Just wondering...

[sickboy]

Until today I was using a half wave cheap silver rod. My swr was nice and low and my rigs output is around 10watts.
Today I put up an Antron 99 in its place. Swr is still nice and low, output is still around 10 watts - but when I key the mike the rf meter on the rig only keys up to 5 or 7 instead of the usual 30+
I'm not overly concerned about it, a few rig checks confirm I'm getting much better results, but I'm just curious why I'd get this difference on the s/rf meter.
Rig is an intek hr-5500 (Anytone clone).

[NiCdeth]

Antrons are weird, they're not very well made. It could be an earthing problem.

[Mudslinger]

Probably just down to different impedance in the matching coil.

As long as the SWR is ok you should be fine.


But I agree that Antrons are not all that well made. In fact they are not all that anything, they are like a dummy load with a radiating element.

[astradyne]

I used an Antron 99 for a decade or so. Never had any issues with it and worked some good DX. I only changed it because I was offered a near new Sirio Gainmaster, probably around two years ago now.

I can't complain about the Antron as it did well for a long time (I've still got it in the shed as a backup). But I have to say the Gainmaster outperforms it considerably.

Back to topic, when I changed over from the Antron to the Gainmaster I also noticed a change in where the RF meter on the rig keyed up to. It's nothing to be anxious about. Different antenna's work in different ways. If your SWR is good and reports are good then it's happy days.

[sickboy]

Cheers for the info guys. Impressed with the results so far, but to be fair this antenna is on a higher pole and further away from the building than the rod was, so that'll no doubt play a big part.
Just out of curiousity, though, what in your opinion is better... an (unbranded) halfwave silver rod, or the halfwave A99?

[Dragonfly]

Sounds like the impedance match is good and so the radio is not using as much power to get the same output . It should help keep the radio cooler during heavy use .

[Mudslinger]

Cheers for the info guys. Impressed with the results so far, but to be fair this antenna is on a higher pole and further away from the building than the rod was, so that'll no doubt play a big part.
Just out of curiousity, though, what in your opinion is better... an (unbranded) halfwave silver rod, or the halfwave A99?

performance wise they should be about the same.

If you want a step up in performance get a good quality (not a generic silver rod type) 5/8 wave.

Any of the Sirio ones will do, from the GPE27 right up to the 827 or Gainmaster.

[wa10]

The impedance the radio sees determines how far the tx meter moves, you can have a lower than 50ohm or higher than 50ohm impedance = the same vswr,
so you can have two antennas with the same vswr reading that cause the radio to give diferent tx meter readings even using the same run of coax with the same vswr,

changing coax length whenever the antenna is not 50ohm will change the impedance the radio sees.

[johnkyrle]

Agree with Mudslinger.A good 5/8 wave is a much better bet.I used a Silver Rod for years and have recently upgraded to a 5/8 wave Sigma.A bit more difficult to S.W.R across the band but as long as its high enough (I live in a valley) will outperform the 1/2 wave.Also the radiation pattern is totally different,rather like a rugby ball shape if you can imagine that