@brouhaha SWR tells you nothing about its suitability for a particular frequency.. Remember a 50 ohm resistor is 1:1 SWR and a dipole fed with a ladder line is a good performer even at 10:1 SWR

@freemo My transceiver isn't rated for 10:1, though. I'll have to look up the specs. If the measured SWR exceeds to transceiver specs, at least I'll know not to try it.

@brouhaha thats irrelevant. You just stick a tuner on it or add a capacitor/inductor to match at the feed point.

@freemo @brouhaha SWR tells one a lot. Such as "I need some sort of matching here".

@kentborg @brouhaha

Yup, it tells you a lot. Suitability as a transmitter is not usually one them.

@freemo @brouhaha the only thing SWR tells you is how well something is matched to 50ohms. There’s no information about radiating efficiency there.

@RFDave @brouhaha

Well its a bit more than that, but yea, SWR doesnt substitutde for radiation effiency