¿ "Antenna to Load" ?????

I keep seeing the phrase "Antenna to load", as in "I hooked it up and the antenna loaded" or "I can't get the antenna to load".

What does this mean? Is it because of SWR? Does it mean the protection kicked in and the power folded back?

 

To put it simply, it means matching the transmitter to the antenna such that the maximum power gets delivered to the antenna.

Usually at the point of minimum swr, but not always (that's another story for another time).

Terry VK5TM

 

"The load" refers to what your radio or tuner or amp sees from the antenna. Hence the term,"50 ohm load" or whatever the impedence may be. A dummy load presents a perfect load for the radio or amp when testing. The swr is whatever it happens to be.

 

It could be those, plus many more. Basically, it means the antenna is accepting the power and doing something useful with it, such as opening the neighbor's garage door. When it doesn't, it usually means a mismatch -- or that the XYL, in a bit of a snit, disconnected the feedline.

73,
Bill

 

So I read about people connecting an antenna and they say "it won't load"

Do they mean something won't function? Or that it performs poorly?

I mean any antenna should work to some extent on some frequency, unless there is am open circuit or something.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, does it mean that the impedance is too high or too low? What defines "it won't load" There has to be some kind of parameter. I'm sure open circuit, or short circuit are considered "won't load"

How about a SWR of 5;1, would that be "wont load"?

Is it a subjective term, like "I'm not comfortable with that mismatch?

 

Probably, is this a troll post?

 

When my Elmer first saw my antenna farm he exclaimed, "What a Load!"

Was that a good thing or a bad thing

 

I'd go with this to keep it simple;

Or, matching it so that at least a reasonable amount of power is transferred.

No exact definition for it. It can be rather subjective. Sometimes "it won't load up at all" and sometimes "it loads up pretty well". It is probably more common to say that about a tube amplifier where you actually manipulate some controls such as the plate and load controls to try and get it to load up ok. Maybe you can and maybe you can't.

 

No it is not a troll post.




Who defines "won't load"

A human being?

Some protection in the radio?

Is there some "good amateur practice" standard?

Some other entity/event?

 

The type and design of the transmitter have a lot to do with it. Something that "won't load" on a solid state TX may work OK on a boat anchor, since most of them had adjustable output loading and tuning adjustments.

On a modern SS radio, your good loading range might be around 2 to one or so, and things from 3 to one and beyond might be considered as "won't load". It really has to do with good power transfer from the TX, that's all. A 10M QW antenna probably won't load on 40M, since the SWR would be very high.

SWR is only part of the equation. The bigger part is how broad of range your radio will accommodate.

Joe