[Antennas] Elementary Antenna Question

[Eric Jones]

de N4TGC Eric

What Randy was asking, and Loren has answered, becomes an interesting 
problem with modern "sordid state" rigs: if they don't 'see' a near-perfect 
50 ohms, they "fold back" and reduce power.  I built the 2-meter yagi with 
quad reflector ("Quagi" - see page 18-36 of the 19th ed. (y2k) of the ARRL 
Antenna Book), and it looked great on the MFJ-209 (w/o the impedance meter), 
but my HTX-202 hated it (I'd get maybe 1 watt of the available 6).  I 
subsequently got the MFJ-259, and found the antler impedance was 31 ohms - 
just a little bit too far off to make the -202 happy.

Tube-type gear wouldn't have cared, as they typically had built-in tuners to 
balance the inductive or capacitive reactance, but not the modern stuff! 
Not that I advocate going back to tubes, tho I admit to having a half-dozen 
hollow-state military-surplus AM rigs ...
    e