I was using the 71-foot (21.64m) EFRW antenna at home, and I noticed SWR was surprisingly low as measured by the X6100 with the tuner disabled. I suspected loss on the feed line, but I also found this video of another person not using a tuner with the same antenna.
I disconnected my feed line at different places to find SWR jumps way high, so the measurement is working:
- inside window
- outside window
- at the antenna
Does a very long wire have low SWR for everything? Is the 9:1 giving low SWR? The antenna’s working fine, and FT8 shows far-flung signals like always. Disconnecting antenna wire raised SWR above 1.5:1, but not much. Even with wires disconnected from the balun, it’s receiving a very few FT8 signals on 10m, and I can still transmit, but it’s folding back power with SWR just below 2. The tuner is definitely needed for 6m.