Jack investigates the effectiveness of Matchers. Are these devices a magical answer to SWR problems?

So now you know about SWR you might be looking at adverts for CB matchers and thinking, “that’s the thing for me, no adjustments necessary”. So lets have a look at them and see if you need one. Matchers are not used to much for CB, but they are used a hell of a lot by radio hams on the amateur bands, where they use their more correct title of Antenna Tuning Units, or ATUs.

No matter how you look at it, SWR is the most important part of radio theory. Here you can put it into practice.

So you have connected up your new CB and installed the antenna. Now you have to tune, or SWR it. You may have been told that this is the next move, but most likely will not have been told why or how.