1:1 SWR

Success! Now I wish I could just explain how it happened, but for some reason I really can’t. So at this point I don’t think I will be tinkering with the 6BTV much. As I posted yesterday I intended to go slide trap lengths in order to decrease the SWR on my vertical. Well much to my dismay I got all the gear I needed and headed out to the base of the 6BTV.

Previously I created a chart for each of the six bands and took readings from the low, middle and top of the band. I was going to break it down even further, but figured readings from three portions of each band would suffice. I was surprised when I dialed in 28.0MHz on the antenna bridge and a 1.8:1 came back, when previously it was about 2.7:1. This was just the beginning of good readings to come.

On 15m it was 1.1:1, while on 20m, where I have spent a majority of my time (14.070) the low reading was 1.3:1, while the middle (14.175) was 1.5:1 and the high end was 1.6:1. 40m was a bit higher, which was unusual because it had been my strongest (power output) band up until today. I recorded 1.7:1, 2.4:1 (7.150) and 3.7:1. I have not made any QSOs on 40m today but my Bird 43 Wattmeter shows about 25w going out. I also cut 75/80m for 3.600 with a 2.0:1 and a 1.4:1 on 3.580.

Overall I am excited about the new prospect my 6BTV holds. I have spent a considerable amount of time work with it in order to provide me something to call CQ with. I sit here now on 20m running Digipan and I am putting out a solid 25w and now talking to Ohio.