The Effects of VSWR on Transmitted Power

By James G. Lee, W6VAT o matter how long you have been a ham, sooner of later you will be involved in at least one discussion of something called the Voltage Standing Wave Ratio, or VSWR, of an antenna system. There is a lot of good information available on VSWR as well as a lot misconceptions about what it is and what it signifies. Probably the most often misconception is that your VSWR should be as close to 1 1 as possible, otherwise ! you won"t get out very well.! # 1 1 VSWR implies a perfect match between all elements of the antenna system. The only problem is that it is possible to have a low VSWR and still have some very serious things wrong with your antenna system. $ther misconceptions such as a high VSWR causing television interference, or other unwanted problems are often heard and can cause unnecessary worry. The concept of VSWR is easy to grasp and its importance in an antenna system does not re%uire an engineering degree to understand.

W ! VSWR E"#STS &arly in electronics you learned that to get ma'imum power into a load re%uired that the load impedance match the generator impedance. #ny difference, or mismatching, of these impedance would not produce ma'imum power transfer. This is true of antennas and transmitters as well but, e'cept for handie(tal)ies, most antennas are not connected directly to a transmitter. The antenna is usually located some difference from the transmitter and re%uires a feedline to transfer power between the two. *f the feedline has no loss, and matches +$T, the transmitter output impedance #-. the antenna input impedance, then ( and only ( then will ma'imum power be delivered to the antenna. *n this case the VSWR will be 1 1 and the voltage and current will be constant over the whole length of the feedline. #ny deviation from this situation will cause a !standing wave! of voltage and current to e'ist on the line.

There are a number of ways VSWR or its effects can be described and measured. .ifferent terms such as reflection coefficient, return loss, reflected power, and transmitted power loss are but a few. They are not difficult concepts to understand, since in most instances the are different ways of saying the same thing. The proportion of incident /or forward0 power which is reflected bac) toward the transmitter by a mismatched antenna is called reflected power and is determined by the reflection coefficient at the antenna. The reflection coefficient !p! is simply a measure of this mismatch seen at the antenna by the feedline and is e%ual to P $%&'(&o)*%&'+&o) ,ere &' is the antenna impedance and &o is the feedline impedance. +oth &' and &o are comple' numbers so !p! is also a comple' number. 1ou remember from elementary #2 mathematics that a comple' number has a !phase angle! associated with it. The phase of the reflected signal will be advanced or delayed depending upon whether the antenna appears inductive or capacitive to the feedline. *f the antenna appears inductive the voltage will be advanced in phase, and if the antenna is capacitive, the voltage will be retarded. The reflective signal travels bac) to the transmitter and adds to the incident signal at that point. Thus, any mismatch at the antenna gives rise to a second "travelling wave" which goes in the opposite direction from the incident wave. When &' $ &o the reflection coefficient is 3ero and there is no reflected signal. *- this case all power is accepted by the antenna and this is the ideal situation where VSWR is concerned. The problem is that this condition is rarely, if ever, achieved and so !p! will have a value different from 3ero. -ote that !p! can have negative values, but in calculating VSWR from the reflection coefficient, only the !absolute value! is used ( which is a positive value lying between 4 and 1. #s the two travelling waves pass each other in opposite directions, they set up an interference pattern called a !standing wave!. #t certain places on the feedline the voltages will add producing a voltage ma'imum, and at others their relative phase difference will cause a voltage minimum to e'ist on the feedline. These ma'imum and minimum points occur 156 wavelength apart. *n the days when open(wire feedlines were used these points could easily be measured with simple indicators. 2oa' cable however presents another problem since the !inside! of the cable is not readily available for measurements. 2onse%uently, VSWR measurements on coa' are usually made at the transmitter end of the feedline. Therefore you are presented with the VSWR of the entire system which includes all losses associated with the entire system.

