone can point me to something that'll work, I'm in the market for a SWR testing meter. As a bonus feature, it'd also be nice if the meter could tell me how many watts I'm putting out. There's a chance I may have damaged my radio and I'd like to confirm output...

Thanks in advance if anyone can help.
 
SWR

A suitable SWR meter and Power Output meter would be one that can handle up to 10 watts RF and with a frequency range up to 144 megahertz. These are available as the amateur bands ones work fine for VHF airbands and so looking at ham radio sites will get you one that will work.... the 144 megahertz upper limit might be referred to by wavelength: 2 meter. I think Radio shack has in the past sold one that will work but I have not seen them lately for sale. MFJ makes several models that will work.
 
Knowing VSWR is only good for testing connections and basic operation of the antenna. One could wire a resistor between the center conductor and shield with no antenna and get close to 1:1 VSWR. Only through real world testing in flight can you determine the true performance of an antenna.
 
Lower cost SWR meter...

Gary S. bought the high end equipment.

MJF makes a much cheaper meter that will measure power and SWR.

MFJ-812B.jpg


The MJF-812B

http://www.mfjenterprises.com/products.php?prodid=MFJ-812B

At only $39 it's a great addition and good fault finding tool. It won't test your antenna, but most aircraft problems end up in the cabling and connectors. A simple SWR meter will verify that you have a good connection from your transmitters to your antennae.

Buy one and I bet it will get borrowed by other pilots on the field....:)

I use a similar old one bought on close-out from Sears many years ago... simple and effective... and has tested many glider and crew vehicle radio connections....:)
You will get popular when radio problems surface... and I usually found badly wired connectors.

gil A
 
Thanks everyone for the advice. I'll probably order the one that Gil suggests. It's within the price range I was hoping for.

I'm more concerned with my installation than the antenna itself. I didn't roll my own, I just re-installed a known good antenna in the old location with new RG-400 wiring and connectors as part of a total aircraft refurbishment.

I'd like to know that I didn't mess anything up and that I'm not going to damage the transmitter section of my Comm by trying to push the signal through a really high SWR.

Yet another cool tool to add to my box! Woooo, hooo!
 
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