Shortly after I was licensed in 1959 I built an 813 rig from the Handbook.
My antenna was a 65 ft flat top fed with 450 ohm open wire. I had a very
crude antenna coupler and my "output indicator" was a fluoresecent tube
taped to the open wire. I tuned the plate tank into the coupler and the
coupler into the antenna until the tube lit up. The plate on the 813 glowed
cherry red key down....but I was too dumb to realize that it was probably
caused by driving the poor thing into a severe mismatch.
SWR? What SWR? It worked....I got out and worked all sorts of DX. The 813
survived, nothing arced over and I was in ham heaven. Moreover, the
neighbours never complained about TVI, telephone interference etc.
We have become too focused on SWR, IMHO. Unless you run a BIG amp and are
worried about heating/arcing etc an "SWR reading" well above 3+:1 won't have
much effect as long as the amp can find a spot where it is "comfortable" and
you can tune for peak output/minimum plate current.
Bill, VE3NH
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