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7any VSWR meters are calibrated to read 8$RW#R. power as well as R&89&2T&. power. They may actually be measuring voltage, and simply have the scales calibrated in power. The important point is to understand what the meter is actually telling you. #ssuming for the moment that the VSWR meter contributes no errors, the 8$RW#R. reading is the S:7 of the forward power and the reflected power. #s a result, it is greater than your actual power output. The R&89&2T&. power reading is that amount of power which was not initially absorbed by the antenna and has been sent bac) down the feedline. #t the transmitter end it encounters the transmitter output circuitry and is re( reflected bac) towards the antenna. This happens because you do, in fact, have a VSWR greater than 1 1 as seen by the transmitter. When the re(reflected power encounters the antenna, a portion of it is absorbed and the whole process starts over again. :ltimately then, most of your signal is eventually absorbed by the antenna. 1ou might be tempted to thin) that all of this bouncing bac) and forth would cause !smearing or blurring ! of your signal but this is not so. The average transmitted signal appears as a !steady(state! signal to the feedline and antenna. Remember your signal is travelling at a significant fraction of the speed of light. 8or instance, the velocity of propagation of R;( <5# is 4.== or >5? the speed of light. The speed of light is close to 1444 feet per microsecond, and a dot or voice pea) ta)es milliseconds to complete. *f the speed of light were >4 miles(per(hour then the situation would be completely different and we probably wouldn"t have radio transmission at all. /&d. -ote, it would be as fast as the mail then.0 ;iven the reality then that almost all power launched down a feedline reaches and absorbed by the antenna, one has to wonder why VSWR is all that important. The importance is due to the fact that feedlines have losses and, antennas have something called radiation efficiency. They are what ma)e proper interpretation of VSWR important. Power is lost due to feedline attenuation and this loss goes up as the VSWR goes up. The efficiency of an antenna is determined by the ratio of its !radiation resistance! to its !loss resistance!. #ntenna efficiency can simply described by the following e%uation 0 Efficiency$1Ra*%Ra+R2oss)3 " '44 The radiation resistance is Ra, and R2oss is made up of any associated losses of the antenna such as loading coils and ground systems. ,ow well you !get out! therefore depends more on low losses and efficient antennas than on what your actual VSWR is as the following e'ample will show.

T E E55E6TS -5 ATTE,.AT#-, -, VSWR &arly in this discussion the statement was made that your VSWR may appear to be very low and yet there could be serious things wrong with your antenna system. 8igure 1 shows how this can happen. The curves in the figure represent the forward and the reflected voltage on an antenna which has a feedline loss of ? d+. and a reflection coefficient of [email protected]. *n this e'ample the actual value of voltage is inconse%uential and can be considered to be !&!. We are only interested in relative values of !&! in any case. The length of the feedline is also arbitrary since we are only concerned with its total loss between transmitter and antenna.

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The signal voltage !&! starts out at full value (1.4 & ( on the feed line and is attenuated at a ?(d+ rate. This means that the voltage will only be B1C ( or 4.B4B& ( when it reaches the antenna terminals. Remember that while ?(d+ is a factor of two for power considerations, power is proportional to &(s%uared, conse%uently & will be only 4.B1e when it arrives at the antenna input. The top curve in 8igure 1 shows the 8$RW#R. voltage decay as it travels down the feedline to the antenna input.

Since the antenna in this e'ample has a reflection coefficient of 4.A, this means that 15> of the incident voltage will be reflected bac) down the feedline. This value is /4.A D o.B1&0 or 4.?A& volts. The feedline has no way of )nowing which way signals are traveling, so this reflected voltage will suffer the same ?(d+ attenuation on the return trip. When it arrives bac) at the transmitter end of the feedline its value is only /4.B1 D 4.?A&0 or 4.>A volts. The VSWR meter sees this value and since

VSWR$%Efwd + Eref)*%Efwd ( Eref) the VSWR meter wi22 read '.69:'

That value of VSWR is guaranteed is to ma)e almost everyone happy, but your antenna system is not very good. The ?(d+ loss down the feedline means only 15> of your output power reaches the antenna, and if your antenna has significant losses, something less than 15> of your power will be radiated depending upon how bad the losses really are. *f for instance, the loss resistance e%uals your radiation resistance, the antenna is only A4C efficient meaning only 156 of your output power is actually radiated. 1et that reading of 1.=B 1 loo)s fine. # reflection coefficient of p @4.A means your antenna is not well matched to the feedline. VSWR can be calculated from the reflection coefficient by the following

VSWR $ %'+;)*%'(;)

:sing this formula shows your VSWR at the antenna is ? 1, %uite a different value than your VSWR meter reads. The difference in the input and output VSWR values is due to the loss introduced by the feedline. 8igure > shows how this loss can cause you to get a different VSWR depending upon where you measure VSWR in a feedline. 1ou can measure VSWR at the antenna end of the feedline, but it is usually impractical to do.

