David O Hachadorian wrote:
> >Take a half wave length of cable and terminate it with a non-inductive
> >
> >resistor such as 50 ohms.
> >Place a swr bridge at the TX end. Tx into the cable with just enough
> >power to get a reading on the meter.
> >If the swr is 1 to 1 the cable is the impedance of the resistor. Note
> >
> >that the MFJ antenna analyzer will also
> >do this for you, but not all of us have one, and we all should have a
> >swr bridge and a 50 ohm dummy load.
>
> Actually, it should be almost any length of cable EXCEPT a half
> wave. A half wave will present the 50 ohm termination,
> regardless of the cable's characteristic impedance.
>
> A better way to do the test is to hook up the 50 ohm resistor to
> a random length of cable and then vary the transmitter frequency
> over a wide range of frequencies. If the swr is flat over a wide
> range of frequencies, then it is 50 ohm cable. If it's not 50
> ohm coax, experiment with various 2 watt carbon terminating
> resistors until you find the proper one that makes the swr curve
> flat.
>
> Dave Hachadorian, K6LL
> k6ll@juno.com
>
Sorry, but this won't work either on cables other than 50 ohms, UNLESS
the bridge is set up for 72 ohm operation. ( or whatever the subject
coax actually is )
You might flatten the SWR curve in sucha a manner, but in actuality, all
you are doing is another version of changing the length of the coax.
And all you are doing here is fooling the bridge ( or transmitter )
which is actually OK, unless you're dealing with very high SWR figures.
( what you are doing in such a case is trying to find a point on the
line where the outgoing wave is 180 degrees out of phase with the
reflected wave. )
Best
Ed
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