[TowerTalk] coax 'sweet lenght'

[gdaught6 at stanford.edu]

Tom Rauch wrote:

< snip >

> So as Dave says, it is a myth that a line feeding a single
> antenna  has a specific "sweet length". If the system is
> behaving properly, SWR is constant.

Exactly right!  And if SWR>1.0 then the impedance at the transmitter 
end of the line changes with differing line lengths, so a change in 
line length can sometimes make it easier to match for your 
transmitter (i.e. the length might seem to be the "sweet length," 
hence the birth of the myth.)  That length is likely to be different 
for different bands, so the term "single antenna" should probably be 
"monoband antenna" for any given line length to be "sweet."

73,
George T. Daughters, K6GT