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1ou can use 15> wavelengths of coa' between your VSWR meter and the antenna because a 15> wavelength of cable repeats the impedance it sees. The only problem is that you are introducing other possible elements into your measurements. +ut let"s assume that your VSWR measurement at the feedline is reasonably close to what is actually occurring on the feed line, and that your feedline losses are not great. The burning %uestion still is !how good or bad is the VSWR readingE! VSWR A,/ TRA,S=#TTE/ P-WER

9et"s assume you have an efficient antenna, fed with a low(loss feedline so that the VSWR meter at the transmitter gives you a true reading of 1.=A 1. There is no real reason to try to lower it, in fact the same would hold true if the reading were > 1. 8igure ? is a chart showing the e%uivalence of VSWR to R&T:R- 9$SS/d+0, R&89&2T&. P$W&R/C0 and TR#-S7*SS*$- 9$SS/d+0. Return loss is related to reflection coefficient by the e%uation Ret8rn Loss $ (<42o7'4%;) *t is Fust another way of measuring VSWR. 8or e'ample, with a perfect 1 1 VSWR there would be no reflected power conse%uently the return loss on the feedline would appear to

be infinite. # short or open circuit at the antenna is the worst case scenario since the reflection coefficient would be p @1.4. #ll incident power would be reflected, and with a lossless feedline the return loss would be 4(d+. this is what the R&T:R- 9$SS /d+0 column refers to The most informative columns in 8igure ? are the R&89&2T&. P$W&R/C0 and the TR#-S7*SS*$- 9$SS/d+0 columns since they provide an answer to our %uestion of whether further reduction of VSWR is worthwhile. 8igure ? shows that for a VSWR of 1.=A 1 the reflected power is only =.>C of the incident power, and the transmission loss is only 4.>B d+. *n more familiar terms, if you count an S(unit as = d+, then the 4.>B d+ loss is only 15>> of an S(unit. # reduction of the VSWR to 1.A 1 would provide only a 4.4G d+ reduction in transmission loss. This is not worth the effort it would ta)e to achieve such a miniscule increase in power.
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VSWR

Ret8rn Loss Ref2ected %dB) Power %0) oo B6.' B4.' >6.6 >B.' ><.> >4.9 <A.B <?.> <9.> <6.B <@.6 <B.A <B.> <>.9 <>.' 4.444 4.44@ 4.4'4 4.4<< 4.4B4 4.464 4.4?< 4.''6 4.'BB 4.'?B 4.<<? 4.<96 4.><B 4.>9@ 4.B<6 4.B??

Transmiss. Loss %dB) 4.444 4.444< 4.444@ 4.44'' 4.44'? 4.44<? 4.44>A 4.44@' 4.4466 4.44?> 4.4'44 4.4''? 4.4'>A 4.4'64 4.4'?@ 4.4<4@

VSWR

Ret8rn %dB) '@.A '@.9 '@.@@ '@.>? '@.< '@.4> 'B.?? 'B.9 'B.6 'B.B@ 'B.> 'B.'6 'B.4 '>.> '<.6 '<.<

Loss Ref2ected Power %0) <.@@ <.69 <.9? <.A4 >.4> >.'B >.<? >.>? >.@4 >.6< >.9B >.?9 B.44 B.? @.@ 6.<

Transmiss. Loss %dB) 4.''< 4.''? 4.'<< 4.'<6 4.'>< 4.'>9 4.'B< 4.'B9 4.'@< 4.'@9 4.'6B 4.'9< 4.'? 4.<' 4.<B 4.<9

