[TowerTalk] Better reading meters

[Jim White, K4OJ]

Certainly agreed that the meter reading better means that the linear 
will not protest but, if you had two options:

a) meter reads better but you do not know why (your contesting buddy 
substituted a dummy load)

b) there is a better match with the load and more power is coupled to 
the antenna

Which would you opt for?

My point is that we have all done things to make our antennas look 
better to the final stage and have been satisfied that at least the amp 
isn't faulting...

BUT, speaking for myself, if I do not grasp why this is happening I 
might as well be shooting myself in the foot - sure rig tunes up nice 
but I keep getting beat out by N5OT!

73,

Jim, K4OJ


Mark Beckwith wrote:

>>May make you feel warm and fuzzy because a
>>meter reads better than it used to but did
>>it fix the root problem?
> 
> 
> With all due respect to my esteemed buddy Jim, a better-reading meter is
> also appreciated by my amplifier.  The way I look at it, if most of what I
> squirt in the shack end of the hardline squirts out the other end, then the
> SWR doesn't matter, and doubly so if you're as loud or as louder than
> competitors and you work contest QSOs at a high rate.  Or crush pileups or
> whatever.
> 
> Nothing against quarter-wave matching sections, but give me a good T-network
> any day.
> 
> As for baluns, you still want to keep the outside of the feedline from being
> part of the antenna.  I use large toroid sleeves which fit over the coax at
> the feedpoint and I'm done for about half the cost of a cheap balun, or an
> even smaller fraction of the cost of an expensive balun.
> 
> Mark, N5OT
> 
> 
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