Wrapping your mind around SWR – the perfect match

Last night I was listening to a couple of guys try to wrap their minds around SWR.  Very interesting.

New hams are seemingly after “the perfect match”.  An antenna tuner will make your radio happy but it provides no improvement to the natural resonance of the antenna nor the line losses of the transmission line.

And really, is a 2:1 or 3:1 match really that bad?  At a 3:1 match (depending on line loss) with a 100W transmitter you may only lose 20 watts in reflected power.  What is the difference between 100 Watts and 80 Watts at the receiving station?

On a modern radio, 1 S-Unit is 6DB.  A doubling of power is 3 DB.  So, to move an S-Meter at a receiving station 1 S-Unit one would need to quadruple the power.  So, given this, your 3:1 SWR taking your 100 W down to 80 W is not going to make any detectable difference – as long as your tuner keeps your solid-state rig happy by fooling it into thinking SWR is 1:1

Learn Morse Code the Military Way

From the treasure trove of You Tube – historical army training film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNLlaE56I6Q

Jack Welch on Candor – It just unnerves people… the biggest change for the better

Jack Welch,  former CEO of General Electric

I have always been a huge proponent of candor. In fact, I talked it up to GE audiences for more than twenty years. But since retiring from GE, I have come to realize that I underestimated its rarity. In fact, I would call lack of candor the biggest dirty little secret in business.

What a huge problem it is. Lack of candor basically blocks smart ideas, fast action, and good people contributing all the stuff they’ve got. It’s a killer.

When you’ve got candor—and you’ll never completely get it,mind you—everything just operates faster and better.

Now, when I say “lack of candor” here, I’m not talking about malevolent dishonesty. I am talking about how too many people—too often—instinctively don’t express themselves with frankness.

They don’t communicate straightforwardly or put forth ideas looking to stimulate real debate. They just don’t open up. Instead they withhold comments or criticism.

They keep their mouths shut in order to make people feel better or to avoid conflict, and they sugarcoat bad news in order to maintain appearances. They keep things to themselves, hoarding information.

That’s all lack of candor, and it’s absolutely damaging.

And yet, lack of candor permeates almost every aspect of business.