Understanding what your antenna analyzer is telling you.

You've got access to an antenna analyzer, now what? This is just a breif demonstration of what you may see on your analyzer and what actions you may want to take next.

[@AlvinMcManus]

Focus indeed! I am glad it is not my eyes! LOL

[@oobihdahboobeeboppah]

So sorry for the very late reply. I was doing this video for a club "Tech Talk" during or just after Covid so it forced me to rig things up rather clunky until I can get my act together. I'll never get an Oscar for my camera skills! I haven't posted a replacement video because there are so many that do a stellar job with this topic. Check out Jim, kzbin.info/www/bejne/f2XTY4aEmsSXgdEsi=r-YWQAYYcJbu0_d5 Regardless of which Rig Expert analyzer you have, Jim shows you how to get started.

[@ponttokamera]

Thank you for explaining this understandable! I still wonder, what is R,C chart user for.

[@joseneves2822]

Hello, RC chart can check whether or not the antenna is resonant / 73

[@oobihdahboobeeboppah]

So sorry for the very late reply. What Jose said. As I recall, I might have been using a doublet antenna or maybe a dummy load. I only use resonant antennas when it comes to my yagi. My wire antennas are non-resonant doublets which when using an external tuner at the feed point, I get all band coverage.

[@SubscribeToREIBALBUENA]

Hellooo...Niceee sharing my frienddd. Greetings from Philippines 🇵🇭

[@kd5smf]

I just found your video on understanding what your analyzer is telling you.... I own the same Rig Expert AA-35 Zoom. I have built several dipoles, and have tried to make a EFHW, and now working on a DX Commander That I have made using parts purchased online (just not the whole antenna kit). I am left scratching my head and thinking about what's going on but, not have much success understanding what my antenna analyzer is doing. I found that most of the resonance is outside the bands as well as the SWR! Impedances read off the chart so I"m not sure what to do... advise would be most helpful.... 73's de kd5smf

[@oobihdahboobeeboppah]

Sorry it took so long to get back to you; the filters YT defaults to had me looking at old stuff... So let's just review the end fed for a moment. (BTW, there's a lot of good information on the web and even more misinformation.)There are TWO flavors of these: The EFHW or end fed half-wave and the "Random Length" end fed. The EFHW is what it says: a half-wave antenna (468/f) but fed at one end and not the middle like a dipole is fed. While a dipole has about a 50 ohm impedance, the EFHW is more like 4000-5000 ohms which is why a transformer is needed to bring it down to a manageable range for a tuner (and even some 10:1 tuners). What's more, it's still a half wave and will behave like a half-wave dipole as far as the bands it will work on. Back when I was a Novice, we'd use our 40M dipoles on 15M real easy as a 3/2 wave dipole and because in the ancient days of vacuum tubes the transmitter used a Pi network in the tank which is basically a tuner. But try that today with a modern solid state radio without a tuner and just be prepared to ship the rig off for repairs. A lot of guys don't know the difference between the two types of end feds and then proceed to apply mystical attributes to them just as many do to the G5RV, which is just an optimized doublet (twin lead fed dipole). (NOTE: When Varny, G5RV, designed the antenna he was trying to find a good 20M antenna that would fit in his "garden" (backyard to us Yanks). Many Brits have small gardens, so whatever he came up with had to be smaller than most other antennas being used. He accomplished this and found it worked on more than just 20M and published his findings. What 21st century, solid state hams forget is that he was using VACUUM TUBES in a Pi network tank, so of course he got it to work easily on other bands.) A EFHW has a very high impedance around 4500 ohms while the random length is closer to 450 ohms. The former needs a 49:1 UNUN and the latter a 9:1 UNUN. If someone just wants to operate single band then go with the EFHW, but if multi band then the random length. There are tables out there (such as found at balundesigns.com and others) with the proper lengths to use for random end feds; NONE of these lengths will resonate in any Amateur band, and that's key. Every band sees about the same mismatch, 450 ohms (more or less) making it easy for some robust tuners to connect directly without the UNUN. But buying a 9:1 or building one is very inexpensive for barefoot and easy to build. Much of what I'm sharing here comes from a presentation by Bob from Palomar Engineers. You can find it multiple times on KZbin as he's shared it many times; I attended his talk at Hamvention last year. Bottom line: For mono band usage: EFHW: get (or build) a good 49:1 UNUN or for multi band you can add/subtract some length to make it a random and use a 9:1. I use TWO doublets at home but when portable, a 53 foot "random" wire into a homemade 9:1. And the fact that I put remote tuners at the bases of these helps avoid loss in the coax and common mode currents. DX Commander: I think Calum (Calim?) is either leveraging folded radiators OR LOADED elements with those wires that are strung about. I can't use vertical antennas here since I am too close to the street power lines and the static is overwhelming (guess how I know this...). Verticals are generally subject to more noise anyway and it was a perfect storm here. The RigExpert: Take a look at Jim's tutorials (kzbin.info/www/bejne/f2XTY4aEmsSXgdEsi=Dsm4-isYfvsXkF_G); he's done a few tutorials that I find excellent. I need to re-watch them before the spring to get ready of antenna season. Hope this helps.

