Can an antenna match be less than 1.5?

[chris142]

On our last trip my K40(this was a great working antenna btw) had the wire break near the base. I guess thats why nobody would talk to me?

In the past I ran a Hustler HQ27 antenna on a Peterbilt with great results. So I found one and put it on the Jeep hoping that it would work well on the Jeep too.

I checked the match and it's less than 1.5 on all 40 CB channels. I took the Wilson CB antenna off my pickup and it shows a 1.7 on the Jeep so the meter is working.

So do I have an execelant match or do I have a problem?

It is 1.0 on CH1, 1.3 on CH20 and 1.4 on CH40.

Whats the deal?

[Roger]

Those matches are about the best you can get. Don't touch it!

[Matt2001TJ]

Those matches are about the best you can get. Don't touch it!

Agreed...In the past I have ran across many operators that would claim to have a flat match. In reality that is only possible with a dummy load and that is it. Some may argue this point.

[chris142]

Interesting. I've always been told that less than 2.0 is aceptable and 1.5 is where it should be.

[Roger]

You are mostly correct. 2.0 is okay. 1.5 is what everyone shoots for. If you do better than 1.5 you've hit pay dirt.

[Russ Chung]

Interesting. I've always been told that less than 2.0 is aceptable and 1.5 is where it should be.

SWR = signal to wave ratio
You want to get an SWR as close to 1.0 as possible. SWR 1.0 means that all of the energy output from your transmitter is being sent out by the antenna. Anything higher than 1.0 means that some of the energy is not being radiated and is being reflected back to the system. SWR of 1.0 is great, less than 2.0 is acceptable, higher than 3.0 is bad.