[TowerTalk] OptiBeam OB2-40M

[Jim Brown]

YES! SWR is NOT an indicator of antenna performance.

73, Jim K9YC

On 5/23/2021 9:40 AM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote:
> 
> On 5/23/2021 7:29 AM, VE6WZ_Steve wrote:
>> I have received a few direct email questions about this thread…..
>> Just to be clear, the reason for inductor switching at the Yagi 
>> elements is NOT only to get a “good, low SWR" match at the driver.
>>
>> The “SWR” and “matching” at the feedpoint is really NOT the issue.
>>
>> The real issue is tuning the REFLECTOR across the band.  That is what 
>> determines the gain and F/B performance.
>> The PARASITIC element needs to be incremented across the band to 
>> maintain maximum gain and F/B performance.
>>
>> Yagi SWR has very little to do with performance.
>>
>> Steve, ve6wz
>>
> 
> Another great posting from Steve.  It seems like this point
> has to be constantly repeated on TT to counteract marketing
> hype and wishful thinking.  When I first got my MonstIR,
> I did some experiments where I set the tuning for 40 CW
> and then QSY'ed to 40 phone, without retuning the MonstIR.
> Of course the SWR went way up.  I then used the custom
> tuning feature to tweak just the driven element for SWR.
> This did improve the VSWR somewhat, but the gain and F/B
> were still lousy.  SWR bandwidth doesn't equal pattern
> bandwidth.  And the MonstIR is a full size 3 element
> design (yes, 70 foot elements), so it will tend to do
> better than a shortened 2 element.
> 
> Rick N6RK