Checking your standing wave ratio

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I made a couple of adapters using a Ford 8" cable extender with a Motorola end on it. I cut the other end off and put a PL259 connector on it. Sierra Electronics also has the adapter cables pretty cheap as a kit. 12 bucks for the set.

I run separate cables for my antennas and don't use the splitter the 1100's use. I'm running a 5' Firestik and my SWR's are around 1:1.2 across all channels.

http://www.sierra-mc.com/proddetail.asp?prod=SIE-SWR12

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Shiny_side_up wrote:

I'm anewer CB user and I got tell you I'm pretty skeptical about SWR metering. Disclaimer: I have absolutely zero technical expertise in this area. Everybody (Goldwing) I asked said they never metered their system and everything works well. I can't figure why checking SWRwould be so important if Hondanever mentions it in their in their instructions. Am I just naive?

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I'm sure Honda adjust them at the factory most of the times. Also as long as most folks can transmit and receive up to about 3 miles their happy with it and never have it checked.

Well I'm not one of those happy people. I was into cb's long before I got into bikes and I always want my equipment operating at it's peak performance. Properly setting the SWR's goes a long way to the life span of a cb and also so it doesn't get to high and burn out the transmit finals. The lest resistance from the antenna feeding back to the radio, the better it works and the range is at it's max potential.

Also the Hondas use a single antenna feeding into a splitter for both the am/fm radio and the cb, not the best setup if you're serious about having every thing working at it's peak, hence the reason I run separate antennas.

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The big deal with SWR is that if not adjusted correctly it could damage the radio. If you are only receiving a signal, like with your AM/FM radio, you can use an old coat hanger as an antenna.

However, if you want to transmit, the antenna becomes VERY important. The radio is generating a signal, and if that signal isn't properly carried out it can burn out the transmitter very quickly.

Ever been in a group and notice that some people seem to come through louder and clearer than others? They have a lower Standing Wave Ratio.

Perfect SWR is 1. That means (in very simple terms, not a highly technical explanation) that for every 1 watt of power from the transmitter, 1 watt of signal gets out.

Mine is about 1.2 across the board, that means that for every 1.2 watts of power from the transmitter, 1 watt of signal gets out the antenna. SWR of 3 or above will damage the transmitter, sometimes very quickly.

Michael is right, the setup from factory on most of these bikes is not ideal. The 1800 uses separate antennas, better but it means that the radio antenna absorbs some of the CB signal, so it's still not perfect.

Look at the picture of Michael's bike. His CB antenna is considerably higher, likely it's a top loaded antenna. His setup gets less signal absorbed by the radio antenna and you can probably hear him from a lot further away than the typical factory setup.