CB RADIO SWR METER - POWER METER - WATT METER

What is SWR? SWR stands for Standing Wave Ratio. Technically it's Voltage Standing Wave Ratio. Also called reflected power. To put it simply, radio waves like to jump off a certain length of metal according to the frequency. If the length of the antenna is proper for the frequency the rf will jump off the antenna efficiently. If the antenna is too long or too short for example, the RF(radio frequency) can not efficiently radiate from the antenna. What doesn't jump off is reflected back into the transmitter. This is the reflected power. The amount of reflected power is measured with a "SWR Meter". SWR is a measurement of the ration of reflected power. A perfect ratio is 1:1. An ok radio is 1:5 to 1. Borderline is 2:1. The lower the swr the better the performance.

How to check SWR on a meter or CB radio with a SRW Meter: Set the Switch to "Calibrate". Calibrate is often labeled as "CAL". Push the talk button on the microphone and without speaking turn the Calibrate knob to the CAL arrow portion on the SWR meter. Now click the switch to SWR while pressing the mic's talk button. If your SWR is 1:5 or less congratulations. If your SWR is over 2 your antenna may need adjustment.

Remember: If your SWR is high on channel 40 and low on channel one you need to shorten your antenna. if your SWR is low on channel four and high on channel 1 you need to add length to the antenna. Lower channels (frequencies) want a longer antenna and higher frequencies want a shorter antenna. This is why a 900mhz cell phone antenna is just a couple inches long and a AM radio station antenna is hundreds of feet long. Lower frequency longer antenna, higher frequency shorter antenna.

AMAZING DIGITAL WATTMETER