[TenTec] Jupiter SWR, and VSWR generally

[AC5E at aol.com]

This question has come up many times and always reminds me of my old 
professor deponing "If you don't like the VSWR, change the length of the 
transmission line." 

Essentially, the indicated SWR changes with feedline length.  Within reason, 
some length of transmission line will provide an INDICATED match to the 
transmission line regardless of how mismatched the transmission line to load 
match may be. 

Back in the days when George and I were young, one of the most popular home 
brew accessories was a box with short lengths of RG8 and toggle switches. 

If you couldn't get the antenna to match straight through, you could switch 
in 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 foot chunks of cable, stretching your coax 1, 2, 3, 
4, 5, 6, 7, 8 feet, etc.. Some combination would provide a good match to your 
transmitter.

And that being the case, it's no surprise that the SWR in a transmitter and 
the SWR in an outboard meter are different; unless the actual SWR at the load 
is really 1:1.  The only surprise would be if the meters read the same.

73  Pete Allen  AC5E