Scaling Back the Antenna Matching Design

[NZ0I]

It seems to me that the 2m SWR circuit in the current Antenna Matching board design is not needed. Although it would be rather cool for the 2m transmitter to be able to analyze the 2m antenna match, it isn't really needed, and only adds cost and complexity to the design.

I'm thinking that I will replace the directional coupler with a simpler RF power detector. That way the transmitter can still have feedback for precisely setting the transmit power. The simpler design should free up some board space for the 80m SWR metering circuit and antenna matching.

If there is any interest, I should be able to quickly design an OSH Park board for a stand-alone VHF/UHF directional coupler. It would be similar in concept to the project described here: http://vk5ajl.com/projects/swrmeter.php. Let me know if you would find such a board interesting to experiment with.