'.44 '.4' '.4< '.4> '.4B '.4@ '.46 '.49 '.4? '.4A '.'4 '.'' '.'< '.'> '.'B '.'@

'.>? '.>A '.B4 '.B' '.B< '.B> '.BB '.B@ '.B6 '.B9 '.B? '.BA '.@4 '.@@ '.64 '.6@

'.'6 '.'9 '.'? '.'A '.<4 '.<' '.<< '.<> '.<B '.<@ '.<6 '.<9 '.<? '.<A '.>4 '.>' '.>< '.>> '.>B '.>@ '.>6 '.>9

<<.6 <<.' <'.6 <'.< <4.? <4.B <4.' 'A.9 'A.B 'A.' '?.? '?.@ '?.< '9.A '9.6? '9.B '9.< '9.4 '6.? '6.@> '6.> '6.'

4.@@4 4.6'@ 4.6?< 4.9@4 4.?'6 4.A4 4.A? '.4? '.'@ '.<> '.>B '.B> '.@< '.6< '.9' '.?' '.A' <.4< <.'> <.<> <.>> <.BB

4.4<>@ 4.4<64 4.4<?@ 4.4>'? 4.4>@> 4.4>A' 4.4B<6 4.4B@@ 4.4BA 4.4@> 4.4@6 4.464 4.46B 4.46? 4.49> 4.49? 4.4?> 4.4?9 4.4A< 4.4A6 4.'4' 4.'46

'.94 '.9@ '.?4 '.?@ '.A4 '.A@ <.44 <.'4 <.<4 <.>4 <.B4 <.@4 <.64 <.94 <.?4 <.A4 >.44 >.@4 B.44 B.@4 @.44 6.44

''.9 ''.> '4.A '4.@ '4.< 4A.? 4A.@ 4A.4 4?.6 4?.< 49.9 49.> 49.4 46.9 46.@ 46.< 46.4 4@.' 4B.B 4>.A 4>.@ 4<.A

6.? 9.B ?.< ?.A A.6 '4.< ''.4 '<.B '>.? '@.> '6.6 '?.4 'A.@ <4.? <<.> <>.9 <B.A >'.4 >6.4 B4.6 BB.B @4.?

4.>' 4.>B 4.>9 4.B4 4.BB 4.B9 4.@4 4.@9 4.6@ 4.9> 4.?4 4.?? 4.A@ '.4> '.'4 '.'9 '.<@ '.6' '.A> <.<9 <.@6 >.4?

Further examination of the chart shows that a VSWR of >.= 1 results in only about 1 d+ of transmission loss. # high VSWR of = 1 shows Fust a ? d+ transmission loss, but this is 15> an S(unit. 1ou will still be getting out but this is becoming a significant loss. 1our feedline will be dissipating more power than it should, and there may be other serious things wrong with your antenna system.

Throughout this article you"ve noticed the use of the term !antenna system!. The word !system! means you must pay attention to other things besides Fust the VSWR and your power output. &ach component of your antenna system must be optimi3ed to get the best results. 7any factors must be considered such as operating fre%uencies, bandwidth re%uirements of the antenna system, heights, and directivity, all of which affect its efficiency. Since the height of your antenna, and your operating fre%uency determine both the length of the feedline and its losses the interfaces become very important. So there are a number of trade(offs which must be considered when you contemplate putting up a good antenna system, but these are tales for other times. 1ou can build or buy your own VSWR meter, but ma)e sure that you understand what it is measuring and what it is really telling you. Then once you are satisfied that you have put up a really efficient antenna, fed with a low loss feedline, you can sleep well )nowing that to try to reach the ultimate 1 1 VSWR is only an ego trip. #s a rule of thumb, any accurate VSWR reading under > 1 is probably not worth the effort to achieve if the other elements of your antenna system are the best you can ma)e them. *n fact you might be surprised to find that you really do have a low VSWR when you put up the best antenna and feedline you can. There is an old saying in ham radio that !a dime in the antenna is worth a dollar in the transmitter any day!. Try it and see if you don"t agree