[@jamesmcgee2447]

Hi there , need to see a demonstration for CB radio.

[@Fatboi1962]

Yes Please

[@oobihdahboobeeboppah]

So sorry for the very late reply. So I don't have a C.B. on hand to demonstrate with but the principles are exactly the same; frequency doesn't change the science. You could go to the expense of buying one of these analyzers but I'd not recommend it because you just wouldn't get you money's worth out of it. Now, it you either know a ham who has one or even reaching out to a local ham club, they would be very glad to bring one over, no charge of course, to show you what your antenna "looks" like. These analyzers cover from 1.8 MHz often up to GHz ranges. C.B. radio is around 27MHz (and a bit higher now in the last few decades) which is why you wouldn't get much use out of one. The ham bands exist all over the place so we get some good mileage out of these especially when tinkering with antennas a lot (which is my main thing). For C.B. you'd want to have an antenna that IS resonant because unlike ham radio, your frequencies don't vary all that much. Ideally for C.B. you want a vertical antenna which is what 99.999% of them are (you can thank mobile operators for that). If you ever went to a beam (yagi) just make sure it's vertically polarized to play nice with everyone else; the instructions which come with such antennas should explain how to do that. There's a good reason to focus on your antenna that most C.B.ers aren't aware of: You'll get more bang for your buck with a good antenna than you will by hooking up an amplifier. Antennas can be home made, therefor cheap and at 27MHz not all that big (compared to ham antennas at least) and don't violate any laws. Amplifiers on the other hand are illegal on C.B.'s. Power is restricted to 4 watts and if you're not aware, the FCC has begun to wake from years of slumber and are slamming violators with very hefty fines. A rough rule of thumb is that for every 3db of gain realized at the antenna, you essentially DOUBLE the effective power. I'm NOT saying you'll double your power from 4 watts to 8 watts, but you'll get the gain as if you had. And it's all perfectly legal! There's a website some of us hams use (amongst thousands out there) at k7mem.com. If you're interested in using his site, reach out to me and I can give you some pointers.

[@redmuleman]

Why would you video and cut off the bottom?

[@oobihdahboobeeboppah]

First, I'm sorry this is so late getting back to you. There really isn't anything to see on the keypad; the real activity is on the screen. W6LG has made a very good video(s?) using this analyzer. Mine was made for a demonstration to my clubs members who just wanted to see a basic usage. This video wasn't really intended for the masses but once it got published I just let it stay. I've been a ham for 50 years and I must say these analyzers are the best thing to come around aside from IF DSP. If you're debating splurging to buy one of these, they are one of the best investments if you like to tinker with antennas and transmission lines. You can see in a few seconds what would take days to characterize using the lowly SWR meter.

[@thefreese1]

First time I heard an un-un (unbalanced-to-unbalanced) balun called an "oooh nan" .. just tickled me .... I guess everyone has their own terminology..lol

[@oobihdahboobeeboppah]

I say tomato, you say tomato.... But even more disturbing is that a lot of guys don't know the difference between a unun and a balun let alone when to use one and not the other.

[@thefreese1]

@@oobihdahboobeeboppah yup .. and a lot of them don't even know what ratio for the system they're using .. some think it's automatically 4:1 because they heard that ... but they have no idea .. they have to know what their antenna is first ... the math is simple But by golly they'll let you know about feed loss .lol even if they're only running 30 foot of feedline they'll opt out of coax and build a ladder line .... as if there's any appreciable loss in 25-30 ft .. On HF ..... that one tickles me ...